• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Services
    • SEO
    • PPC Management
    • Digital Marketing
    • Digital Strategy
    • Fractional CMO
    • Analytics
  • Industries
    • Healthcare
    • Fintech & Financial Services
    • Ecommerce
    • Professional Services
    • Education
    • Manufacturing
    • Government
    • Legal
  • Case Studies
  • Resources
    • Marketing Insights
    • White Papers
    • Webinars
  • About
  • Call Us:
    (888) 846-5382
  • Contact Us
Home
Resources
Articles
How To Use Types of Schema Markup for Better SEO
schema markup_Back-end project architecture development. Markup, database diagram
Marketing & SEO
March 15, 2023

How To Use Types of Schema Markup for Better SEO

Avatar for Pranjal Bora
Pranjal Bora
Pranjal Bora is the Head of Product Management at Digital Authority Partners. After working at Sam's Club, Sears and...
Read more

Get in touch with Pranjal

SEO SEO; Technical SEO; Chicago technical SEO
77 views
Avatar for Pranjal Bora
Pranjal Bora
Head of Product Management
Pranjal Bora is the Head of Product Management at Digital Authority Partners. After working at Sam's Club, Sears and Ricoh Americas for the last decade, Pranjal brings a wealth of experience to our team in ecommerce, SaaS and manufacturing digital transformation. Expertise: Product Management, Mobile App Development, Web Development, Digital Transformation, Website Ada Compliance, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence.
Read Less

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter

Stay up to date with the latest digital trends.

Schema markup is one of the underrated search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. With the help of a reliable SEO agency, you can choose the right way and implement it correctly.

This guide intends to further assist you in its use. Here, we cover:

  • The basics of schema markup, including how it relates to rich snippets, structured data, and knowledge graphs
  • The five most popular schema markups and the types of information you should include
  • Other tips to make schema markup SEO more successful

Are you ready to learn more about this tactic? Let’s go!


Watch this video to learn how Digital Authority Partners tackles Technical SEO!


 

The Basics of Schema Markup SEO

With millions of pages to deal with and even more impatient users, search engines have a herculean task to

  • Quickly provide the right answer
  • Present the information in a way that users can easily or immediately understand

They do so through:

Type

Description

Rich results or snippets

- Search results with extra information, such as photos and star ratings

- Are not featured snippets appearing at the topmost part of the search result (also called position zero)

- Examples include movies with audience or critic ratings, as well as events, such as concerts with dates and venues

Knowledge panel

- The “knowledge box” that appears on the right-hand side corner of the search results

- Contains data, such as company name, location, and social media pages

- Most applicable to people, places, events, and objects with enough online information

News

- News snippets that appear on the News tab or the search results

- Can be triggered by a query, such as “Who is Elizabeth II?”

Local business data

- Usually displayed under Places or Locations

- Triggered by geographical-related keywords, such as “restaurants near me,” “Starbucks,” or “organic cafes in LA”

All these, however, pull information from structured data, which is how you present information. It is a way of telling Google and Bing:

  • What your website or pages are all about
  • How these copies relate to one another

Structured data is everywhere. Google, for example, has the Knowledge Graph, which it uses to develop the knowledge panel.

However, the structured data are less effective unless you use the language that search engines, particularly Google, can understand. This is the schema markup, a code you add to your HTML page. It has plenty of benefits.

  • Schema markup SEO can trigger a rich snippet for you, potentially increasing your click-through rate (CTR).
  • It makes your website crawler-friendly, allowing fast indexing of more of your pages.
  • A high CTR can give you many opportunities to generate quality backlinks.
  • It improves user experience (UX) because essential data are easier to access.

How to Create a Schema Markup for SEO

schema markup_web designer drawing website development wireframe

Although, you should consider adding schema markup to your HTML page, we highly recommend letting an SEO agency handle it for the following reasons:

  • It is easy to mess it up. For example, you end up using it on pages that might not need one in the first place, or you may introduce errors in your HTML code.
  • Schema markup comes with terms you may not easily understand. These include objects and properties.
  • It needs maintenance. Assessing, monitoring, and editing the code are necessary to ensure that search engines display only the correct and relevant information.

Even so, we can show you the basic steps. This way, you can collaborate more effectively with your team.

     1. Pick the Right Markup Language

We have three:

  • JSON-LD (Javascript Object Notation for Linked Objects)
  • Microdata
  • RDFa (Resource Description Framework in Attributes)

Of the three, Google prefers JSON-LD. It adds a code block to the HTML page, so you can modify it without “harming” the other codes.

Remember that the other two may be useful in certain situations. For example, if you want to nest some of the information on your page, Microdata could be a better choice.

You can go to Schema.org or Google to create and copy-paste the codes. However, a good SEO firm can help you pick the ideal language.

     2. Know What to Optimize

Google has identified over 30 types of structured data that can benefit from a schema markup. We have the five most common below:

Data Structure Type

Description

Use Cases

Attributes to Add

Review

- Usually a snippet showing average ratings (such as stars) or a part (or couple of) reviews

- Product

- Recipe

- Events

- Entertainment, such as movies or music

- Restaurants

- Local businesses

- Author (person or organization)

- Object being reviewed (e.g., course or software app)

- Aggregate rating

Product

- A snippet that enhances the shopping experience

- Appears in the search results, Google Images, and Google Lens

- Detailed product information that can include photos

- Merchant listing for websites where people can purchase directly (not affiliate sites)

- Pros and cons

- Offers

- Price drops

- Audience group (e.g., age or gender)

- Aggregate ratings and reviews

- Product images

FAQ

- A list of questions and answers around a particular topic

- Appears on the search or works with Google Assistant for voice search

Displays the full question and answer

- FAQ page that users can see or access directly on the author’s website

- Product page with FAQs that users cannot edit or contribute to

Questions and answers (only one answer per question)

Local Business

- Creates a knowledge panel or a carousel of related answers to a query (e.g., five options for the keyword “restaurants near me”

- Supplements Google Maps results

- Best to pair with local SEO

- Works with Bookings API to accept reservations or payments

- Various businesses, especially restaurants, gyms, and schools

- Business hours

- Business name

- Aggregate ratings and review snippets

- Price range

- Contact details

- Images

- Menu

How-To

- Provides an overview of the steps on how to do things

- Can include images and videos

- Any page or article that requires users to follow certain steps (e.g, recipes or home improvement)

- List of steps and items (e.g., materials to use)

- Cost of materials

- Duration

- Video clips or images for every step

     3. Validate and Test the Code

The only way to know if your schema is working well is by validating or testing the code. You can use many tools for this:

  • Google Search Results Test, where you enter your URL or paste the code you wish to test. You can also assess how the snippet will appear on mobile devices.
  • Site auditing tools, which can check your pages for any errors, including in your schema markup.
  • Schema.org, which contains several documents or guides on how to create markups (note that this does not validate your schema on Google).

Summing Up

Schema markup does not always trigger a rich snippet. Still, it is vital to your SEO strategy. It enhances UX, showcases your breadth of knowledge in your niche, and makes your website more accessible to spider bots or crawlers indexing your pages.

Google and Schema.org can help you make the codes for your preferred language. But if you want to avoid costly, time-consuming errors, work with an SEO agency.

Digital Authority Partners (DAP) is a master in schema markups, structured data, and optimization. We can help you design a more targeted approach to ensure your pages are efficient and productive. Call us today to learn more about this.

Want to meet with our team?

Book a meeting directly here

Like what you just read? Share this article with your network and friends.
Tweet Share Share Send

Related articles

seo ranking_SEO Concept.Women using a computer with SEO icon for analysis SEO Search Engine optimizing your website to rank in search engines or SEO. best promoting ranking traffic on your website.
Marketing & SEO
Mar 23, 2023
9 SEO Factors That Help With Local Ranking

Good local search engine optimization (SEO) is a boon for businesses, especially startups and small businesses that c...

Digital Authority Partners
Marina Turea Content Project Manager
Read Article
semantic seo_SEO Search engine optimization, Search technology, women's hands using a computer keyboard to search for information, using websites search bar to find the desired information or shopping online.
Marketing & SEO
Mar 23, 2023
Beginner’s Guide to 7 Top Semantic SEO Best Practices

Semantic SEO is an optimization technique focused on the meaning and context of keywords and phrases. It is critical ...

Digital Authority Partners
Marina Turea Content Project Manager
Read Article
semantic seo_SEO concept
Marketing & SEO
Mar 23, 2023
How To Build Winning Semantic SEO Strategy That Works for You

Today, keyword stuffing is a big no-no in the field of SEO. Companies seeking to rank high in SERPs must invest in se...

Digital Authority Partners
Marina Turea Content Project Manager
Read Article
Digital Authority Partners
The next-gen digital partner for today’s makers & doers.

Digital Authority Partners
420 West Huron, 1st Floor
Chicago, IL 60654
(312) 820-9893
[email protected]

Resources
Services
Case Studies
Insights
About
Industries
Locations

One newsletter, once a week Today's top digital insights delivered straight to your inbox.

Thank you, you're all signed up! We'll be delivering you valuable newsbites to your inbox soon!

FacebookTwitterLinkedinYoutube
Digital Authority Partners | Copyright © 202s2 All Rights Reserved.
X

Contact our team

This field is required.
This field is required.
The email address you entered is invalid.
The phone number you entered is invalid.
X

Thank you!

One of our consultants will get back to you within 24 hours.


OR


Call Us:
(888) 846-5382