As competition in the digital space, SEO keeps evolving to stay relevant. Gone are the days when you could rank your pages with black hat SEO and keyword stuffing. Many website owners are now using the schema markup to improve the rankings of their SERPs. However, schema markup for SEO is not only for the benefit of websites. On the contrary, the vision behind it is to make search results easier to read and more accurate. Today we will go through the importance of optimizing your website with schema.org and how it helps you rank.

Schema markup: Definition and purpose

HTML helps in making the content of a website more legible for viewers. With HTML, you can define different elements of a web page. That means you can assign headings, bullet points, snippets, and more to the text. However, HTML does not tell a search engine what these texts mean. That’s where schema markup comes into play.

Schema markup tells the search engine what the data means. On your website, you can write ‘See you all at 7:30 PM GMT at Hyde Street’. With Schema markup, you assign meaning to the text, that is, Time: 7:30 PM GMT and Venue: Hyde Street.

By incorporating schema markup in your website’s code, the search engine (primarily Google) displays a much more comprehensive result. When your page ranks, viewers already get a brief of the most relevant information under your meta title. It increases the chances of people clicking it, and in turn, you get more views and unique visitors.

Benefits:

• Schema markup makes things easier for both website owners and viewers.
• It is also a potent tool for any digital marketing agency to improve its
• Viewers do not have to wade through dozens of search results to find the relevant result.
• Website owners and SEO experts also get an easy and convenient way of ranking their pages, which does not interrupt the flow of the reader.

Schema.org – The home of schema markup

Schema markup can be used on top of HTML and does not necessitate rewriting the source code of a website. All you need to do is add schema.org vocabulary to HTML Microdata.

Too often, SEO focuses exclusively on Google, and for good reasons. Schema.org was created keeping in mind the need and convenience of users. It is a rare joint venture by Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

• Yahoo and Bing combined have just above 3% of the search engine market share.
• Google alone has more than 90%.
• However, when you are looking at billions of users, even 3% in absolute numbers is a lot.

It makes very little sense for content marketers to work separately for search engines that may not give them any returns. Schema markup solves this problem since websites with it are already optimized for Yahoo, Bing, and even Yandex. With schema markup, you do not have the hassle of optimizing SEO for Yahoo and Bing separately.

Schema.org is home to different schemas that web developers can use to structure their data better. Visit schema.org to find out for yourself.

Which websites benefit from schema markup?

Digital marketing for business growth undoubtedly benefits from schema markups. However, some websites, and certain types of content, are not relevant for schema markup.

For example, you cannot separate opinion-based articles into different categories of information. For such websites, there is no added benefit of schema markup. However, such websites can benefit from listing down the subject, writer, or other blanket information. Apart from that, schema markup can help highlight the central argument of opinionated pieces as well.

In a nutshell, all websites that use hard data and facts benefit from schema markup. The most common beneficiaries are event websites. When viewers know the most important details about an event from the search engine results page, they are much more likely to visit these websites. From the viewer’s perspective, it is a huge advantage to have streamlined information. Since the internet is full of misinformation and outdated facts, having a schema markup also makes your website more credible. It shows that you are not beating around the bush to squeeze in keywords. It helps in establishing authority in any niche.

• Booking platforms
• Review websites
• News portals
• E-commerce
• SEO service agencies
• Rating and survey websites

The abovementioned are some of the most common areas to use schema markup. However, the scope of schema is not restricted to this. Every search engine optimization firm is increasingly using schema markup to get better results for their clients. Any website that can benefit from telling the search engine what their data means benefits from it. That includes a wide range of services – software, hardware, home maintenance, healthcare, and so on. The FAQ section of websites is an ideal site for schema markup.

Why schema markup should be a part of your digital marketing strategy

Statistics reveal that websites with schema markup perform better than those without it. According to one study, websites with schema markup have 4X more chances of showing up on the first page of Google search results. However, the correlation is still not established with empirical evidence. What is evident is that schema markup makes search queries more readable. People do not have to spend hours trying to find what they are looking for. A website that uses schema markup also earns more credibility and authority, as we mentioned earlier.

Schema markup is still widely underutilized. Only 1/3rd of active websites use schema markup. There’s good news hidden in this fact as well. Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper makes it easy for anyone to integrate schema markup into their websites. If you can capitalize on the early mover advantage, your website performance can skyrocket in a short time.

Conclusion

SEO agencies and website owners are constantly on the lookout for new ways to rank their websites and web pages. Schema markup for SEO is yet another tool that assists this process. It solves the problem of readers as well, who no longer have to scan dozens of pages to get the desired information.

AUTHOR BIO

Aaron Hanson works as a Digital Marketer with e Intelligence, a digital marketing company with offices in the UK and India. He works passionately to find innovative solutions for digital marketing pain points and loves to share his expertise with anyone who needs it.