One of the best ways in which you can improve the search engine optimization (SEO) of your website is through schema markup. Schema markups are a set of codes which you can put on your website and help the search engines return more informative results for the users. In short they are HTML tags which can be added on your web pages to help search engine understand your page better. You can get schemas for images, videos, events, books, recipes etc.
What makes schema markup effective is the fact that it tells search engines what exactly the content on your website ‘means’. If used in the right manner, schema can hugely increase your website’s search engine result pages (SERP) visibility and presence. Though, at the same time it does not mean that including schema in your code is a SEO hack. Rather it is schema markup is one of the best practices to make it easier for the search engines to find and display your content.
Schema also defines and displays rich snippets of your web content in the SERPs. Clear, concise and rich snippets make it easy for the users to understand the content of your site. This way you are sure to garner better click-through rates for your website.
How to use schema markup for your website?
Step 1 : Go to Google’s structures data markup helper
Step 2: Select the type of data you want to markup
Step 3: Paste the URL of the page/ article you plan to markup
Step 4: Now highlight the elements you want to markup
Step 5: Continue adding markup items
Step 6: Create the HTML
Step 7: Add schema markup to your web page
Step 8: This is the last step. Now you need to use the structured data testing tool, to know how your page will look like with added markup.
This is how you can use schema for your website. Always keep in mind, the more content you markup the better it is for your website. At the same time do not forget to only markup the content which you want the public to see on your website. Thus avoid marking hidden page elements.
Of late Google has come up with Knowledge Graph. With the help of knowledge graph visitors can find what they are looking for in the simplest and most user-friendly manner. The knowledge graph too has started using schemas to pull the data which will be most useful for the online users. This fact just shows how important it is to use schema markup in one’s website.
Thus give an edge to your online business by using this great SEO tool. Schema markup is here to stay, therefore SEOs and web developers should learn and implement the relevant microdata to improve search results and stay ahead of their competitors.
