How to Boost Your SEO by Using Schema Markup

Schema Markup (schema.org) is a structured data vocabulary that helps search engines better understand your website's info to serve rich results — expanded informative snippets that draw users' attention. These markups allow search engines to see the meaning and relationships behind entities mentioned on your site.

Schema.org dictionary is officially recognized by major search systems: Google, Bing, and Yahoo. This is how a page with implemented schema microdata looks in search results:

Here we can see a snippet that includes a description, rating, and breadcrumbs. A user who searches for "strawberry cheesecake recipe" on a search engine is most likely to select this site among the results, as it appears to be convenient and informative.

As for search systems, they recognize object types, attributes, and characteristics better due to microdata markup. Consequently, the website ranks much better.

Microdata markup is available for a wide variety of content types, including FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), book reviews, products, local businesses, articles, restaurants, etc.

Microdata-enabled websites perform better in search results and get indexed more effectively.

Today, Schema.org is considered to be a major microdata vocabulary stock. There are hundreds of entries, describing products, services, videos, and much more. Moreover, this list is constantly being updated by representatives of the most popular search systems.

As we already know, the schema is used to identify and define the "entity" data. Google reads complemented code, categorizes its data sets, and uses it to display search results in a specific and much richer way.

One of the main purposes of Schema is disambiguating concepts and ideas around topics and relevance with Structured Data. This is what we want to do when we write content. When we do anything that we want to get ranked for or get Google to take any action, it is to remove the uncertainty of the meaning from ambiguous sentence phrases to other linguistic unit word senses. So we should always examine the context. 

The following benefits of Schema should be summarized here:

• it helps search engines understand your site’s content better;
• improves brand presence with a full Knowledge Graph (it's hard to get a Knowledge Graph without providing this data);
• gets attention-grabbing rich results;
• you become eligible for Featured Cards (like People Also Ask) to get more real estate in the SERPs;
• improves Clicks (your CTR) in Google Search Results;
• it positions your site for voice search, Alexa, and Google Assistant;
• provides a sneak preview of your content or site layout in search;
• helps you receive more plays of your movie or song;
• this is the way to get more video views;
• it displays Social Proof on Google and increases social media following.

So Google uses this data to establish new entities, to be able to grab content and connect it to another place. It expands existing entity cards and builds relationships between them. By using it, the search engine can create rich results — enhanced listings in the search results that go beyond the standard blue links to include visual elements like images, rating stars, and carousels.

How can you prepare your site for Schema Markup implementation? The main recommendations would be:

• Review how you personally relate to the (Rich Results) list.
• Review your website and make a list of relationships to your website (such as social media, images, business listings, etc.)
• Review your keyword targets for Rich Snippets.
• Review the list of 30 Rich Snippets and determine which ones to target first that are applicable to your needs.
• Review any competitor Rich Snippets and see if you can find the source.

The Schema Syntax must be correct. That's why we have validators that check it.

Validation can be done using validator.schema.org: once you copy and paste, you fill in the blank in the schema you come in to validate. It will show you the schema on the page, so you can come in and double-check. 

It uses JSON, which basically stands for JavaScript object notation for linked data. There is no need to be a coder to master the Basic syntax of Schema JSON. Just learn where to paste in between the quotes, and if you already have the templates — you can just fill in the blank. It's super easy :)

Basically, you pick up the format, mark up the content, and then insert it into your web page.

Describing an object by means of microdata requires tags and attributes. There are three variables:

• itemscope — serves to indicate object description that is included in the page;
• itemtype — object type from the official vocabulary list;
• itemprop — object properties to be used for the description.

This is how it actually appears:

The code conveys data concerning the product, its rating, and seller information, including the price. The dictionary of objects on the site has a form of structure:

The chain starts with "Thing" which includes "Action" and proceeded with "AchieveAction", "IgnoreAction" etc. Meta tags that note objects and their attributes are used to describe these items in the microdata scheme.

Here is an example of arranging video data:

The code may include the following meta tags:

• <div></div> — opens and closes the description;
• <span></span> — describes attributes with words;
• <link>, including href attribute — a link with "canonical" attribute that users cannot see;
• <time></time> with attribute date time — notes date and time in the defined format "year-month-day", "hour-minute", "hour-minute-second";
• <a></a> — notes the link that can be seen by users;
• <meta> — used for the text that is not displayed to users.

To generate the code, it is essential to pick the right object from the list and define its attributes. Having made up the code, you can check it using Google validator.

Microdata should be implied in the code of every page that will include the implemented semantic vocabulary. To automate the markup, you can use plugins.

For example, there is a Schema plugin for WordPress that generates automatic markup. However, it selects attributes itself. If you prefer to indicate certain properties of the object, you should create a markup code manually.

Another excellent tool we want to share with you is a Header Footer Code Manager: you just insert the code and copy and paste it right into your header footer code manager. 

That will literally write out your local business code, and you copy and paste it right in, then you double-check to make sure that all of that schema showed up in schema.org. 

Thus, there are tons of plugins to manage schema for your site:

• Rank Math.
• Squirrely.
• All-in-one SEO.
• Yoast, etc. 

So, the steps of Schema Markup implementation are as follows: 

1. Pick markup format (best to use: json-ld.org).
2. Markup your content (can use a template – make sure to use variables if needed).
3. Insert it into the website:

• text code directly;
• Google Tag Manager;
• plugin;

4. Test your markup.

To test your Schema, you go to search.google.com, where the Google tester checks your code. If there are any errors — you'll see them here, highlighted by the red light.

The scheme is pretty simple: 

Look at your keywords → target rich snippets by looking at what you apply to → go into the Google → look up the Knowledge Graph and see the appropriate code you need → insert the code on your page → improve your rankings and monitor results with appropriate platforms.

The first thing you should do is check your ranking tool to see if you have rich snippets. This task would be much easier if you use such a platform as Serpstat. This is where you can monitor your keywords for rich snippet opportunities.

Simply, go to the "Domain Analysis" section → "SEO research" → "Keywords" report.

You can also make the most out of the Site Audit tool — an easy way to spot Markup-related issues, as well as the ways to fix them.

Check your results, and monitor competitors for targets to go after.

Not only that, after identifying your direct competitors in search results you can gather general information on their websites: websites' visibility, number of pages in the index, and business features, of course.

Complement your site's visibility, observe the results and check optimization effectiveness.

Schema.org highlights specific information on site pages and forms informative snippets. This method of data presentation makes ranging easier and increases website reliability in the eyes of potential users. Descriptions with metatags and attributes should be implied on every page of your source.

Summarizing all the info mentioned above, we can highlight the following steps to complete:

All of that really makes a massive impact. You will see many more great results if you improve this advanced part of on-page SEO.

The future is in entity connection, topical relevance, and ensuring all of these entities and websites are connected.

So, get to work!