What is Schema? How does structured data work?
Schema is a programming vocabulary that is inserted in the form of a code and that allows Google to more easily read the content of a page. Schema can be used with different languages like RDFa, Microdata or JSON-LD. In MD, our schema generator is designed to generate data via JSON, a programming language that Google reads much better than other formats.
We lost you? Don’t worry, no one is born knowing these things. Let ‘s step back: ¿ What are the structured data ? Google uses the structured data it collects from the Web to analyze and classify the content of the pages. Additionally, Google structured data is also used to enable special features and search optimizations.
Here’s an example: a page that sells helmets and has valid structured data may appear in search results with images. The structured data also catalogs each element of the helmet, so that users can search for it by year, price, rider, team or size.
Structured data markup on a news page, blog, website, or article can improve the appearance of results in Google search. For example, one of the features includes positioning within the Google Featured News carousel and other rich results features. The functions depend on the code you use. Google accepts various types of structured data. At MD we can offer you a handful of options .
What is structured data for?
Examples of most commonly used Schema types:
- Products
- Frequent questions
- Person
- Organization
- Video
- Events
- Reviews
- Local Businesses
- Articles (blog / news)
- AMP and non-AMP pages
AMP and non-AMP pages are the main difference between functions. AMP pages with structured data can appear in the Featured News Carousel, Rich Results Host Carousel, Visual Stories, and Rich Results on mobile devices. These results can include images, page logos, and other related cool features. In contrast, non-AMP article pages that include structured data can increase the likelihood of their appearance in search results using rich results features, but they do not offer the same variety.
How is structured data implemented?
Most of the structured data in Search uses vocabulary from schema.org. It’s important to test your structured data with the Structured Data Testing Tool during development and with the rich status reports after deployment. This way, you can monitor the status of your pages, which could be corrupted after deployment due to errors related to templates or publishing.
To create an AMP page with structured data, do the following:
- Follow the specifications of the AMP project .
- Follow the additional page guidelines to make sure Google can crawl your page.
- Add a structured data element that describes the article on the page.
- To add structured data to your non-AMP article page, the procedure is:
- Add a structured data element that describes the article on the page.
- Read the guidelines to make sure Google can crawl the page.
- Test the content with the Structured Data Testing Tool.
Frequently asked questions about Schema or structured data:
Is Schema going to help me improve my positions?
Indirectly yes. Schema is not going to modify your position per se, you should be clear about that. It won’t take you like a rocket to first position if you weren’t. But yes, in the case that you use schema to improve your content and you intend to answer the typical questions of your users, this can improve the user experience when browsing your page.
In that case, Schema can help you rethink your content and better fit what your users need. It is very likely that your positions will improve and we will see you enjoying your content on the first page. Happy? We also!
But then Schema is going to help me improve my positions, yes or no?
Well, since we see that the first answer has not satisfied you, we propose the following exercise so that you can draw your own conclusions.
If the following FAQ schema allows this to be seen:
Do you think that the user, upon seeing the response to the query, will be more or less likely to click on that page? In the event that it clicks and your content is valuable, your CTR improves and the browsing time will be longer, then → will your position improve?
We think so, but we suggest you do the tests and tell us about your own experience.
Can Schema make my CTR worse?
As with everything related to content optimization, this is not a question that can be answered with a yes or no. Depends.
What does it depend on? Well, if you do not give all the information that the user is looking for and show him that there is more quality content on your page and that he should not stay with this succinct information that he has just read.
We also suggest you leave a link to your page with a “do you want to see more?” to incentivize the click to your website.
Finally, if the complete answer to the query formulated by the user were in the structured data, it could happen that your CTR would go down, but this is also where branding comes into play. For this reason, we propose to include your brand in the content you are generating. This is what the SEO experts at MD Marketing Digital propose , and we’ve just given you an example of how to do it.
Can Schema slow down my web page?
Schema can be implemented on the website in various ways like: microdata, RDFa, JSON, etc. The most recommended way to implement structured data is via JSON, so if you use this method, your website load will not be affected any more than any other content like js, css, etc.
Does Schema help me appear in featured snippets?
Although Schema is supported by Google and other partners, we can think that having structured data on our website would help to get featured snippets and although Google at first confirmed this , currently, according to this Getsat study , most of the sites that They get featured snippets in the search engine and do not have structured data markup.
How careful should I be with the content that I am going to add to my schema:
One factor to take into account when showing content to Google is its authenticity. This must be above all original things : it cannot be taken from another website or appear more than once on ours, as this would be taken as “duplicate content”. What Google does with pages that have duplicate content is not “penalize” them as many people believe, but it does not directly show them among its results, and it does show what it considers to be the “original” page.
One of the ways to show that your content is original is to use Schema structured data markup (Author Schema), so Google will consider the content over other possible versions or direct copies that it can find on the net.
In addition to taking into account the originality of the content, it is very important to know the user’s search intent. If the recipient of your content is an expert user on the subject or a professional, the content should be more complex and use more terminology than if it is aimed at a less professional audience. That is why you also have to make sure that the business category that you indicate in your structured data matches the content of your website, so Google correctly classifies your content and shows it more easily to the corresponding user.
HTML technical knowledge required?
There are many types of Schema generators that help us create the code snippet, making our task easier. In this way, we only have to fill in the fields with the information that we are going to provide from our website, so it is not necessary to be an expert on the subject. What we must take into account and know how to recognize is what each field in which we are entering the information represents and what would be its impact on the indicated schema.
