To begin to understand the value of schema markup in SEO, imagine all the world’s information loosely sorted and heaped onto a desktop. Although Google has become the internet’s most efficient administrative assistant, producing billions of reports and referrals for curious consumers every day, it could use your help to make its job a little easier. In fact, when you simply tell it what tabs to file your webpage under, it might just slide your information to the front of the proverbial filing cabinet drawer.
What is schema markup, exactly?
Schema markup (or Schema.org markup) is a form of structured data, a set of filing instructions you include in your webpage’s HTML so that Google knows what it’s about and what to do with it at a glance. There are several ways structured data can be formatted, but one of the most popular today is JavaScript Object Notation-Linked Data, or JSON-LD. JSON-LD utilizes a simple attribute-value pairing logic that is easy for both Google’s search algorithm and human programmers to understand. For example:
{ “name”: “Bob’s Bagels”}
Here, “name” is the attribute, and “Bob’s Bagels” is the value. The more pairings you include in the code, the better you communicate your webpage’s identity and purpose to Google. Google sometimes feeds informational tidbits it pulls from the schema markup directly into its organic SEO results as rich snippets. There are different types of rich snippets (and associated schema), depending on the webpage (recipe, product, etc.), but the goal is ultimately the same — to enhance your visibility and foster trust by giving searchers more information at first sight.
In local SEO, where search intent is often more focused and attention more precious, that little bit of extra information could mean a world of difference.
How do rich snippets differ from featured snippets?
Rich snippets are not to be confused with featured snippets, which also appear on page one of Google SERPs. The difference between the two is where Google derives the information from: Rich snippets are extracted purely from the schema markup you include in your HTML, whereas featured snippets pull from the content of the webpage itself to answer the search query. Featured snippet honors are highly coveted because they appear at the very top of Google SERPs.
However, they’re not quite as desirable as they once were in light of recent changes to the way search results are displayed. Before January 23, 2020, a webpage could appear twice on page one of Google SERPS — once as the featured snippet, and again as a normal search result (typically in the top three). Essentially, the featured snippet was not counted as one of the top-10 search results, leading to the designation “position zero.” Now, Google officially counts the featured snippet as “position one” and disqualifies it from appearing again among the remaining nine results on page one.
Since featured snippets are geared to answer a search query without leaving Google, their click-through-rate (CTR) is generally less than the underlying search results. Some websites have reacted by using HTML to exclude content from featured snippet consideration.
Rich snippets, meanwhile, remain unaffected by the policy change, meaning they can be leveraged to get the clicks — and conversions — your business or organization seeks.
How do you use schema markup?
If you are intimidated by schema markup, don’t be. With several schema markup generators available for free (at my company, we like this one), virtually no programming knowledge is required of you to potentially benefit from a rich snippet.
Simply select the type of webpage for which you want to create Schema.org markup — examples include articles, event pages, FAQs, how-tos, products, bios, local business listings, and more — and fill in as many fields as you can. The JSON-LD code will automatically generate as you go. When you’re finished, all you need to do is copy and paste the schema markup into the HTML head tags through your website’s back end or content management system.
Boost your organic search potential.
There’s no guarantee Google will use your webpage in one of its rich snippets, but in my experience, it is much more inclined to favor it — granted the page also supplies useful, informative content.
Ultimately, schema markup increases the likelihood of Google pulling your page out of the internet slush pile. If you are a local business owner vying for notice, you cannot leave those opportunities on the table.
