In recent times we have paid particular attention to the schema.org markup, which is the new vocabulary used by crawlers to interpret information on websites and the various pages: today we try to clarify precisely what it is and what schema.org means and why it is important for SEO to use this marking.
The importance of Schema.org for SEO
It would be enough to retrace some of our insights to find traces of the weight that the schema.org markup has assumed in recent years: we have included it among the ranking factors for Google, we have seen it as a fundamental element for the creation of the Knowledge Graph, a skeleton that allows the definition of structured data and, last but not least, a factor to be exploited for voice searches. In practice, Google’s evolution draws fully on this form of microdata.
What is the Schema.org project?
The official website Schema.org states that it is a co-operative and community activity that is done to create, maintain, and promote schemes for structured data present on the Internet, e-mail messages, web pages, etc. Large companies such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Yandex have founded this vocabulary, but the project continues with the fundamental participation of a large online community that uses open and shared channels to simplify the efforts and work of webmasters and developers.
Who uses Schema.org?
In eight years of life, from 2011 to today, there are already millions of sites that use Schema.org to mark their Web pages or for e-mail messages; in addition, many applications from Google, Microsoft, Pinterest, Yandex, and other big companies already use this system to offer rich and valid experiences.
The goal of Schema.org
The aim of Schema.org is to improve the web by making a structured data mark-up scheme which is supported by several search engines like Bing, Yandex, Yahoo and Google, who have therefore decided to collaborate to create advanced search features for users and allow them to find more relevant information in SERPs. Through in-page markups, search engine crawlers understand better and more easily the information on web pages and provide richer search results. A shared vocabulary, as already mentioned, also allows webmasters to have functional and functional reference models to maximize the results of work and business for their efforts.
Useful links and tools to use Schema.org
From its appearance to its boom, Schema.org remains a headache for many developers and SEOs. However, once you have overcome the initial obstacle, that is to understand its logic and infinite branches, its use is quite simple and intuitive.
On the web, there are many user guides and many online tools that help you implement this microdata within your code.
Let’s see some of them.
Google Structured Data Guide: Provides a number of very useful examples of how to use Schema.org. Keep in mind as it shows exactly which Google microdata it searches.
Google structured data testing tool: As the name implies, it is Google’s online tool that allows you to test your web pages, indicating any errors in the implementation of Schema.org. This is also very useful for understanding how Google reads your pages.
Schema Markup Generator: For the lazy ones. It is an online tool that helps you in the implementation of Schema.org. Just choose the type of markup (Local Business, Product, and Event) and consequently create the code you need. For a validation, by clicking on G Validate, the Google validation tool mentioned above opens.
Why use schema.org markups on a site?
Mark-up is considered to be useful in the era of Rank Brain and Hummingbird; Googlebot makes use of it by interpreting the context of a query and determining the quality of search results. The various types of structuring help refine the content more clearly or more prominently in the search results and therefore, potentially, every site and every online activity can benefit from the implementation of Schema.org, to generate rich snippets or even simply to offer specific and targeted information to users, especially for localized searches.
Schema.org formats
There are three main formats of the Schema.org markup available: the one recommended by Google and the most popular is called JSON-LD and is based on JavaScript, but RDF a are also accepted and used (which work well in different types of documents such as XML, HTML 4 and SVG) and micro-data. Initially, the shape of the microdata had been the one adopted by Schema.org, which then over time has expanded its vocabulary to other easier to use types.
Sites
The main vocabulary of Schema.org is composed of sets of “types” organized hierarchically, each of which is associated with a set of properties (properties); currently, there are about 600 types, 862 properties and 114 numbering values that can be integrated into your site. The most common case is that of the ” thing ” type, the most generic because it refers to “things” and used by approximately 200 thousand domains, while more specific Types are, for example, Actions, Organizations, and Products.
Briefly, the most used types are those that refer to Creative Works (such as Books, Recipes, TV Series or Movies), embedded non-textual objects (audio, video or images), Events, Organizations, People, Places, Restaurants, Local Activities, Products, Offers, Aggregate Offers, Reviews, Shares and so on.
Tips on Schema.org
Ultimately, using Schema.org page markups is recommended for all sites, also because it is possible to foresee new evolutions of the systems with which search engines exploit this data to offer more targeted and precise results to queries. However, it is good to remember two elements: not all types of the information entered in schema.org are then actually displayed in the search results, but it is easy to imagine that there are other accelerations coming.
As a general rule, then, you must mark only the content actually visible to the people who visit the Web page and therefore do not use schema.org for content in hidden elements or hidden div.
Call Now