In today’s digital age, businesses must make their online presence as clear and comprehensive as possible. One way to achieve this is through structured data, also known as schema. This blog post will provide an overview of schema and structured data, how they can benefit your business, and how to implement them on your website.
Structured data is a standardized format that makes it easy to understand the meaning of the data and do something with it. It helps search engines connect the dots between your business, your website, your social profiles, and more. This contrasts unstructured data, which is spread throughout the copy, like an email confirmation for a flight.
In the past, search engines relied solely on crawling your website and the information they could surface. However, as technology has advanced, search engines have become more sophisticated, with more data sources, and search engines have been able to get more value out of crawled data.
Search engines like Google and Microsoft use schema to provide even more rich user experiences. By leveraging schema, you can improve the experience for your customers, take up more surface area on search results, and give your rankings a boost.
For example, Google’s knowledge panel results from the connections Google made when discovering a business. Some information is fed through Google Business, others are pulled in through Wikipedia, and some are pulled in based on the schema.
To add schema to your website, you can visit Schema.org, where you’ll find comprehensive documentation about schema and examples of how to add it. Once you’ve created your schema and added it to a web page, you’ll want to validate it to ensure it’s working correctly.
Most professionals today are using JSON for schema. You can validate your schema by entering your full website address on the validation screen. This is also a great way to look at what other companies include in their schema.
Implementing schema on your website can seem daunting, but it’s crucial to improving your online presence and SEO. If you need help figuring out where to start, our web design services at Biondo Creative can help. We specialize in creating websites that are visually appealing and optimized for search engines.