![\"HTML](\"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/structured-data-800.jpg\")
\nWant to enhance your webpage\u2019s visibility and add functionality to your organic listing in the search engine results pages (SERPs)? Look no further than structured data.<\/p>\n
\nWant to enhance your webpage\u2019s visibility and add functionality to your organic listing in the search engine results pages (SERPs)? Look no further than structured data.<\/p>\n
In this article, we’ll discuss:<\/p>\n
Structured data can enhance the appearance of a listing and add rich information to help searchers make a decision, which can improve click-through rates (CTR).<\/p>\n
See the following search result of a Simi Valley, Calif., shopping center as an example.<\/p>\n Structured data on the MallsCenters.com website enables Google to recognize star ratings (which, by the way, are not so good for this particular mall) and the mall\u2019s address and phone number, adding the data to their organic search result.<\/p>\n The ability to better communicate what your webpage is about in order to improve its appearance in the SERPs, dominate more of this valuable real estate and provide rich information to searchers is invaluable.<\/p>\n So how do you do it? Let\u2019s dig into what structured data is and how it works.<\/p>\n Google<\/a> defines structured data as a standardized format for providing information about a webpage and classifying its content. It helps clarify to the search engines what type of information you\u2019re presenting.<\/p>\n With the introduction of HTML5 in 2015 came microdata<\/a>, a set of tags that enabled webmasters and SEOs to do just that. Microdata tells search engines more about the page than what users can see \u2014 what type of page it is and what it\u2019s about.<\/p>\n One example is a recipe page. Recipes typically have a list of ingredients, cooking instructions and nutritional information such as the number of calories per serving. Structured data enables you to tell Google where that content is on the page so you can suggest which page elements you would like to appear in search.<\/p>\n The following is an example from this Google help file<\/a> that shows how to produce an image result in the featured carousel in Google SERPs:<\/p>\n <html> Doing so gives Google all of the information it needs to pull the following information from your webpage and format it in a visually appealing way:<\/p>\n Articles and blog posts are other common webpage types that can benefit from structured data. Article schema<\/a> allows you to suggest to Google which headline, publication date, and image should appear in the search result for that piece of content.<\/p>\n Google wants SEO professionals to use this structured data, too. In one Google Search Central resource<\/a>, it says:<\/p>\n Google Search works hard to understand the content of a page. You can help us by providing explicit clues about the meaning of a page to Google by including structured data on the page.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n And in another, it says:<\/p>\n Google supports many interesting search appearance elements that can be applied to your page in search results \u2026 A few of these result types are generated automatically by Google Search, but most of them can be coded for by your site.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n So, Google is telling you to use structured data. How do you do that, exactly?<\/p>\n One way is by structuring data on your page in ways that are easy for search engines to digest. This is where we need to get to know schema markup. It gives SEOs a way to share the most important information about any given entity so that the search engine can:<\/p>\n Schema is a library of shared vocabularies you can use to mark up your page in ways that can be understood by the major search engines.<\/p>\n Think of schema as a collection of tags and microdata, Resource Description Framework in Attributes (RDFa), or JSON-LD code (the format preferred by Google<\/a>) as the tags themselves. These are used to add markup to your webpages.<\/p>\n Founded by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Yandex in 2011, Schema.org<\/a> is your go-to resource for the structured data schema you\u2019ll use to optimize pages for rich search results. It\u2019s already in use by over 10 million sites.<\/p>\n When schema.org first launched in 2011<\/a>, it included schemas for more than a hundred categories, including movies, music, organizations, TV shows, products, and places. Today, the schema.org vocabulary contains 797 types and 1,453 properties<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Schema.org vocabulary uses a hierarchy that begins with a \u201cThing.\u201d A thing can be any of the following:<\/p>\n These are the broadest categories, the most generic types of items. From each one, you can drill down and get more specific. For example, from the Full Hierarchy list<\/a>, we can click on Event to see the different types of Event schema that are available:<\/p>\n The next level in the hierarchy is Properties. This is where you can get specific and provide those rich details Google may pull into the search results to make your listing more informative and visually appealing.<\/p>\n For example, choosing ComedyEvent takes you to the full list of Properties<\/a> for that event type.<\/p>\n Selecting \u201cAudience\u201d takes you one level deeper, where you\u2019ll find more specifics on where you can use this Property, an example, and sample code you can modify to use on your own page.<\/p>\n Remember, JSON-LD is the preferred markup format, so we display that here:<\/p>\n Keep in mind that using structured data can enable rich search results \u2014 it does not guarantee them. And there can be negative consequences to using structured data improperly.<\/p>\n Google provides General Structured Data Guidelines<\/a> and warns:<\/p>\n Pages or sites that violate these content guidelines may receive less favorable ranking or be marked as ineligible for rich results in Google Search in order to maintain a high-quality search experience for our users. If we find that your page contains spammy structured data or content, we will apply a manual action to your page.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Structured data must be a true and accurate representation of the page\u2019s main content, and the markup should describe content that is visible in the page\u2019s HTML and to users. Choosing the most relevant type of structured data for your content is key.<\/p>\n Google provides an excellent resource called \u201cExplore the search gallery<\/a>,\u201d which serves as a jumping-off point for structured data.<\/p>\n You can start by either browsing the full list of search features or filtering them into one of five categories to see the features most relevant to your needs. Those broad categories are:<\/p>\n For each type of search feature, you\u2019ll see an example of what it might look like in the SERPs, with tips (where applicable) on how and when to use it.<\/p>\n Clicking the \u201cGet started\u201d button leads you to a more detailed page on that search feature. Using the Carousel as an example, you\u2019re delivered to a page that explains<\/a> what the Carousel search feature is, what it looks like in Search, and how to implement this markup with step-by-step instructions.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll also find samples of code for the different types of structured data that could be used for Carousel content.<\/p>\n In addition to following Google\u2019s guidelines for structured data, as referenced above, there are several important steps to making sure you\u2019re making the most of your search features opportunities.<\/p>\n Apply these best practices to ensure that search engines can understand your structured data and maximize your chances of triggering a search feature:<\/p>\n Google provides a helpful video to show webmasters and SEOs where to put a markup on your webpage. In it, John Mueller also describes the different ways that Google processes JSON-LD, Microdata, and RDFa.<\/p>\n![\"Google](\"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/star-reviews.png\")
<\/a>What Is Structured Data?<\/h2>\n
\n<head>
\n<title>Apple Pie by Grandma<\/title>
\n<script type=”application\/ld+json”>
\n{
\n“@context”: “https:\/\/schema.org\/”,
\n“@type”: “Recipe”,
\n“name”: “Apple Pie by Grandma”,
\n“author”: “Elaine Smith”,
\n“image”: “http:\/\/images.edge-generalmills.com\/56459281-6fe6-4d9d-984f-385c9488d824.jpg”,
\n“description”: “A classic apple pie.”,
\n“aggregateRating”: {
\n“@type”: “AggregateRating”,
\n“ratingValue”: “4.8”,
\n“reviewCount”: “7462”,
\n“bestRating”: “5”,
\n“worstRating”: “1”
\n},
\n“prepTime”: “PT30M”,
\n“totalTime”: “PT1H30M”,
\n“recipeYield”: “8”,
\n“nutrition”: {
\n“@type”: “NutritionInformation”,
\n“calories”: “512 calories”
\n},
\n“recipeIngredient”: [
\n“1 box refrigerated pie crusts, softened as directed on box”,
\n“6 cups thinly sliced, peeled apples (6 medium)”
\n]
\n}
\n<\/script>
\n<\/head>
\n<body>
\n<\/body>
\n<\/html><\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"Google](\"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/recipe-page.png\")
\n
<\/a>What Is Schema Markup?<\/h2>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/structured-data-formats.png\")
<\/a>What Structured Data Types Are There?<\/h2>\n
\n
\n
![\"Schema.org](\"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/comedy-event-properties.png\")
![\"Schema.org](\"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/JSOD-html-script-tag.png\")
<\/a>Which Structured Data Type Should I Use?<\/h2>\n
\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/search-gallery-features.png\")
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/carousel-feature.png\")
<\/a>Best Practices for Using Structured Data<\/h2>\n
Make Sure You\u2019re Putting Your JSON-LD Structured Data in the Right Place<\/h3>\n