An Overview of Schema
What Is Schema?
Schema is the machine-readable vocabulary used to describe information. Its role is to help search engines better understand content.
Search engines like Google or Bing can grab vital details about your business, such as the services you provide and contact information. This can help grab more potential customers, improve online visibility, and increase traffic to your site.
Top search engines — including Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Yandex — first started collaborating to create Schema.org back in 2011. (1)
Schema Language Types
There are three popular schema language types that can be used: Microdata, RDFa, and JSON-LD.
- Microdata: This is essentially adding labels to your web page using HTML code. The labels describe different parts of your content and what they mean to search engines. In the example below, we see ‘Avatar’ being labeled.
Source: schema.org
- RDFa (Resource Description Framework in Attributes): This is similar to Microdata. However, RDFa lets you directly add metadata to HTML attributes. It is particularly helpful to use RDFa when wanting to explain how different pieces of content are connected.
Source:schema.org
- JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation): The LD states for Linked Data. This type of schema language uses JSON format in a separate script tag. Many developers favor this type because of its simplicity.
Structured Data
Structured data aids search engines to understand your website better. Adding schema markup with services, contacts, and locations improves your business in showing up in online search results.
The Power of Rich Results
Rich results provide users with an idea of the content on your website before they click on it, which is very important for search engine results pages (SERPs).
Types of Rich Results
- Product Rich Results: E-commerce websites can benefit from this type. It shows your products, including images, prices, availability, and ratings in the search results.
- Local Business Rich Results: This includes contact details, reviews, directions, and hours of operation, which helps users better understand your business.
- Event Rich Results: Showcase upcoming events and details like dates, times, locations, and ticket information.
- Review Rich Results: Users can see review scores and individual reviews for businesses, services, or products. This can help them make a decision based on other individuals’ experiences.
- FAQ Rich Results: This includes frequently asked questions and their corresponding answers. Implementing this directly in search results helps users find quick answers.
Types of Schema Markup
There are a few advantages to adding schema markup to pages on your site. It can improve your business by showing online search results and bringing more users to your site. However, it is vital to note that Google does not accept every type of schema. Here are some types they do accept:
- Article: Markup for articles or blog posts
- Breadcrumb: Helps users navigate your site
- Carousel: Presents a series of images or other content in a carousel format
- Course: This describes an educational course
- FAQs: Structured format for frequently asked questions and answers
- Local Business: Describes information about a specific local business
Including relevant schema markup on your website enhances your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. This improves your business’s visibility, performance in search results, and user experience.
By using schema markup, you provide search engines with richer information about your content, allowing them to better understand your website and display it more effectively in search results. This can lead to richer snippets and increased click-through rates.
Schedule a free Levy Online consultation to discuss how schema markup can help your SEO strategy.
