Schema Definition
What is Schema?
For example, if you're looking at a review for a new movie in the theater, you might run a Google search for it and see that the results have orange star ratings below it. This is an example of Schema, and those websites are using special Schema tags to accomplish that.
Notice how in this example, one result is Schema-enabled, and the other isn't. Which is more attractive and takes up more real-estate?
What Are The Different Types of Schema?
There are literally thousands of different types of Schema markup. Though, only a small percentage are utilized by search engines like Google.
Each one has a different job:
- Imagine you're looking for a recipe. This kind of markup is great for food recipes because it shows things like the ingredients needed, how long it will take to cook, nutritional information, and how to prepare it.
- Say you need help to do something. The how-to markup is the best choice because it shows step-by-step instructions for how to do a specific task.
- What if you're writing a blog post? The article markup is perfect because it gives information such as who wrote the article, what the article is saying, and when it was put online.
- What about questions and answers? The FAQPage markup is liked by website owners because it lets them mark a bunch of questions with answers. This makes the webpages more likely to get rich results.
- Looking for feedback on a product? The review markup is usually used for product or service feedback. It includes info like who gave the feedback, how many stars they gave, and what they said.
- We can't leave out events. The event markup gives good details like when the event is, where it's being held, and ticket costs.
- Next, there's merchandise. E-commerce websites like the product markup because it gives more info on the product, like price, if it's in stock, and customer reviews.
- How about personal details? The Person schema gives info about someone, including their name, birthday, school history, and any groups they're a part of.
- Companies or organizations details - Then there's the Organization schema. It gives useful info about companies or organizations, including the company name, address, and how to get in touch with them.
- There's also the LocalBusiness schema, which is extremely important for local businesses. It covers things like their business hours, where exactly they are, and how to contact them.
What's more, all of these schema types have one role - to help search engines understand what the content is about. This can affect how a website looks and where it stands in search engine results.
How Does Schema Influence SEO?
Schema Markup, while not a direct ranking factor (different types of Schema markup), can influence your traffic by affecting click-through rates and the way information from a website is presented in search engine results pages (SERPs).
So, it does influence your SEO (as does just about anything on a website), but it's not a direct ranking factor in and of itself. It just allows you to communicate structured data to Google so that it's elligible to be displayed in the search results.
How Do I Add Schema to My Website?
Getting your website seen more in search results can be helped a lot by good use of Schema Markup. Here's some advice on how to use Schema on different platforms.
- If WordPress is what you're using, think about plugins like different types of Schema markup, different types of Schema markup, or different types of Schema markup. You see, these plugins make it easier to add schema to your site without having to change the main code. These plugins give you ways to put in the right schema data.
- If you have a Shopify store, there are similar plugins you can use like Schema Plus for SEO or Schema App Total Schema Markup. These apps usually give you help with setup and automatically make the schema for product listings. Pretty easy, right?
- Now, for people who prefer a more hands-on way, or have websites they've built themselves, they can put in schema by hand. By sticking to the guide on Schema.org, you can add schema to your website pages HTML, deciding what data you want to show.
- A whole bunch of online Schema generators are available for you to use. They can give you the code snippets you need once you fill out a form with what your content is about. With these tools, you can quickly get the JSON-LD or Microdata code that you can put in your website's HTML.
Deciding on a way to go about it is mostly about what you like best - what really matters is making sure the schema data is correct and relevant, because search engines use this data to index and showcase your content in a better way. You can use tools like Google's Rich Results Test to make sure Google can understand the markup and use it in search results. All in all, using schema can really make a difference to your visibility online.