If you want to take your search engine optimization (SEO) game to the next level, you’re going to have to pay attention to schema markup . Although this tool isn’t as sexy as some of the other marketing strategies out there, it can help you rank higher in Google SERPs and drive more traffic back to your website or landing page. In fact, WordPress site owners that don’t use schema markup are missing out on an average of 18% of their potential traffic from search engines! That’s something that should definitely catch your attention.
What is schema markup?
Before we get into why you can’t ignore schema markup, let’s first understand what it is. Also called structured data, schema is a collection of tags and attributes which identify rich snippets on search engine results pages (SERPs). Rich snippets are those special boxes that appear next to some search results and provide additional information about a result, such as reviews or ratings. You can see an example of one below. Rich snippets are typically displayed when Google recognizes certain types of content on your page—such as events, recipes or local businesses—and they appear in several different formats depending on what type of content they are highlighting. In order for Google to recognize your content as being relevant to a particular topic or category, you need to add schema markup to your site’s code so that Google knows how to display your content in its rich snippet boxes.
How does schema markup help search engines?
Structured data markup provides search engines with information about what your webpages are about. This helps to surface your content in a variety of new ways, such as richer Google SERPs (search engine results pages) and sharing features. You can read more on schema markup here. It’s important to note that there is also microdata markup for smaller sites or blogs where it might not be possible to add JSON-LD. We’ll look at how you can use both in this post.
How can you get started with schema?
If you want to get started using schema, your first stop should be Google’s developer site. The company has information about how to mark up data in your pages and a handy Structured Data Testing Tool for validating that your markup is correct. You can even get code snippets for adding schema markup on specific pages and posts on your website. In addition to schema, there are other ways of marking up content—including microdata (schema’s predecessor) and RDF—and Google has documentation on those formats as well.
Common misconceptions about schema
It seems like there’s a common misconception about what schema is and how it works. It gets confusing for webmasters, because Google says to use schema and Bing says not to, but no one really knows what that means or why. If you don’t know anything about schema, it can be really difficult to figure out how (or if) you should use it. Let’s clear up some of those misconceptions and bust some myths along the way. We’ll look at what schema markup is, who uses it, and how to get started with adding your own markup. We’ll also talk about some reasons why you might want to ignore schema completely!
The pros and cons of using schema markup
Adding schema markup to your website is an excellent way to boost its search-engine-friendliness. The best part? It can be done in just a few simple steps, most of which don’t require a technical background. However, there are cons to adding schema markup as well. For example, it’s not guaranteed that Google will display your content in its rich snippets format. With so many different options available, how do you know what type of markup is right for you? This post gives you some insight into common markup types and helps you make an informed decision about whether or not schema really is for you.
Is it worth it?
It depends. Many business owners don’t understand why they should take time to learn a new skill, especially if they believe it won’t have an immediate ROI. But investing in your education will pay off down the road. If you want to be successful at SEO, you need to know how it works and how to optimize for it. Investing in yourself is never a waste of time or money—it can only help your business grow.
Final thoughts on getting started with schema markup.
So, you’ve made sure that your site uses schema mark-up to be found on Google search. What now? While it might seem like there’s no work left to do after you’ve implemented all of these great markup tactics, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Keeping up with schema changes and working to improve your SEO by using them appropriately is a never-ending job.
