Whilst it’s no secret that search engines are capable of many great things, they also sometimes require a helping hand. Back in 2011, Google, Bing and Yahoo! implemented Schema in an attempt to make search engine results much more accurate.
So, what is website Schema used for?
Rich snippets are generated by Schema mark-ups, which is structured by data and code by employing words and tags. These structures then communicate with search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo!, in order to refine their search results. Ultimately, the main purpose of Schema is to inform search engines what exactly your website page is about.
Here is an example from Schema.org themselves:
“<h1>Avatar</h1> tells the browser to display the text string “Avatar” in a heading 1 format. However, the HTML tag doesn’t give any information about what that text string means—”Avatar” could refer to the hugely successful 3D movie, or it could refer to a type of profile picture—and this can make it more difficult for search engines to intelligently display relevant content to a user.
Schema.org provides a collection of shared vocabularies webmasters can use to mark up their pages in ways that can be understood by the major search engines: Google, Microsoft, Yandex and Yahoo!”
What are Schema types?
There are many different forms of Schema Mark-up, and the type of schema you’ll need to maximise your SEO strategy, will vary depending on the purpose of your website. We have included a list below of the most commonly used types of Schema.
- Article – Article Schema includes tech articles, news articles as well as scholarly articles.
- Event – Event Schema focuses on upcoming events such as festivals, shows or lectures and can include ticketing information under the offers property.
- Products and Offers – These two types of Schema mark-ups include haircuts, vehicle rentals or streamed TV shows.
- Person – This form of Schema is a good way to build authorship and can be used with deceased, alive and fictional people.
- Local Businesses – Local Businesses with physical locations can benefit significantly from this type of Schema, as addresses, payment methods and business hours can be listed.
- Review – Review Schema can be used to review any product or service such as restaurants or films.
- Recipe – This type of Schema is implemented to help search engines guide users to and through online recipes.
- Organisation – Organisation Schema is often used at a very basic level of SEO strategies as it provides the opportunity to input logos, contact details and social media links.
- Breadcrumbs – Breadcrumbs assist the user with navigation of categories provided within a link.
- FactCheck – Also referred to as claimreview, this type of Schema allows a website to build trust with users by providing factual and sourced content.
- Datasets – This form of Schema is structured information which is used to describe topics of interest.
Why is Schema important?
Schema mark-ups are an important part of any SEO strategy as they can dictate the way search engines interpret online queries. As search engine giants such as google evolve their algorithms, Schema mark-ups are becoming increasingly critical to improve the visibility of websites.
How do I add organisation schema to my website?
At MonkeyFish Marketing, our expert SEO team implements Schema Mark-ups throughout our clients’ SEO marketing strategies. With a proven track record of successful advanced SEO services, MonkeyFish will take care of all your search marketing needs, hassle free!
Give MonkeyFish a call on 01282 504730 or visit our website and leave a message and one of our friendly marketing team will get back to you as soon as we can.
