How Does Structured Data Help SEO?

How does structured data help SEO? By using structured data also known as schema, information is more organized for searchbots to crawl allowing for easier keyword association that helps improve keyword ranking in return. Simply put, schema is prepared data in just the way search crawlers understand to allow for faster processing. When searchbots can crawl and understand information on websites better, keyword research starts to pay off.

As more rich snippets are shown and data optimized for searchbot content relevance is grouped more accurately and keywords rank better from the clarity. From AMP pages to movie listings even review star visibility in SERPs, structured data is building the future of search. Not many websites are using schema markup, which is basically leaving website rankings on the table. Learn how to utilize the lack of schema usage to your website’s advantage.

Structured Data Comes In Many Variations

Schema.org showcases the wide array of schema markup types. Just about every dataset needed from restaurant information to movie listings. Schema variations are customized for the data needed to show users the rich snippets related to their search. Rich snippets are extra pieces of information Google and other search engines showcase with user searches are all thanks to structured data. Such as movie listings, recipes and product listings.

Structured data has various combinations of item types all using the itemprop and itemscope tags. Itemscope is best to be thought of as the whole structured data section of a dataset, ( so if it was a movie listing, itemscope would be the whole movie listing ). Itemprop is best to be thought of as structured data variables of a dataset, ( so if it was a movie listing, itemprop would be the times, location, movie titles, rated info, length, etc ).

Voice Search Queries Prefer Content With Schema

Voice searches are increasingly becoming the popular way to search. Most of the information voice queries return are from featured snippets and structured data. Making the usage of structured data highly important for SEO and possible the future of voice search as well. In an industry as competitive as digital marketing every competitor advantage is sought after.

Staying a step ahead of competition is a marketing strategy, so why not make sure your website is optimized for voice searches. Since structured data has item properties for so many variables, organizing content that is heavy on dates and times for structured data searches could really improve those Alexa, Siri and Google queries.

Currently schema.org has a schema type called ” Speakable ” that is just for voice content, but showcases how when relevant certain phrases can be wrapped with a speakable schema to highlight what parts of a webpage to use for voice search playback. Currently only limited to news sites, and English speaking publishers. It’s easy to see how this can be used with other emerging technologies like AR and VR and even cryptocurrencies.

Plugins And Google Tag Manager Make Schema Easy

You don’t need to be a code wizard to add schema to improve SEO. You can use Google Tag Manager for adding many schema types, like the local business schema. Basically what is needed is to setup a webpage to add the structured data to and enter the schema filled out according to your content. With another Google product to manage, it will be even more important to optimize for certain website changes.

If using a content management system like WordPress or Drupal then there are plugins available to help make the process of adding structured data a little easier, Yoast SEO plugin comes to mind. Yoast has come out with an excellent article about how to use structured data graphs, series of schema markups connected to one another. In the yoast 11.0 version, structured data gets an upgrade by Yoast.

Whatever method is chosen, adding structured data will help information be understood better by search engines.