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It can be easy to think of SEO as a world with narrow scope. You write content, and then you stuff said content full of keywords to optimise it. Case closed. While things like keyword research and on-page optimisation are obviously a very important part of the process, SEO being a limited exercise couldn’t be further from the truth. SEO as a practice encapsulates loads of interesting tactics that can help your content and website to stand out from the crowd. One such tactic is Schema Markup; in this article, we’ll go into what Schema Markup actually is, how it’s used, and some of the positive impacts it can have as a technical SEO technique.
What is Schema Markup?
Schema markup, also known as structured data, is a form of microdata that you add to the code of your website, in order to help search engines like Google to better understand what your content is and the information it’s trying to convey to the user. It can almost be thought of as an instructions manual that you provide for search engines; telling them what everything is and how it functions on your site. Below you can see an example of what schema markup looks like when written out; the example below showcases FAQ schema, and contains one question and answer.
Why is Schema important?
Schema should be considered an important tool for anyone or any business that has a website, especially with regard to SEO. When it gets down to it, the act of SEO is simply a conversation between your site and search engines like Google. With the keywords you choose, the content you write, and the ways you maintain your website; you are doing all of this in an attempt to tell Google, “My website is great, and you should put it at the top of the rankings”. Schema is designed to add greater detail and context to this conversation. By providing more information to search engines regarding what your content is doing, Google and others will have a greater understanding of your website than your competitors who don’t use Schema. This can bring with it a whole host of SEO benefits.
Schema.org explained
Schema.org is a massive vocabulary of all the different types of Schema you can add to your HTML. It is a collaboration between major search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex, to provide universal definitions for all the different examples of Schema that can be used. Schema.org represents that rare instance when industry giants like Google will actually collaborate with their competitors. What we are left with is an industry-standard of schema; using the vocab listed on schema.org, anyone can communicate more clearly with these search engines about anything on their site!
The Blueprints of Schema
Schema is a form of structured data, and as such, it is written in the language of coding. If you are looking to implement schema into your pages, you should know that there are three different types of coding language used to write schema markup; RDFa, Microdata, and JSON-LD.
The Benefits of using Schema Markup
As you can probably tell by the tone of this article, the benefits of using structured data on your website are innumerable, and not something you want to be missing out on. Below I’ve listed just some of the positives that using schema can have on your wider SEO efforts.
1. Contextualising your content for search engines
I covered this point earlier in the article and argued how SEO is like a conversation between you and search engines such as Google. This benefit could technically be described as the entire point of using schema; to provide a greater level of understanding to search engines on what your content is. But this one purpose of schema is probably its greatest strength. There are so many possible instances of confusion for search engines, such as what your content is and how its structured. Schema can tell search engines that your content is describing a specific person, place, movie, or product. It can point out that a FAQ section at the bottom of your page is a FAQ section, or that your website is for a local business. In short, there is arguably no better way to help Google understand what you’re saying on your site - and the more search engines understand your content, the better!
2. Gain a full knowledge graph
A knowledge graph is the big box on the right-hand side of the SERP, containing all of the most pertinent information about your business. Many knowledge graphs are not as fleshed out as they could be, however, due to the fact that Google has to be very confident that the information it's displaying is accurate. Adding schema to your site is an excellent way to gain additional information in your knowledge graph, such as your preferred logo, a link to your website, your opening hours, and more. A fuller, more fleshed-out knowledge graph makes your business look way more presentable and trustworthy, as well as being an eye-catching feature in SERPs.
3. Gain greater visibility in SERPs
Another one of the potential knock-on effects of utilising schema on your site, is the opportunity to gain greater visibility in search engine results pages - through rich snippets and other fancy SERP features, such as carousels and tables displaying additional info. Rich snippets are simply normal search engine results, with additional information displayed. Making use of schema is one of the best and most consistent ways to gain rich snippets for your pages. Common rich snippets include review stars, product pricing, and recipe ingredients; gaining a rich snippet is a great way to make your pages stand out in SERPs and draw the eye of potential users. Studies show that having a rich snippet can even increase your CTR by as much as 677%, and certain products even gain a “Buy Now” CTA. Food for thought!
4. Potentially boosts your rankings
This final benefit is something of a controversial one and has been debated by many an SEO over the years. It could be argued that implementing schema onto your website can have a positive, if indirect, impact on your website’s rankings. The official word from Google is that it doesn’t; however, back in 2018, John Mueller of Google made the statement that:
“There’s no generic ranking boost for SD usage. That’s the same as far as I remember. However, SD can make it easier to understand what the page is about, which can make it easier to show where it’s relevant (improves targeting, maybe ranking for the right terms). (not new, imo)”
Given the context around what SEO is, and the idea that you are literally creating a more positive and direct line of communication with search engines through schema, it would seem appropriate if this did indeed prove to be a ranking factor.
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