Schema Markup and How to Use It

Schema Markup and How to Use It

If you are looking for a clear way to have all the major search engines understand the content of your website, then Schema Markup has the answer. You can add Schema Markup, a semantic vocabulary, to your site’s HTML seamlessly. The performances of search engines like Google, Bing, Yandex and Yahoo can be given support as they can better crawl and index websites that use Schema Markup.

One of the main goals of adding Schema Markup to your website is that you want your page correctly displayed in search results. This is done by enhancing the rich snippets that are shown below the page title. As an example, if you see a search result that has both a star rating and a publication date, then it is likely that Schema was used to implement those details.

Why Rich Snippets Are Important

Once you apply Schema Markup to your website, a detailed description of it will be created. This is what is called a rich snippet. Aside from star ratings and publication dates, other important information such as company location and product prices can be included in this description depending on what you want to highlight. Rich snippets are the end result of websites marking up pages using structured data. Rich snippets are basically decorations for links to a website that are designed to catch a user’s attention.

The job of SEO is to increase the quality and quantity of traffic to your website via organic search engine results, and Schema Markup adds extensive background context to your site’s content. If you use the search engine of Google to find information about a restaurant, it is possible that the restaurant website will be powered by Schema using a specific type of Schema.

The Many Types of Schema

There is more than just one type of Schema Markup that many websites use. Depending on what your website is promoting, one of the following types of Schema would be advantageous for you to use.

Organization Schema

This type of markup puts emphasis on a company’s introduction, which includes the company’s logo, location and contact information. Displaying these details helps those who are either looking to find employment or attempting to conduct business with a company. Most Organization Schemas will list the president or CEO of the company, how many employees the company has, and what type of business it is.

Person Markup Schema

If you are looking for more information about a specific individual, whether that person is a famous celebrity or a local friend of yours, this type of Schema provides basic details. The name, birthday, level of education, family relatives, and accomplishments can all be included in this markup.

Video Schema

If you post videos on YouTube on a regularly scheduled basis, then this Schema type will give you needed support. Search engines will be able to index videos of a certain website, or will highlight a video that is posted on YouTube, with the help of this markup. When reviewing search results you will see who uploaded the video at what time, and you will be given the description of the video below the link.

Event Schema

Is there an event you are looking forward to attending? Event Schema will give you the necessary information about scheduled events. This information includes the date, the location of the event, and its ticket price. Oftentimes if an event is about to sell out of tickets or has sold out, there will be markers highlighted in red (or another color) placed below the link to the event website.

Recipe Schema

If you don’t have a physical cookbook on hand, this Schema type will save you the time and trouble. Cooking websites thrive in showing users what the end results of their recipes look like in photographs of delicious meals. Along with these photos are the recipes themselves, presented as a rich snippet in search engine results. Each individual element of the recipe can be labeled step by step, which will help users search for those specific elements.

 

Are you enjoying this post? If so, be sure to subscribe for occasional email updates from our team!

“How To” Schema

Similar to showcasing a recipe but not exactly the same, implementing “how-to” structured data can help your content get noticed. This is especially true if each step in your how-to must be read in a particular order. By implementing how-to structured data, Google will be able to identify what your content is about and will display all the information you provide on your page. In the how-to rich snippet you will see the introduction of your how-to, the attached image you provided, the number of steps and amount of time, the category of the how-to, and the first few steps.

FAQ Schema

A list of questions and answers regarding a particular topic will be displayed on a Frequently Asked Questions page. What Google will show in the rich snippet of a FAQ page is a description that includes the contact information of the website owner, and below that some of the listed questions. By following Google’s guidelines, a FAQ page can only be valid if there is no way for users to submit alternative answers. If your page only has one question and users are allowed to submit multiple different answers, then it is strongly recommended by Google not to use the FAQPage code.

Article Schema

Search engines can better understand the main context of an article through the emphasizing of the headline, time of publishing, a featured image, and occasionally a video. Article Schema performs this task, and there are various types of Article Schema markups for article categories such as news, tech, business, finance, and politics. Provided in an Article Schema rich snippet are categories a news outlet offers on its website, such as Opinion, Top Stories, and Markets.

Breadcrumbs

A simple and subtle way of reducing bounce rates, Breadcrumbs Markup will highlight the path links that lead to the current page. Users will be able to see their location within a website with this markup. This is the Schema type you use for websites that direct users to where they want to go to buy a product like a flat-screen television, for example.

Adding Schema Markup to Your Website

If you run a website that has a content management system like WordPress, then it will be easy for you to install Schema Markup. WordPress has been used by many people over the years, for purposes ranging from personal interests to promoting a product. If you have experience using WordPress it is strongly recommended that you download SEO software like Rank Math. This software will automatically activate the Schema module.

While you can have a team of talented coders to write up a custom Schema markup, it is often unnecessary since content management systems have readily available plugins that you can activate with a simple click. The following steps should help you to successfully enable Schema on your website.

1) For starters, when you go to the Dashboard section of your WordPress main menu, check and see if the Schema module has been turned on. If it hasn’t, use the toggle on the bottom right-hand corner of the icon that says “Schema (Structured Data)” and click to activate.

2) Once you have installed software like Rank Math, click on the Rank math category, and then click on Titles & Meta. You can then select the Schema type that you want to use for all the custom post types for your website.

3) Whenever you edit individual posts or pages in the WordPress Block editor, you will notice at the top right-hand corner a button that will take you to the Schema tab. This button should be located right next to a black button with a gear icon. Click on that tab and navigate through it to choose the Schema types that you wish to implement.

Assign Coding to a Website Designer

It goes without saying that if you don’t have experience using code to design your website, you should assign coding duties to a member of your team who does. If you would like to implement details such as the star rating rich snippet, the appropriate code for it has to be put in place. If you want to generate your own code, Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper is a tool you can depend on. This tool can sort out what kind of URL and HTML tags that suit your website by offering different data types to select.

Schema, Microdata and Structured Data: Is There a Difference?

There are slight differences between Schema, microdata and structured data. Schema Markup is a type of structured data that is applied to a website content’s HTML to identify what it is and how it should be displayed in search engine results, such as on Google. Microdata is a type of structured data that utilizes the HTML5 specification. Structured data is a name and value pairing system that helps search engines categorize and index your website’s content properly.

Conclusion

Schema Markup generally makes it easier for your website to get noticed in search engines if you know how to properly implement it. If you are looking for a clear and direct presentation of your website in search results, then Schema Markup will give your content better organization. Search engines like Google, Bing, Yandex and Yahoo will be able to note the important information of your content with Schema. You will be able to generate more site traffic and develop a better SEO ranking with the help of Schema. Whoever you target as your readers will be prompted by rich snippets to visit your site, and therefore you will have a chance to establish a following.