As a part of my everyday workload, as well as keeping up with current trends within the online marketing world but also ensure I remind myself of the most effective strategies. The way I find easiest is to create folders about certain topics and then write notes based on those topics, it works as a refresher as well as a chance to add anything new to the stored information.
As such, I thought it might be useful to those looking at Schema markup to have a guide/reference for some useful tools and information.
Mark up different bits of information to help the SERPS to understand more information about a specific item/product/company. It essentially can help information stand out in Google SERPS
There are many different types of Schemas here are some of the more popular markup types: For a full list see: www.schema.org
- Popular markups:
- Organisation (logo)
- Person
- Review
- Product
- Offer
- Local Business
- Service
More Advanced:
- Rich Cards (like rich snippets aimed at mobile)
- Knowledge Panels (information boxes that appear in SERPS)
- FAQ’s
- Articles
- Breadcrumbs
- How-to
- Q&A
- Videos
- ·About
There are several different markup languages, but I would say the most used is JSON LD.
JSON LD (schema language) – this language is also used to transfer data between websites and browsers.
(Markup language such as JSON LD is just data – does not affect the speed of the site)
*If you are using Google Tag Manager to add specific code to your site, please note it does not support JSON LD (you will need to frame the code as JavaScript)
To help you generate schema there are a number of tools, some of the more useful/popular are:
Schema Generator Tools:
https://technicalseo.com/tools/schema-markup-generator/
https://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/
Schema code gets inserted into the header of the webpage and is just data describing data, meaning there is little to no load on server response time.
Once you have created your Schema code always test it, I find the best way to add the code to the header of the page and then test the webpage, this allows you to not only see if the code is installed correctly but also if the webpage is still fully functional (always take a backup!)
Schema testing tool: https://validator.schema.org/
Some of the more important Schemas such as Organisational (Google refers to this as a ‘Logo’ Schema) need to be set out in a certain way so it is always important to refer to the guidelines set out by Google.
Google’s guidelines/requirements for different types of Schema:
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/search-gallery
Map the project out across your site before you implement structured data, that way you can see where the different types of code are going and ensure you don’t miss any important pages.
You can also add multiple Schemas to the same page if it is relevant to do so, some Schema might have entries to add extra information, for example, the products schema allows you to add sub code about reviews.
I hope this has been useful, I know it is a bit of a whistle-stop guide and it assumes you have a working knowledge of Schema – Schemas can be a very effective way of sorting and defining your data and by increasing the chances of your information displaying in useful and attractive formats in the SERPS.
