Before diving into implementation, ask yourself: what am I aiming to achieve through Schema Markup? Which key content or business entities do I want to highlight in search results? How can Schema Markup support our overall SEO and content strategy?

A thoughtful Schema Markup strategy can help you:

• Target the right rich results
• Develop your content knowledge graph
• Increase organic traffic and CTR in search
• Identify gaps in your content and inform your content strategy

In this article, we outline the steps you can take to create a Schema Markup strategy for your website.

Let’s get started!

Step 1: Identify Key Entities in Your Content for Structured Data Opportunities

The first step to implementing Schema Markup is identifying the key entities that represent your business and where they are located on your site. This process will help you recognize the structured data opportunities across your website.

1.1 List the Key Entities That are Relevant to Your Business

You can start by creating a list of key entities that make up your business, such as:

• Business name and contact information
• Products or services
• Key personnel (e.g., owner, management team)
• Locations (for businesses with multiple branches)
• Authoritative content about your industry or expertise

For example, Pizza Palace is a local pizza restaurant owned by Enrico Picolli with over 20 locations across Ontario, Canada. Pizza Palace sells different types of pizzas (i.e. pepperoni, Hawaiian, etc.) and appetizers through their online site. Pizza Palace, along with its products, locations, and owner are key entities related to the business. These entities are also described across their website content.

1.2 Locate Relevant Web Pages

Once you’ve identified your key entities, you can identify which page on your website best describes each entity. This will help you determine which top-level Schema.org type you should use to mark up each page.

As per our previous example, the Pizza Palace home page has detailed information (i.e. address, logo, telephone number, etc.) about the organization. Therefore, it should be the entity home for the organization Pizza Palace.

Similarly, Pizza Palace has product detail pages for each of its pizzas. Therefore, these product detail pages should be the entity home for each product.

Pro Tip: If you don’t have a page about any of your key entities, this is an opportunity for you to create new content to describe the entity.

1.3 Map Content to Schema.org Types

Once you have your list of entities and where they live on your site, you can identify the corresponding Schema.org type for each entity.

Back to our example— “Pizza Palace,” being the organization’s name, would best correspond with the Organization type. Therefore, you would mark up the homepage with Organization markup to help search engines clearly understand the key information about the Organization.

Pro Tip: If you’re new to the Schema.org vocabulary and need more clarity on identifying types and properties within your content, we recommend reading our guide to the Schema.org vocabulary.

1.4 Create an Entity Mapping Table

Next up, it’s time to organize your findings in a table format for clarity. Here’s an example continuing with our hypothetical local pizza business:

Step 2: Review Eligible Rich Results for Your Pages

Once you’ve identified your key entities, the next step is determining which rich results are available and relevant to your content. This will help you prioritize your Schema Markup efforts for maximum visibility in the search results.

2.1 Understand Available Rich Results

Before you dive into rich results, we recommend familiarizing yourself with the types of rich results offered by Google. Google has over 30 rich results, some more applicable than others. The most common types of rich results include:

• Review Snippet
• Local Business
• Product
• Job Posting

Within Google’s structured data guidelines, you can see which Schema.org properties are required and recommended to achieve your target rich results. If your page does not have the content for the required properties, you must add the content to your site before you markup the required property.

2.2 Match Your Content to Eligible Rich Results

You can review your key content identified in Step 1 and determine which rich results each page might be eligible for.

For example, Pizza Palace has 25 product detail pages (PDPs), each with reviews and ratings related to the relevant product. Since the PDPs have the right content, they should be eligible for a review snippet-rich result when we add AggregateRating and Review markup.

When you’ve identified the rich results each page could be eligible for, you can add it to the previous table you’ve created. Here’s an example continuing with the table we created for the pizza business in Step 1:

2.3 Ensure Your Content Aligns With the Structured Data Requirements for Each Rich Result

Before implementing Schema Markup, it’s crucial to verify that your content meets the requirements for each desired rich result if that is your goal. This step helps ensure your markup efforts are effective and compliant with search engine guidelines.

Other actions to consider in this step include:

Review Google’s guidelines: Check the requirements for each rich result type you’re targeting. These requirements may be content-related (e.g. Aggregate Ratings require the reviewCount), but they also may be more general guidelines (e.g. There should only be one Product or ProductGroup per page). Google provides detailed documentation for each rich result in their structured data documentation.

Audit your content: Compare your existing content against the requirements. Look for any gaps or missing elements.

Update content if necessary: If your content doesn’t fully meet the requirements, now is the time to update it. This might involve adding more detailed information, reorganizing content, or creating new page sections.

Step 3: Assess Implementation Methods for Ease and Coverage

After identifying your key entities and desired rich results, it’s time to consider how to implement your Schema Markup strategy effectively. This step focuses on balancing high-value opportunities with practical and manageable implementation methods.

3.1 Analyze Pages for Individual or Repeating Content

The implementation strategy for one-off or individual pages will likely be different than highly templated or repeating page types. For this reason, we recommend determining whether your content follows single or recurring patterns:

• Individual Page: Unique content, generally dissimilar to other pages on the website (e.g. About Us or Contact Information pages)
• Recurring Pages: Pages with a similar content structure repeated across multiple URLs (e.g. product detail or location pages)

3.2 Assess Existing Capabilities

From here, evaluate your current technical setup:

• Check if your Content Management System (CMS) has built-in Schema Markup functionality
• If it does, determine whether it meets your requirements or needs enhancement from other methods or sources

3.3 Consider Implementation Methods

There are many ways to implement Schema Markup. We recommend exploring the different available approaches to implementing Schema Markup to decide what best suits your organization’s needs and capabilities:

• Manual Implementation: You can author your markup for each page manually and add it directly into the HTML of the page
• Plugin or SEO Tool Implementation: You can use Schema Markup plugins designed to generate Schema Markup (these can be limited in their capabilities)
• Full-Service Schema Markup Solution Providers: You can also hire an end-to-end Schema Markup solution Schema App to help you author, implement and manage your Schema Markup on an ongoing basis

3.4 Assess Automation Possibilities

Implementing Schema Markup manually can be tedious, complex, and time-consuming. This is especially true for large organizations managing thousands of content pages or even multiple domains.

This is when it becomes crucial to identify and leverage opportunities to automate your Schema Markup implementation:

• For recurring content patterns, consider templated solutions like the Schema App Highlighter
• Explore API integrations for dynamic content
• Investigate tools and plugins that can generate and update markup automatically and dynamically

Schema App automatically deploys Schema Markup to your website at scale, so you can save time, make updates faster, and reduce delays caused by waiting for IT/developers. It works with all website platforms because of our integrations with Tag Manager, JavaScript, or our custom add-ons for WordPress, Shopify, BigCommerce, Drupal, etc. Explore our integration options.

3.5 Plan for Scalability

A common goal for most organizations is to grow. Therefore, planning for scalability is a must!

Ensure your implementation strategy can grow with your business:

• Choose methods that can easily accommodate new content or site sections
• Consider future rich result types you may wish to target

By completing this step, you’ll have a clear understanding of how to implement your Schema Markup strategy efficiently and at scale, taking into account your current capabilities and future business needs.

Best Practices for Schema Markup

Here are some things to keep in mind as you develop your Schema Markup strategy and evaluate your site content.

1. Use JSON-LD (rather than microdata or RDFa), as recommended by Google
2. Use the most specific Type possible
3. Only markup content that is visible on the page
4. Identify one key page for each business concept
5. Include an @id attribute to the entities in your Schema Markup
6. Nest the entities in your Schema Markup to accurately showcase their relationships on a page

So now you know how to identify which pages you should optimize and how to determine the best approach depending on the page type.

At Schema App, we help you go beyond the fundamentals of SEO, leveraging structured data to showcase your unique value in search. In a rapidly changing SEO landscape, we introduce agility to your digital team, saving you time and resources for managing other aspects of your business portfolio.

See how our end-to-end Schema Markup and knowledge graph solution can help your website stand out in search.

The post How to Develop a Schema Markup Strategy for a Website appeared first on Schema App Solutions.

In the digital marketplace, incorporating robust Schema Markup is one of the most critical steps you can take to get noticed. Schema Markup enables search engines to understand your web page content, effectively rank it, and present users with relevant search results.

What Is Schema Markup?

Schema Markup, also known as Structured Data, is data that you can add to your web page’s HTML code to explicitly define entities, properties, and relationships within your content. By doing so, it assists search engines in better comprehending and contextualizing your page content, thereby enabling them to deliver more accurate search results to users.

Schema Markup is created using the Schema.org vocabulary, a collaborative project involving major search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex. The primary objective of Schema.org is to establish a standardized vocabulary for describing content on web pages, making it simpler for search engines to understand and interpret the meaning of various elements present on a webpage.

Although search engines use sophisticated machine learning algorithms, machines do not process or interpret information in the same way as humans. What might seem simple to a person may be unintelligible to a computer. Schema Markup helps fill in the blanks for search engines so that they know exactly what your page is about.

For instance, let’s say you have a product detail page containing an image and description of a handsaw, along with an image of the brand in the header.

A person reading this would immediately realize that the handsaw is from the brand “Dewalt,” but it might be difficult for search engines to understand that explicitly. You can use Schema Markup to identify that the brand of handsaw on this page is “Dewalt” so that the search engine can present this content for individuals searching phrases like “Dewalt handsaw.”

What are the main SEO benefits of using Schema Markup?

1. Help search engines understand the content on your page

Schema Markup enriches your website content by organizing its data in a way that is easily and accurately interpreted by search engines.

This gives search engines a more semantic understanding of what entities and topics your page covers, leading to more relevant search results. It also grants you more precise control over how search engines understand your content.

As such, search engines can intelligently display your content to the appropriate users. This targeted visibility can lead to higher clicks, impressions, and click-through rates, ultimately driving better-quality traffic to your site.

To delve deeper into how Schema Markup impacts your SEO efforts, refer to our ‘Common Questions About Schema Markup for SEO’ blog article.

2. Develop a Content Knowledge Graph that supports Generative AI Search

Structured data provides the foundation for developing your organization’s content knowledge graph.

Schema Markup not only describes the entities on your site but also outlines their relationships to other entities on your site and across the web. By implementing robust connected Schema Markup, you are building a content knowledge graph—a reusable data layer that captures relationships between various entities on your site using a standardized vocabulary like Schema.org.

This structured data framework is crucial for training and grounding generative AI search engines and other LLMs, which rely on factual data to mitigate errors and hallucinations.

Gartner has also identified knowledge graphs as a critical enabler for generative AI adoption, further highlighting Schema Markup’s fundamental role in AI advancements.

3. Achieve Rich Results

Implementing certain types of structured data can also enable search engines to display visually enhanced search results (aka rich results) instead of generic “plain blue link” results listings.

Rich results enhance standard search results by presenting additional information, such as a business location, images, product reviews, etc. Rich results are also referred to as enriched results or rich snippets, as they provide snippets of information about a page, brand, or business.

Example of a Product Rich Result

Example of a Review Snippet

Rich results are visually appealing and informative, making your listings stand out on the SERP and improving the overall search experience for users. By incorporating structured data, you cater to both customer needs and search engine algorithms, increasing your competitiveness in search results.

What types of Schema Markup are there?

There are many different types of Schema Markup that you can incorporate into your online content. Some of the most commonly used markup types include:

• Reviews: This type is used to mark up reviews for products, services, or other items. It includes properties like the reviewer’s name, rating, and review text.
• Product: Product markup is used for e-commerce sites to describe specific products. It includes details such as name, description, price, availability, and more.
• Local Business: This markup type is ideal for businesses with physical locations. It includes properties like name, address, phone number, opening hours, and geographical coordinates.
• Person: Person markup is used to describe individuals, including properties such as name, job title, contact details, and social media profiles.
• Organization: Similar to local business markup but broader, organization markup can be used for any type of organization, including corporations, educational institutions, non-profits, etc. It includes details like name, logo, contact information, and social profiles.
• Event: Event markup is used for marking up events such as concerts, workshops, or conferences. It includes properties like event name, date, location, and ticket information.
• Media Objects (images, videos, audio): Markup for media objects like images, videos, or audio files. It can include properties such as caption, thumbnail URL, and duration.
• Creative Works (movies, books, music, TV series, recipes): This type covers a range of creative content, including movies, books, music, TV series, and recipes. It includes properties specific to each type, such as author, director, actors, duration, and ingredients for recipes.

Choosing the right schema type depends on the nature of your content. Each type comes with its own set of properties that you can use to provide detailed and structured information about the content on your webpage. You can view the full list of Types here and learn more about the Schema.org vocabulary here.

What is the recommended format for implementing Schema Markup?

The most commonly used formats for implementing structured data are JSON-LD, microdata, and RDFa. However, Google recommends using JSON-LD due to its readability for both humans and machines.

Implementing JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) is easier than implementing other formats like microdata or RDFa, and you can seamlessly incorporate it within the HTML of your web pages. This format is favored for its simplicity and effectiveness in conveying structured data to search engines.

How to implement Schema Markup on your site

Manually generate your own code and paste it on your site

One way to implement Schema Markup is to do it manually using the following steps.

1. Review Page Content: Examine each page on your site and identify what the page is mainly about.
2. Choose Schema Types: Select the appropriate schema type and properties that best describe the content on your page.
3. Write the JSON-LD: Create the Schema Markup in JSON-LD using the chosen schema types and properties.
4. Embed JSON-LD in HTML: Incorporate the Schema Markup JSON-LD into the HTML of your webpage.
5. Test Markup: Use tools like Google’s Rich Results Testing Tool (if you aim to achieve a rich result) or Schema.org’s Schema Markup Validator to validate and ensure correct implementation and desired results.

If you have the technological savvy to write the JSON-LD and can meticulously work through each page of your site’s content, this approach is a viable option.

However, the manual method of implementing Schema Markup is incredibly labor-intensive—especially if you have a huge website. Similarly, bringing in your own IT team to write and deploy the code can also be costly and time-consuming.

Use a Schema Markup Plugin

Instead of implementing the markup manually, you can opt to use a Schema Markup plugin to implement Schema Markup programmatically.

There are many Schema Markup plugins available for WordPress, Shopify and other CMSes that will allow you to add markup to your page programmatically. However, many Schema Markup plugins tend to be limiting in terms of the Schema type and properties you can leverage. You will also have little control over marking up each page.

Learn more about the pros and cons of using a Schema Markup plugin here.

Hire a Schema Markup Expert

The best way to implement advanced custom Schema Markup would be to hire a Schema Markup solutions provider like Schema App. At Schema App, we provide an end-to-end Schema Markup Solution through our leading semantic technology platform and a team of experts.

Our platform includes tools like our Highlighter and Editor that allow users to generate, deploy, and manage their structured data at scale. Our team of Schema Markup experts will also help you manage your structured data from strategy to results, deploying Markup at scale without diverting your in-house IT resources.

You can focus on your core marketing activities and trust us to deal with the complexities and nuances of your structured data.

Navigate the Complexities of Schema Markup with Schema App

Whether you choose to implement Schema Markup independently or require a solution like Schema App to expertly manage your organization’s Schema Markup, leveraging structured data offers a myriad of advantages for your SEO, AI, and semantic strategies.

If you need help implementing a robust Schema Markup strategy for your site, get in touch with us today.

The post What Is Schema Markup? A Guide to Structured Data SEO appeared first on Schema App Solutions.

Beyond this, implementing Schema Markup can also result in a reusable content knowledge graph for organizations looking to train their internal LLMs, gain a semantic advantage in AI search, and manage their internal data more efficiently.

Let’s take a look at what Schema Markup is and the value it adds to healthcare organizations like yours.

What is Schema Markup?

Schema Markup, also known as structured data, is metadata based on the Schema.org vocabulary that you can add to your website to help search engines better understand and contextualize your web content.

When you implement Schema Markup on your site, you use the Schema.org vocabulary to describe the entities on your web page and how they relate to other entities on your site and across the internet. This helps search engines clearly understand what your web page is about and enables them to provide users with more accurate and relevant search results.

For example, your healthcare organization might have a physician page with content about the physician’s medical specialties, practice location, ratings and reviews, and contact information. When you apply Schema Markup to that page, you express this information in machine-readable format using the Schema.org types and properties. This helps to disambiguate your content topics and support search engine comprehension.

Common Schema Types for Healthcare Providers

In the Schema.org vocabulary, types are how you categorize the various entities on your page, and properties are attributes or characteristics that provide additional details and contextual information about a given entity.

Healthcare organizations can use more general types such as Organization, Physician, MedicalClinic, and more. However, the Schema.org vocabulary contains a Health and Life Sciences extension of over 200 Types and 160 properties specific to the medical space.

These include everything from terms for describing diseases and injuries, such as AnatomicalStructure and MedicalSignOrSymptom, to systems of medicine, such as TraditionalChinese and WesternConventional.

In addition to those listed above, here are some other examples of types of content that you can use to explain information about your healthcare organization:

• MedicalOrganization – Home page
• Hospital – Hospital pages
• IndividualPhysician – Physician pages
• MedicalCondition or MedicalProcedure or MedicalTest– Medical Services pages

The main purpose of implementing Schema Markup is to help search engines understand and contextualize the content on your site. Therefore, it is best practice to choose the most appropriate type and properties that best describe the content on your page.

In some cases, adding Schema Markup can also enhance the appearance of a search result on Google’s search engine results page (SERP). This is known as a rich result.

Common Types of Rich Results for Healthcare Providers

A rich result is a visually enhanced and information-rich search result displayed in the SERP, achieved through structured data. Rich results can include star ratings, reviews, and other details, making your healthcare organization’s search appearance more attractive and informative.

Pages with rich results tend to see an increase in click-through rates, higher-quality traffic, and appointments booked, offering measurable results.

Google has specific eligibility and structured data guidelines for each rich result. Aligning your markup with these criteria enhances your chances of achieving various rich results. Here are some common types of rich results that healthcare websites can achieve through structured data.

Review Snippet

Patient engagement is important for any health organization. 94% of healthcare patients leave online reviews about their experiences. Many physician or location pages tend to include reviews and ratings. By nesting the appropriate Schema Markup on your physician or location pages, these pages can achieve a review snippet.

Review Snippets can help organizations display their credibility and build trust during the search journey. When our customer, Sharp Healthcare, achieved Review Snippets for their Physician pages, the CTR for those pages increased by 119%.

Job Posting Rich Results

Hiring talent is top of mind across most healthcare organizations, and Schema Markup provides innovative opportunities around healthcare recruitment.

Healthcare organizations can use Job Posting Rich Results to showcase their job openings directly on Google’s search results, providing key details like job title and location. This boosts visibility, attracts qualified candidates, and streamlines the hiring process.

Our customer, Baptist Health, saw an 1194% increase in CTR when the job posting rich result was awarded.

Product Rich Results

If your healthcare organization sells products such as CPAP machines or flu shots, you can leverage Product Rich Results to display key product information such as price, reviews, and availability directly on the search result.

This provides users with clear and immediate details, which can help them make quick decisions and increase your web conversions.

Recipe Rich Results

If your organization publishes healthy recipes on your site, you can make that content eligible for a Recipe rich result by marking them up with Recipe structured data.

These are just some of the rich result opportunities that healthcare organizations can leverage to stand out in search. However, the value of Schema Markup far exceeds rich results.

Why is Schema Markup Important for Healthcare Providers?

Search engine advancements have transformed the conventional approach to healthcare, with a growing number of patients seeking relevant health-related information directly on the SERP.

Schema Markup is a powerful yet underutilized SEO strategy that can help healthcare organizations stand out in this competitive search landscape and provide answers directly in the search results when prospective patients need it most. Beyond achieving rich results and bringing pertinent information about your organization to the SERP, Schema Markup supports several other healthcare organizations’ SEO initiatives.

Enhanced Search Visibility

Schema Markup helps search engines better understand the content on a healthcare provider’s website. This improved comprehension can lead to higher accuracy in search results. This can improve the provider’s visibility to individuals searching for relevant healthcare information.

Improved Customer Journey

Users can obtain critical details directly from the SERP, including facility location, hours, specialties, and reviews. This fosters transparency, credibility, and trust (contributing to your organization’s E-E-A-T) from the start of their customer journey. The streamlined journey leads to easy navigation to booking pages, reducing steps for user-friendly appointment scheduling.

Develop a Reusable Content Knowledge Graph

By implementing Schema Markup on your site, you can create a reusable content knowledge graph that helps generative AI search engines understand and infer knowledge from your content. This content knowledge graph can also be reused to power internal AI initiatives and ground LLMs with accurate information about your organization.

By developing your content knowledge graph, you can control how your brand is understood and presented in search.

The Challenges of Implementing Schema Markup at Scale

Despite all the benefits of implementing Schema Markup for your healthcare organization, creating and implementing a Schema Markup strategy at scale can be costly, complex, and time-consuming.

SEO teams often lack the expertise and the IT resources to deploy and update Schema Markup at scale across their websites. That’s where Schema App comes in. At Schema App, we provide an end-to-end, HIPAA-compliant, Schema Markup solution for leading healthcare organizations.

Benefits of Schema App for Healthcare Organizations

1. Measurable Results

One of the best things about Schema Markup is that it is measurable. This makes showing the return on investment from your work with Schema App easy. When you optimize your web pages with Schema Markup and start achieving rich results, Google Search Console reports on the impressions and clicks you achieve specifically from the URLs that are getting these decorated results.

When you start working with Schema App, we ask about your organizational goals and what success looks like from your work with us. We ensure that you have tangible results to show how Schema Markup is contributing to your organization’s goals.

The most common measures are impressions, clicks and click-through rates from rich results achieved on your site. Upon achieving those results, we’ll continue to optimize your Schema Markup strategy and ensure your content evolves with the changing SEO world.

How do you convert clicks to dollars?

If you don’t have a way to correlate clicks or sessions on your website to appointments booked, you can do a simpler calculation by taking your cost-per-click and multiplying it by the number of clicks you get from rich results. The result is the number of dollars you saved from paid advertising through increased organic traffic. Our customers often see an ROI greater than 10X.

# of Clicks from Rich Results X Avg CPC = Value of work done with Schema Markup & Schema App

This allows marketing teams to easily prove the return on investment in their SEO efforts.

2. Retaining Talent through Agility and Scale

In addition to the measurable ROI from clicks, Schema App offers healthcare organizations a return on investment by adding agility to their teams.
Agility is critical to any business’s success. With Schema App, SEO teams no longer need to learn Schema Markup or wait for internal IT teams to update their markup.

Our Schema App Highlighter tool allows SEO teams to generate and deploy dynamic Schema Markup to thousands of similarly templated pages within minutes. Combined with our team of expert Customer Success Managers, SEO teams can access a Schema Markup expert and make updates to their Schema Markup quickly to see results. We aim to ensure we deliver our client’s quarter-over-quarter results with speed and agility.

On top of delivering greater results, staying agile can also help with employee retention. Operational inefficiencies can hold teams back and be demotivating, resulting in lower employee retention. When your team sees their Schema Markup strategies come to life in little to no time, they are empowered by the results, which motivates them to keep performing.

3. Show Value Cross Functionally and to your Physicians

Many of our clients have already tried to do Schema Markup on their own.

SEO specialists spend countless hours trying to learn how to write Schema Markup (JSON-LD) page by page before submitting it to IT to be implemented on the page. With our Schema App Highlighter tool, SEO teams can generate Schema Markup (JSON-LD) dynamically at scale and deploy it across pages in just a few clicks. They can also reduce their dependency on their development team and get the job done quickly.

Schema Markup not only benefits SEO efforts but also supports physicians within healthcare networks by:

• showcasing reviews and ratings,
• enhancing visibility and appearance on the SERP, and
• building trust with current and prospective patients.

This, in turn, can drive more appointments for these physicians and improve reputability. This can make your physicians more inclined to stay with your healthcare organization, thus aiding physician retention.

Our partnership with Schema App reassures us that this important component of our SEO strategy is being managed. The data we have been able to get out of this is great. Providers love to see how good their marked-up listings look in search results. It’s great evidence of the work we do behind the scenes to increase visibility in our market.”

– Julie Goldstein-Dunn, Director, Experience Insights & Analytics, Henry Ford Health System

Working with Schema App

In the healthcare industry’s competitive landscape, it’s essential to stand out in search results to maintain relevance and visibility among competitors. Integrating innovative strategies like Schema Markup is key to distinguishing your brand. If you haven’t already integrated Schema Markup into your strategy, now is the ideal time to do so, especially as search algorithms increasingly prioritize semantic understanding.

At Schema App, we provide an end-to-end Schema Markup solution. We partner with healthcare networks and other organizations to help their content be better understood by search engines so they can stand out in search. Our aim is to empower organizations like yours to deliver a seamless healthcare experience to their customers with ease and scale.

The post The Value of Schema Markup for Healthcare Organizations appeared first on Schema App Solutions.

In this article, we dive into what Product Schema Markup is, its benefits, and how you can achieve greater visibility and engagement on search by leveraging it on your product web pages.

Expanding on its multiple benefits, adding Product Schema Markup can help your eCommerce website in two ways:

1. Product Schema Markup enhances how your store and products appear on the search engine results page (SERP).

These enhancements, formerly called rich snippets and now known as rich results, can include star ratings, reviews, price, availability, and much more!

You’re probably familiar with star ratings and reviews, as they really stand out in search results as they do in the following example for Ariat. In addition to ratings and reviews, Product rich results can also highlight shipping and return information.

2. Product Schema Markup provides context for the content on your web pages so search engines can better understand and match your products with a user’s search intent.

Schema Markup has benefits that extend beyond achieving rich results for your products and services in search. Through Schema Markup, you can define objects on your web pages as distinct entities with their own properties and relationships to other entities. Once defined, you can connect these entities to a search engine’s knowledge graph, which streamlines your content to be matched with a relevant search query.

For example, if your eCommerce store sells vegan snacks and alternatives, your structured data markup informs Google that these snacks are products for sale and that it’s not, for example, a blog post about the best vegan alternatives to snack on.

Distinguishing Between Product Snippets and Merchant Listings

According to Google, there are two classes of Product rich results: Product snippets and merchant listing experiences.

Merchant listings serve as an extension of the product snippet item, providing more comprehensive search results that consistently feature a price. A carousel may showcase these listings alongside similar products from various sellers or within a knowledge panel in the SERP.

While Product rich results do not appear in the shopping tab, merchant listings do. Notably, they manifest differently within the shopping tab. Incorporating merchant listings allows you to customize your approach as you enhance your target product with additional properties. This is a process that requires the integration of Product markup.

Merchant listings come with a broader set of recommended properties compared to product snippets. These expanded features allow you to segment results based on factors such as seller, brand, pattern, size, and more.

The properties required and recommended for merchant listings are more exhaustive, providing a more detailed and nuanced representation. For example, product snippets don’t require an image, but merchant listings require one.

The effectiveness of merchant listing experiences hinges on specific product data, such as price and availability. It’s important to note that only pages that directly support the product purchases are eligible for merchant listing experiences; pages containing links to other sites selling the product do not meet the criteria.

For reference, see the following example of another Ariat product that achieved an enhanced merchant listing. Notably, it has price listed, a large and clear image of the product, delivery information, ratings, and shipping information.

Product Result Reporting

Each type of rich result—product snippet and merchant listing—comes with distinct enhancements and reporting, each adhering to its own set of requirements and recommendations.

As per an announcement from Google Search Central, they conveyed through a tweet that, “In January 2024, [GSC] will stop reporting the Product results search appearance, both in the Performance report and the API”.

This decision to deprecate Product results aligns logically with the prior split into merchant listings and product snippets. Given that Product results essentially represent a combination of the two, the decision to deprecate it is a move towards more detailed and nuanced reporting for each.

Required and Recommended Properties for Product Structured Data

Google maintains documentation that explains what is required for “Product” structured data.

We’ve captured the most common required and recommended fields below. It is important to keep in mind, however, that the requirements and recommendations may differ between Product Snippets and Merchant Listing eligibility.

For an exhaustive list of requirements and recommendations for both Merchant Listings and Product Snippets, visit the Product Information section in their Structured Data Documentation for Product.

You can see in the example below that you can toggle between the specific properties for “Product Snippets” and “Merchant Listings” exclusively.

You must populate the required properties in order for your content to be eligible for display as a rich result in search. Recommended properties add more information to your structured data, which can provide a better user experience.

Looking for additional guidance implementing Product structured data? Read our article “6 Common Product Rich Result Mistakes You Might be Making” for more tips.

Product

https://schema.org/Product

It’s important to note that Product Structured Data requires only one of the following properties:

• Review
• aggregateRating
• Offers

Once you fulfill one of these requirements, the remaining properties will become recommended rather than required. That being said, it is always best to markup all three properties as they can provide more information in the rich result.

TIP! Add Review, aggregateRating, and Offers properties to provide more information in the rich results.

We created the following visual to help conceptualize the structure of Product Schema Markup. With Product as the starting point, the required properties are used to connect to information in the form of text, URLs, or other data items containing their own properties.

The required and recommended properties for the Review, AggregateRating, and Offer data items are as follows:

Review

https://schema.org/Review

AggregateRating

https://schema.org/AggregateRating

*Note: You must have at least one of ratingCount or reviewCount.
**Note: only required if the rating system is not a 5-point scale (1 = worst rating, 5 = best rating)

Offer

https://schema.org/Offer

TIP! While itemReviewed is required for standalone Review and AggregateRating data items, these should not be used when embedded within the Product template.

FYI: For the most current guidelines on required and recommended fields, reference the Google Developers Reference Guide.

How to Create Product Structured Data

There are two types of pages where you would typically create Product structured data:

1. A product page listing a single product and
2. A shopping aggregate page listing a single product with information from other sellers offering that product.

Learn more in Google’s Product structured data documentation.

To help you get started, we have compiled the fundamental steps for creating Product Structured Data:

Step 1: Add Required Properties for Product Structured Data

Add the required Schema.org properties for Product structured data markup using our reference above. We recommend our own tools, the Schema App Editor and Schema App Highlighter, but there are many different options out there.

You should add all of the recommended and required properties, but also ensure you are connecting the entities on your site. For example, if the brand of your product on your website is also your organization, you want to make sure that the “brand” property connects back to your organization’s entity.

The Schema App Highlighter is a product of the brand, Schema App. Therefore, we can nest the Schema App Organization markup under the brand property to reflect the connection between the Schema App Highlighter and Schema App.

{
  "@context": "http://schema.org/",
  "@type": "Product",
  "@id": "https://schemaapp.com/highlighter/#Product",
  "name": "Schema App Highlighter",
  "brand": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "@id": "https://schemaapp.com/#Organization",
    "name": "Schema App",
  }
  "aggregateRating": {
    "@type": "AggregateRating",
    "ratingValue": 4.7,
    "reviewCount": 63, 
  }
}

Step 2: Review your Product Structured Data to ensure it follows Google’s Structured Data Guidelines

Google’s Product structured data feature guide has specific technical guidelines as well as content guidelines.

Your structured data and website content have to adhere to all these structured data guidelines to be eligible for a Product rich result. Read our article to learn How to Optimize Your Content to Achieve Google’s Rich Results.

Step 3: Deploy your Product Structured Data to the Relevant Pages

Once you’ve finished authoring your markup and ensuring your content aligns with Google’s guidelines, it’s time to deploy your markup.

Google recommends using JSON-LD, which is also our favourite format for deployment!

Step 4: Validate your pages to make sure the Structured Data is working

To test that your Product structured data is working properly, you should use:

1. The Schema Markup Validator (SMV)
2. Google’s Rich Results Testing Tool

Using the Schema Markup Validator

The Schema Markup Validator (SMV) was modelled after and has officially replaced Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool (SDTT). Many SEOs still prefer the SDTT, as the SMV only validates your schema.org syntax and does not show your eligibility for rich results.

Using the Rich Results Testing Tool

Google’s Rich Results Testing Tool helps you to see which rich results can be generated by the structured data it contains.

If you’ve done everything correctly, you should start achieving Product rich results for your pages. However, it is important to note that eligibility for a rich result doesn’t guarantee that the rich result will be awarded to your page.

Google’s goal is to present users with the most relevant search results. If they do not deem a rich result to be relevant to the searcher’s query, they will likely present your page as a regular search result.

Step 5: Manage your Structured Data on an Ongoing Basis

As mentioned earlier, adding structured data to your site not only allows you to be eligible for rich results, it also enhances the search engine’s understanding of your content. This enables search engines to provide users with more relevant and accurate search results.

Therefore, it is imperative for you to continue managing your structured data on an ongoing basis even after you’ve achieved a rich result. To maintain your rich result eligibility, you’ll need to ensure the content on your page matches the structured data.

As we shift towards AI search, maintaining your structured data can also help you control how AI search engines interpret your brand and content. Thereby futureproofing your organization’s web visibility and contributing to the development of the semantic web.

Having a dynamic Schema Markup solution like the Schema App Highlighter can help you update your markup whenever the content on your page changes. Get in touch with our team to learn more.

Scaling Your Product Schema Markup

At Schema App, we don’t just focus on achieving Product rich results – we’re dedicated to unlocking the full semantic potential of your content.

By applying Schema Markup to your product pages, you not only make them eligible for rich results, but you also provide clarity and contextual understanding to search engines through your content markup. This approach lets you take charge of how your brand appears in search, improving visibility and enhancing relevance in search results.

Through the powerful combination of our Schema Markup expertise and advanced semantic technology, we empower your digital team to be more agile and effective in their SEO strategy and preparation for the future of AI-driven search.

We’ve helped eCommerce brands such as Avid Technology and Keen Footwear become leaders in the online shopping industry by showcasing their unique value in search with structured data.

If you’re struggling to find a scalable solution to enhance your Product rich results and drive performance, Schema App is here to help. Get in touch with us today.

Frequently Asked Questions about Product Schema Markup

What is Product Structured Data?

Product Structured Data, also known as Product Schema Markup, is code you can add to the backend of your website so that search engines can provide additional information about your products in search through enhanced features like product rich results.

Schema Markup is a standardized vocabulary that uses the properties and types defined at Schema.org, a resource for SEOs created by Google, Microsoft, Yandex, and Yahoo back in 2011.

How do you Create Product Structured Data?

1. Add all of the required Product schema.org properties to your individual product pages. Google recommends using JSON-LD, as do we!
2. Validate your structured data markup using Google’s Rich Results Testing Tool.
3. Deploy your structured data markup, and use the Schema Markup Validator to analyze your schema.org syntax for any errors.
4. Request that Google recrawls your newly marked-up web page using Google Search Console.

How do you Fix Product Structured Data Errors?

Product structured data seems complex because of three common errors that appear for this type of structured data: “offers”, “reviews”, and “aggregate rating” showing up as ‘either “offers”, “review”, or “aggregateRating” should be specified’. To fix this error, you’ll need to use these three schemas in your Product markup. Product structured data requires including either “offers”, “reviews”, or “aggregateRating” in your Schema Markup.

Once one of these has been fulfilled, the remaining properties will become recommended rather than required. It is always best to markup all three properties as they can provide more information in the rich result. Learn more about how to tell if your Schema Markup is working in our guide.

The post Creating “Product” Schema Markup appeared first on Schema App Solutions.

However, we’ve seen the role of Schema Markup shift over this past year. This article explores the journey of Schema Markup and its changing role in SEO throughout 2023, emphasizing the growing importance of its semantic value over just rich results.

Early 2023 – Fluctuations in Rich Results

In 2022, the performance of rich results experienced fluctuations, and 2023 has been no different.

In April 2023, Google stopped showing Video rich results on the SERP for pages, favouring YouTube results, or pages where the video was the main element of the page. As such, many organizations can no longer rely on video-rich results to drive traffic to their site.

At the same time, Schema Performance Analytics saw the performance of FAQ rich results declining on mobile for unexplained reasons. However, John Mueller mentioned in an unofficial statement that “sites love adding FAQ markup; it gives them more room to search, and at some point, it makes the results less useful. The right balance makes sense to re-evaluate from time to time, like with any other search element.” This was perhaps Google’s test to see how the removal of FAQ rich results would impact the search experience.

To mitigate the risk from these rich result fluctuations, Schema App’s High Touch Support team made content recommendations that would allow our customers to diversify the types of rich results they were achieving. When it came to making changes with agility, the Schema App Highlighter was used to make quick edits, as it enables the creation of Schema Markup templates that can easily be updated when changes to content occur.

February & May 2023 – The Introduction of Generative AI Search Engines

In February 2023, Microsoft rolled out the new Bing, which included its AI chatbot, Bing Chat. Google followed suit, unveiling the experimental Search Generative Experience (SGE) at the Google I/O conference in May 2023, sparking significant changes in the dynamic of search.

SGE, though in its testing phase, disrupted search results by relegating organic search results, including rich results, lower on the SERP.

Furthermore, these generative AI search engines were prone to hallucinations and biases, resulting in inaccurate search results. This raised critical questions for organizations: How could they control the way generative AI search engines interpreted their content to ensure accurate information on SGE?

The evolving AI landscape generated both excitement and concern, with uncertainties about its impact on SEO. Amidst the ambiguity, the key question persisted on whether Schema Markup aided AI algorithms in comprehending website content.

Preparing for AI-Search

During his Pubcon keynote speech, Fabrice Canel, Principal Program Manager for Bing, shared that SEOs could prepare for this new AI-enabled search by creating great content and annotating it with Schema Markup. As such, many SEO professionals leaned towards implementing Schema Markup.

Recognizing it as the language that search engines used to understand site content, Schema Markup emerged as a concrete way for SEOs to stay relevant during the rapid AI evolution. This approach provided a sense of control over how search engines interpreted content and was adopted by many forward-looking organizations.

The semantic value of Schema Markup, which refers to the underlying meaning and context it adds to the content, became increasingly apparent to SEOs at this time. However, it did so in a somewhat hypothetical manner. Unlike rich results, the quantitative measurement of this semantic value of Schema Markup posed challenges.

At this time, Search Engines didn’t provide any analytics on how content was performing in SGE or Bing Chat. Consequently, SEO teams often relied on rich results as a tangible metric to gauge the effectiveness of their Schema Markup strategy.

August 2023 – FAQ & How-to Deprecation: A Turning Point

Despite the announcement of SGE, the performance of rich results seemed relatively stable on Google. However, between August and September 2023, a significant turning point unfolded as Google deprecated How-to rich results and dramatically reduced the frequency of FAQ rich results. The latter were then restricted to display exclusively on “well-known, authoritative government and health websites.”

Drop in clicks after deprecation of How-To rich results

The deprecation of FAQ, a previously widely utilized rich result, reignited concerns about the continued relevance of Schema Markup. While there are still over 30 rich results available, few had the flexibility like FAQ to use on diverse content.

In a year where marketing budgets were critiqued, and leaders required measurable ROI for initiatives to be approved, the absence of clicks and impressions from rich results made it challenging to quantify the value of Schema Markup. Many marketing teams asked: “Is there a point in implementing Schema Markup if rich results can’t be achieved?” The answer, unequivocally, is yes.

Prioritizing the Semantic Value of Schema Markup

Even without the immediate gratification of rich results, Schema Markup remains important for organizations looking to future-proof for search.

Generative AI search engines like SGE and Bing Chat revolutionized user search experiences. They presented multi-modal answers and provided follow-up questions to user queries.

However, the underlying search algorithms that power both the regular search engines and generative AI search engines have shifted from lexical to semantic. Instead of matching keywords, search engines assess the meaning and intent behind a query, providing searchers with results of the closest relevance.

Using Schema Markup to Define Your Entities

Schema Markup plays a crucial role in this understanding by allowing web publishers to define the entities on the site and showcase the relationships between entities in the form of a content knowledge graph.

In the past, when rich result eligibility was the main focus, many organizations would implement Schema Markup, but not in a manner that defined the relationship between the primary things (aka entities) on their pages. They simply added the minimum Schema Markup required to be eligible for the desired rich result rather than applying connected Schema Markup to improve search engine understanding.

In this new world of AI and Large Language models, Schema Markup for rich results alone is insufficient. By implementing proper connected Schema Markup and establishing connections between the entities on your site and on external authoritative knowledge bases, you are creating your organization’s content knowledge graph.

Building Your Content Knowledge Graph

Your content knowledge graph is a structured information data layer that can help search engines disambiguate the entities mentioned on your site. By providing this, you can shape how search engines understand your content, gaining greater control over how users perceive your brand. This ultimately provides users with more accurate and relevant search results.

The value of Schema Markup in ensuring your content is correctly understood is now significantly more strategic than just achieving rich results.

October, November, & December 2023 – Evidence From Google That Rich Results Hold Semantic Value

Don’t believe us? Google is also telling us that the value of Schema Markup is for understanding AND rich results. Search News released a new episode in early October 2023. During the episode, John Mueller talked about how some rich results would go away – in reference to the deprecation of How To rich results and reduction in FAQ rich results – and new rich results would be introduced. And boy did they hold true to their word.

Over the span of October, November, and December 2023, Google rolled out 6 new rich results:

• Oct 16: Added Vehicle Listing structured data documentation.
• Nov 15: Added Course Info structured data documentation.
• Nov 27: Added Profile page structured data documentation, Discussion forum structured data documentation, and expanded recommendations for Q&A Page structured data documentation.
• Nov 29: Added new Organization structured data documentation
• Dec 4: Added Vacation Rental structured data documentation

Structured Data Offering a Mutually Beneficial Relationship Between Google and SEOs

Google’s ongoing rich result opportunities highlight the symbiosis between search engines and SEOs. By offering rich results in exchange for detailed structured data, Google stimulates the supply of credible information, contributing to the development of the semantic web. It’s a win-win!

Google grants rich results as a reward for making it easy and less costly for search engines to comprehend the content on your website. By providing Schema Markup, you inform them about the content and how it relates to other topics on the web and on your website. By providing this information, the search engines don’t have to process the data to infer the meaning or relationships.

This helps search engines understand content without having to spend as many computing resources. This incentive provides content creators with the motivation needed to support the semantic initiatives crucial for the future of search.

Let’s look at two of the new rich results, Profile Page and Organization, and call out their characteristics that emphasize the value they bring to the semantic web.

Profile Page & Organization Structured Data Helps With Disambiguation

Among the newly introduced rich results, Profile Page and Organization stand out, playing a crucial role in disambiguating entities such as organizations, individuals, and authors within your content. These elements tie into E-E-A-T and empower you to assert greater control over structured data, articulating your identity and authority in connection to your content.

Organization structured data enables search engines to understand context, even when your website does not visually present certain information. For instance, properties recommended within the Organization structured data guidelines, such as identifier codes (i.e. duns, taxID, etc.), may not be visible to users but aid Google in disambiguating and identifying your organization within your content.

This background information adds a layer of context, facilitating search engines in relating your content to search queries and other web information through a knowledge graph.

Vehicle Listing and Vacation Rental Structured Data (Feed)

Last but not least, we’re seeing structured data become a data feed. The introduction of the new Vehicle Listing and Vacation Rental Structured Data supports this concept. You can achieve the Vehicle Listing rich result by adding structured data to your site or uploading a vehicle listing feed file to Google. Similarly, you can now achieve the Vacation Rental rich result by adding structured data, instead of the historical method of uploading an XML list feed to Google. Unlike list feeds, structured data is a cleaner way for data providers to transfer data to Google.

While the consecutive release of new rich results is exciting, it’s crucial to recognize that the purpose of structured data has expanded beyond merely attaining rich results, particularly in the past year. Google’s introduction of these rich results reflects a clear effort to improve the semantic nature of the search experience.

As SEOs, our focus should shift towards creating semantically understood content, empowered by Schema Markup.

The Value of Schema Markup Today: Prioritizing Semantic Understanding

Schema Markup remains valuable for search engines in 2023, emphasizing the critical need to prioritize the semantic aspect of structured data over just achieving rich results. While rich results come and go, semantic understanding is instrumental in laying the groundwork for contextual content that is poised to shape the future of search.

By connecting entities and developing a Knowledge Graph, organizations can ground Language Models (LLMs), support internal AI initiatives, and build authority by linking to authoritative databases. Schema Markup, originally created for search engine comprehension, continues to play a vital role in navigating the dynamic landscape of digital marketing.

In essence, Schema Markup not only provides quick wins through achieving rich results but also sets the stage for ongoing and agile content optimization as search evolves.

Interested in learning how you can apply Schema Markup to stay agile in search? Get started here.

The post The Evolving Role of Schema Markup: From Rich Results to AI Understanding appeared first on Schema App Solutions.

On December 4, 2023, Google released Vacation Rental structured data. If your website features vacation rentals, adding this new structured data markup to your site can enhance the visibility of your listings on the search engine results page (SERP).

History of Vacation Rentals in Search

Prior to this, Google’s SERP already featured an enhanced search function for vacation rentals. When you search for ‘vacation rentals in Vancouver’, for instance, you’ll find rental prices along with filtering options to adjust dates and occupancy.

The recent expansion in visual representation within search results marks a significant change. Previously, this feature wasn’t available through structured data, and even if you incorporated structured data on your site, appearing on the enhanced feature wasn’t guaranteed.

Now that Google supports vacation rental structured data, it provides greater control over the appearance of your vacation rental in search results. While Google historically utilized an existing XML feed method, which remains a viable choice for large partners and those managing multiple domains and brands, the use of structured data offers a simpler and more flexible approach.

What You Need To Know About Vacation Rental Structured Data

Vacation rental structured data is structured data you can add to your vacation rental listing pages to achieve a rich result on Google. The vacation rental rich results will provide users with information about the listing, such as the name, description, reviews, location, images, and more in the search results.

What are the Required and Recommended Properties?

To be eligible for the rich result, you must include all the required properties.

However, we recommend including as many of the recommended properties as possible. These details are not just about what appears on the rich result visually; detailed listings contribute to effective filtering for users’ specific needs.

By including properties like addressLocality and numberOfBeds, your listing becomes more relevant to targeted queries. For instance, someone searching for “vacation rentals in downtown toronto” can be shown listings that have specified the locality of downtown Toronto in their structured data.

Be sure to refer to Google’s Structured Data Documentation as a guideline for recommended and required properties for Vacation Rental structured data.

Certain required and recommended properties will also call for users to nest other Types of markup in the property. For example, one of the required properties to be eligible for this rich result is ‘containsPlace’, and Google expects you to nest the Accommodation Type under that property. This means that you need to create markup for the Accommodation Type, before linking it to the containsPlace property.

Nesting your markup and connecting entities using your Schema Markup can be challenging especially if you are new to implementing structured data. If you’re looking to implement proper vacation rental structured data on your site, our Schema App team can help.

Eligibility Criteria

It’s important to note that eligibility criteria apply, and this rich result is exclusively reserved for vacation rentals, not hotels.

Additionally, you can only list vacation rentals on Google if you are:

• A registered property management business with a direct booking website
• Already listed on a booking site that’s integrated with vacation rentals on Google

Shared rooms, partial houses, and peer-to-peer rentals aren’t currently eligible for integration.

So what does Google consider a “vacation rental property”? In order to be eligible, your property must:

• Provide a furnished space that is private to the guest/renter
• Accept short-term, overnight reservations
• Be managed and cleaned between stays

Expanding on these criteria, there are three different groups that can deliver vacation rental listings:

• Connectivity partner: Ex. Hostaway – a tool that manages vacation rentals across multiple channels
• Property managers: Ex. You run your own B&B
• Online travel agencies and metasearch providers: Ex. Aggregator sites like Expedia

This feature is limited to websites that meet certain criteria, and additional steps are required in order to integrate. Once you’ve completed the Vacation Rental Partner integration, you simply need to mark up your site with the appropriate structured data, allowing Google to crawl it to generate the listing feed. To delve into the specifics and ensure compliance, review Google’s Starter Guide Overview.

What Does a Vacation Rental Rich Result Look Like?

Visually, this rich result has not changed dramatically from the pre-existing search enhancements that closely resembled this new rich result. What has changed is how you can achieve this enhanced result through structured data.

The Impact of Achieving a Vacation Rental Rich Result

Achieving this rich result comes with many implications, some more beneficial than others.

On the positive side, it contributes to a zero-click search experience, aligning with Google’s user-centric focus. However, the flip side is the potential for intensified price comparison, which can be both advantageous and detrimental. While it facilitates user comparison and enhances visibility, it may pose a challenge by demanding more competitive pricing.

In addition to this, the rise of zero-click searches will impact aggregator sites, as users find answers directly on the SERP, potentially rendering aggregator sites obsolete.

In a highly competitive space like vacation rentals, this rich result becomes a game-changer. Without it, smaller businesses might struggle to rank on the SERP, particularly when contending with larger sites boasting higher domain authority and substantial investments in SEO and advertising.

Given the existing trend of price comparison across various platforms, this rich result simply expedites the inevitable research and decision-making process for users.

To stay competitive in the search landscape, it is imperative to implement this markup, ensuring your vacation rental business remains visible and relevant to user needs.

Implement Vacation Rental Structured Data On Your Site

With the many changes happening in search and with rich results coming and going at an unprecedented rate, maintaining an agile structured data solution is crucial.

The Schema App Highlighter ensures the dynamic and continuous updating of your structured data to align with any content or pricing changes made to your site. This agility is key to staying competitive, as outdated Schema Markup can jeopardize your eligibility for the targeted rich result.

For efficiency and adaptability, we recommend leveraging the Schema App Highlighter to seamlessly synchronize your markup with evolving website content and structured data requirements. Interested in learning more about the Schema App solution? Click here to get started.

The post New Vacation Rental Rich Results on Google appeared first on Schema App Solutions.

On November 29, 2023, Google announced they expanded their markup support for organization details. This means they’re using more properties from Schema.org’s Organization type to showcase the relevant information on Google’s knowledge panels and other visual elements such as Attribution.

This announcement comes two days after they introduced Profile Page and Discussion Forum rich results. Let’s dive in.

What You Need To Know About Organization Structured Data

Organization Structured Data is used to describe an organization (like a corporation, NGO, or school). It is often added to a website’s home page or about page since these pages tend to contain important information about an organization.

Previously, Google only supported Logo rich results for the Organization type. This required web publishers to use the logo and url properties to feature an organization’s logo in search results.

However, this update expands the number of properties that Google will support for the Organization type. In addition to logo and url, Google recommends web publishers use properties such as:

• name
• description
• legalName
• sameAs
• address
• duns
• taxID
• And more.

As part of this update, Google has also merged the documentation for Logo structured data with the Organization structured data feature guide. You can test your Organization structured data using Google’s Rich Results Test to determine if your markup is valid for the associated rich result.

Do you need to add all the recommended properties for Organization structured data? Probably not.

Most of the recommended properties are pretty straightforward. However, certain recommended properties, in particular, the identifier properties – iso6523Code, duns, leiCode, naics, globalLocationNumber, vatID, and taxID – may not be present on your website since they aren’t usually relevant to website visitors.

It is a general structured data best practice to only add Schema Markup for content that exists on the page itself. However, identifiers, like the ones listed above aren’t typically something that users visiting your site would be looking for.

Conversely, Google can use this information to consolidate the various identifiers as a single Organization entity in their Knowledge Graph. In cases like this, the content of these properties does not have to be visible to users on your website for you to add them in your markup.

Google is more strict about the visibility of content for rich results like Products and Review Snippets, which are more prone to fraudulent representation that can undermine consumer trust. However, metadata like identifiers is more critical for Google’s semantic understanding of entities than for the visual representation in the SERPs.

What you get from implementing Organization structured data

Adding Organization markup to your site will make it eligible to be shown on knowledge panels like the new merchant knowledge panel or other visual elements like Attribution. That way, users can easily find accurate information about your organization on Google.

Historically, the knowledge panels that appear on the right side of the SERP feed off data from Google’s knowledge graph and other sources like Wikipedia and authoritative websites. But with this update, Google can now tap into your structured data to provide users with even more accurate information about your organization.

The information in your Organization markup is arguably more accurate than an external source like Wikipedia because your organization owns the website and controls the information that appears there. Your structured data should be a trustworthy source, provided it is descriptive and up-to-date.

Structured Data to Reflect More E-E-A-T

These recent rich result updates underline Google’s ongoing prioritization of high-quality content from authoritative and trustworthy sources. Particularly at a time when AI-generated content is becoming more widespread, evidence of trustworthiness and reputation for the Organizations and People authoring and publishing content is paramount.

The Discussion Forum documentation states that markup for this type is used in features like Discussions and Forums and Perspectives, the latter of which surfaces “hidden gems” of unique expertise on a topic from those hard-to-find places.

Both the Profile Page and Discussion Forum structured data documentation include recommended properties for InteractionCounter to indicate things like the number of other accounts being followed, the number of likes of other entities’ posts, and the number of posts for a Person or Organization. These are properties that humans often reference when gauging the authority or trustworthiness of a source, so it would make sense that Google would want simplified access to this information in the form of structured data as well.

Google’s documentation for Article structured data now also recommends marking up author pages with profile page structured data.

This indicates two things:

1. Google wants more information about authors connected to the articles they write
2. Google is consuming structured data from multiple URLs about those authors

In essence, high-quality content from trusted sources is much more effective for keeping users happy with the search results they receive, but it’s also effective for training AI. Whether Google is focusing on advancing in the AI field, or trying to get a handle on the wild west of AI content proliferating on the web, it’s logical for them to encourage the application of structured data for types and properties that contribute to this effort.

Conclusion

In the October Google Search News Update, John Mueller recommended that SEOs “use a CMS hosting platform or plugin that makes it easy for you to add and remove structured data” to save time and make quick changes.

All these updates further demonstrate how important it is to have an agile structured data solution to stay ahead of your competitors. Furthermore, it is equally crucial to implement your structured data correctly and keep it up-to-date with Google’s changing requirements. This significantly impacts how Google understands your organization as an entity and how the information about your organization shows up in the SERP.

With the right expertise and agility to implement structured data on your site, you can leverage these new structured data opportunities to control how your brand is represented on the SERP and improve the search engine’s understanding of your content for more relevant search results.

Need help implementing an agile and scalable structured data solution across your site? Contact us today to learn more about our end-to-end Schema Markup solution.

The post Google Expands Markup Support for Organization Information appeared first on Schema App Solutions.

On November 27, 2023, Google released the new Profile Page structured data and Discussion Forum structured data. This comes after they announced the new Course Info structured data on November 15 and Vehicle Listing structured data on October 16. This holds to what John Mueller mentioned in the October 2023 Google Search News Update that some rich results would go away, and new ones would be introduced. Never before have four new rich results been announced in such a short time period.

Despite deprecating How-To structured data and reducing the frequency of FAQ rich results being shown, these 4 new rich results reflect a new investment in structured data from Google. And the reason for their investment in structured data is simple.

Structured data, also known as Schema Markup, helps search engines and machines (AI) understand and contextualize the content on your site to provide users with more relevant search results. As Google and Bing invest in generative AI search experiences driven by Large Language Models (LLMs), the Schema Markup on your site helps them reduce errors and delight their customers. Read more about the evolving role of Schema Markup and Knowledge Graphs.

Let’s dive deeper into these two new rich results to see how you can maximize them to stand out in search.

Profile page (ProfilePage) structured data

ProfilePage structured data is great for websites that have creators (person or organization) who share first-hand perspectives. It can be used to describe author profile pages on a news site, employee pages on a company website, and user profile pages on a forum or social media site. Google can use this information in features such as Perspectives and Discussions and Forums.

It can also be nested in other structured data features that have authors such as Article, Recipe, Discussion Forum and Q&A page.

By adding ProfilePage markup and the required/recommended properties to your page, Google can highlight the creator’s information, such as their name, follower count, content popularity, social media handles, and more, on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

But more importantly, Google can leverage this markup to disambiguate the creator. Even though search engines like Google use natural language processing models like BERT to gain a better understanding of your content, these models are still prone to errors.

When you use structured data to identify the creator as an entity and connect them to the articles or posts they’ve written, you are building your knowledge graph. Your knowledge graph showcases the relationships between the things on your site and helps search engines understand and contextualize who wrote your content with greater accuracy.

When search engines have an in-depth understanding of the person or organization that wrote the content on your site, it can also boost your E-E-A-T. Information such as follower count and the number of posts written are signals of experience, expertise, authority and trust.

On top of yielding rich results for your organization, adding ProfilePage markup to your site can also help improve the semantic understanding of your site.

The enhancement report and performance report for ProfilePage structured data is now available in Google Search Console.

Discussion forum (DiscussionForumPosting) structured data

Discussion forum structured data can be used to describe user-generated content on forum-style websites such as gaming forums. However, it shouldn’t be used for content primarily authored by the website publisher or their agents (i.e. article or blog posts with comments, product reviews provided by the users).

Forum sites that add this Schema Markup can help Google better identify the online discussions happening across the web and highlight them on features such as Perspectives and Discussions and Forums.

Discussion Forum Schema Markup is very similar to the existing Q&A Schema Markup. However, Discussion Forum markup should be used on pages where the responses to the thread are comments. For example, the threads on the subreddit ‘r/mildlyinteresting’ would be appropriate for Discussion Forum markup because the user is making a statement and expecting other users to comment on the thread.

Conversely, you should only use Q&A markup when the page has questions and answers. For example, the threads on Quora would be appropriate for QAPage markup because the user is posing a question on the page and expecting answers to be provided in the comments.

Unlike other structured data features, Google recommends web publishers provide the DiscussionForumPosting markup in Microdata or RDFa, instead of JSON-LD. This prevents publishers from having to duplicate large blocks of text within the markup. However, using JSON-LD will not impact your eligibility for this rich result.

The enhancement report and performance report for Discussion forum markup is also available on Google Search Console.

Read Google’s document for more information on how to use DiscussionForumPosting markup.

Conclusion

Based on the rich result changes we’ve seen this year, one thing’s for sure. Google can add new rich results as fast as they can take them away from us.

To thrive in this ever-changing environment, organizations need to be agile and ready to implement new or update their existing semantic Schema Markup markup to stay relevant and leading in search.

If you want to increase your visibility and relevance on search, we can help! Contact us to learn more about our scalable semantic Schema Markup solution.

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Available only to verified car dealerships in the US or US territories, the new Vehicle Listing rich result allows car dealerships to display the vehicle inventory they have for sale on various Google surfaces such as Google Search and the dealership’s Google Business Profiles. People can also search, filter and easily access information about the vehicle’s availability, pricing, mileage and other key information.

The Vehicle Listing rich result is a great way for car dealerships to stand out in search and shorten the buyer journey. Pages with rich results typically see a higher click-through rate on the site.

In this article, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of implementing the new Vehicle Listing rich result through structured data compared to using a file feed and share how this announcement is an exciting followup to the overall Search update on structured data earlier this month.

How to achieve the Vehicle Listing rich result

Unlike most rich results that solely rely on structured data, the Vehicle Listing rich result can be achieved through two methods.

1. Adding Car structured data to your Vehicle Listing page.

As with any rich result on Google, you must markup your vehicle listing page with the required structured data properties and are encouraged to also markup the recommended structured data properties listed on the structured data feature guide.

It is, however, important to note that you can only markup content that is visible on your vehicle listing page.

For example, if you do not have any pricing information on your vehicle listing page, you cannot add the offers.price property to your markup. Doing so will make your listing page ineligible for the rich result.

2. Uploading a vehicle listings file feed to Google’s vehicle listings partner portal. 

You can upload your vehicle listing feed file to Google’s vehicle listings partner portal in CSV format to achieve a rich result.

Your feed file should contain the list of vehicles you want to show on Google as well as the required attributes about each vehicle listed in the Feed specification.

Some of the attributes in the Feed specification are optional. However, providing Google with more information will help improve their understanding of your listings to better match the searcher’s query.

Pros and Cons of Both Methods

If implemented properly, both methods should make your vehicle listing pages eligible for the Vehicle Listing rich result. However, there are pros and cons to each method.

Pros and Cons of adding Car structured data to the vehicle listing page

Pro: Easy to implement and maintain structured data markup on your website. 

Similar to the file feed, structured data is a data feed about the content on your website.

If you use a tool like the Schema App Highlighter, you can implement structured data to your vehicle listings page at scale. Your structured data will also automatically update whenever the content on your page changes. This is important because you’ll want to avoid schema drift and make sure the rich result is always showing the latest information like availability and pricing.

Con: It could take longer for Google to detect changes on your website. 

Unlike the uploaded feed file method, you’ll have to wait for Google to re-index your page before it can register any updates to your structured data. At Schema App, we advise our customers to re-index their pages right after making any structured data updates to their pages so that Google can detect the changes quickly.

Con: No 1:1 support from Google. 

Similar to other rich results, Google will have an enhancement report on Search Console for the Vehicle Listing rich result. The enhancement report will show any errors or invalid items for your vehicle listing rich results. But you’ll need to figure out what is causing these errors and rectify them yourself.

If you are using Schema App’s end-to-end Schema Markup solution, you’ll receive support from our customer success team whenever any structured data errors appear. Even if you don’t get the 1:1 support from Google, you can still get support from our team.

Pros and Cons of Uploading a vehicle listings file feed to Google’s vehicle listings partner portal

Pro: All inventory data in feed files is recognized by Google. 

However, you need to ensure your vehicle data conforms to the feed specification and Google’s policies and restrictions.

Pro: 1:1 support is available to address any issues with feed uploads at the vehicle listings partner portal.

This means that Google will provide your team with support through the vehicle listings partner portal. After you’ve submitted your vehicle listing file feed, you can also look at the Diagnostics page to see the full list of issues.

Pro: Feeds support more detailed properties for vehicle inventory. 

The file feed method will allow dealerships to include more information than the structured data method and some of the additional information can also be shown in the rich results on Google.

For example, information about the vehicle’s installed options and packages, fuel efficiency, legal disclaimer and vehicle history report link are additional information you can add through your file feed to further enhance your Vehicle Listing rich result.

Information about the vehicle’s EV range, CO2 emissions, fulfillment options, and link to the Monroney sticker are additional information you can add through your file feed to provide more context to Google about your product. This information will not be shown on Google.

Con: Maintaining the feed files can be challenging and time-consuming.

Google recommends dealerships upload the latest versions of their feed files every four hours to preserve the data freshness and to detect outages faster. If done manually, this process can be incredibly tedious and time-consuming. It is also yet another data platform that you’ll need to maintain, on top of having to maintain the information on your website.

That said, you can use both methods at the same time to provide Google with as much information about your vehicle listing pages. However, you’ll need to ensure the data is consistent across both the structured data on your site and the vehicle listings file feed. Otherwise, the information on the file feed would override the information on the structured data, even if the information on your structured data is accurate.

Adding structured data to your vehicle listing page is probably the easiest way for your car dealership to be eligible for these rich results, especially if you’re already adding structured data to your pages.

Structured data is not obsolete

Earlier this month, John Mueller, Search Advocate at Google, mentioned in a Google Search News update that they will continue to introduce new Types and some Types may go away over time.

This year, Google stopped using structured data for How-To rich results and changed the eligibility for the FAQ rich results to only be shown for well-known authoritative government and health sites. Many SEOs started to ask if there was value beyond rich results.

The answer is YES! Structured data provides you with the ability to help generative AI search engines understand and contextualize the content on your page and develop your knowledge graph.

The Vehicle Listing rich result is the first new rich result they’ve introduced awhile, albeit it is restricted only to US dealerships for now. This tells us that structured data isn’t obsolete and Google is still giving content publishers control over the information provided to their search engines.

As Mueller reiterated in his update, structured data (also known as Schema Markup) is a machine-readable code that you can add to your web pages which search engines can use to better understand the content.

Therefore, you should implement structured data primarily to help search engines clearly understand the content on your site and consider rich results an added value. That way, search engines can provide users accurate answers to queries like ‘How much does an Audi A6 cost’ and ‘white Toyota Camry for sale’ to drive more qualified traffic to your site.

Finally, Mueller concluded the section on structured data by recommending SEOs to use a solution that allows you to easily implement and manage the structured data on your site to save you time. This is exceptionally important for dealerships who want to maintain the accuracy of their structured data at all times. The last thing you’d want is for a potential customer to enquire about their dream car on your vehicle listing only to find out that the car is no longer available.

If you are a US-based car dealership looking to implement structured data on your site, we can help!

At Schema App, we help organizations leverage Schema Markup to inform search engines, achieve rich results and develop a reusable marketing knowledge graph. We implement and manage your Schema Markup programmatically through our semantic technology platform and high-touch support.

Get in touch with us today to learn more!

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However, it’s important to recognize that while rich results are a nice benefit of Schema Markup, they don’t fully capture its true value.

The real value of Schema Markup lies in its capacity to provide search engines with a deeper, more semantic understanding of your website’s content. When implemented correctly, Schema Markup allows you to develop your content knowledge graph and take better control of how your content appears in search.

This article will explore how Schema Markup enhances website visibility and search engine understanding of your content through robust knowledge graphs. This, in turn, refines how your content appears for relevant queries with greater accuracy and helpfulness to the user.

Why Rich Results Are Not Enough

Measuring the return on investment from your SEO efforts can be tough. Hence, many SEOs like implementing Schema Markup because they can easily measure the ROI on their Schema Markup efforts through the performance of rich results.

However, implementing Schema Markup solely for the purpose of achieving rich results can be risky due to their ever-changing criteria and eligibility.

Rich Result Volatility

Over the past few years, we’ve seen the performance of rich results fluctuate based on Google’s algorithm changes. This year, Google has also made substantial changes to the rich results available on the SERP and the criteria for achieving certain rich results.

They’ve ceased awarding video rich results to pages that lack video as their primary content and deprecated How-to rich results entirely from the SERP. Similarly, FAQ rich results have been curtailed for most websites, now reserved only for authoritative government and health websites.

These volatile fluctuations and changes can be unsettling for businesses and SEOs who have come to rely heavily on rich results to drive traffic and engagement.

The True Purpose of Schema Markup

While rich results offer visual enhancements and additional SERP information, they play a secondary role to Schema Markup’s core objective.

The main purpose of Schema Markup is to enable search engines to clearly understand and contextualize the content on a page. That way, search engines can better match the content on a page to the searcher’s query, and provide more accurate search results.

Think of Schema Markup as a tool to assist search engines in content comprehension, with rich results being a bonus feature for publishers using specific markups.

By structuring your content with Schema Markup, you’re not just chasing rich results; you’re preparing your content for the future of AI-driven search.

What Else Can You Do With Schema Markup?

By now it’s been made clear that Schema Markup has much greater potential than most have given it credit for. Let’s dive into some of the powerful ways Schema Markup can drive results for your organization and keep you competitive in search as it continues to evolve.

Integrate Your Schema Markup

Once implemented, you can also seamlessly integrate your Schema Markup with other external data sources. This flexibility enables you to provide richer, more comprehensive data experiences in the applications and platforms your business chooses to integrate with.

In addition to integrating it with external data sources, you can also integrate your Schema Markup with internal tools, platforms, or systems. This allows for a more cohesive data management strategy within your organization.

Your Schema Markup can be integrated using APIs or Linked Open Data. For example, an e-commerce website might integrate Schema Markup with their inventory management system via APIs. This would allow the product details (like price, availability, and ratings) to be dynamically updated in real-time based on the Schema Markup.

Another example is integrating through Linked Open Data. A cultural institution, like a museum, might use Schema Markup to describe their exhibits and then integrate this information with global datasets like Wikidata. This would help in providing richer context about the exhibits and potentially drive more visitors.

Reuse Your Schema Markup

Your Schema Markup can be reused in various scenarios. One prime example is with our WordPress plugin feature. By appending ?format=application/ld+json to URLs, you can retrieve the schema for a particular page. This facilitates:

• Mobile Apps: Developers could pull this Schema Markup to display rich content snippets in a mobile app about the company’s services or products.
• Chatbots: Businesses could leverage the schema to answer user queries more accurately, providing detailed information pulled directly from the website.
• Partner Websites: If a business has partnerships with other websites or platforms, they can share the Schema Markup, ensuring consistent and updated information across platforms.

Build Your Knowledge Graph

A knowledge graph is a collection of relationships between the entities defined using a standardized vocabulary, from which new knowledge can be gained through inferencing.

For additional clarity, an entity is a thing that has specific attributes. For example, your postal address is a thing that can be described by the country, region, postal code and street address.

When you implement Schema Markup on your site, you are essentially using the Schema.org Types and properties to describe the entities on your site. Each entity is then identifiable through a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) to ensure that it can be referenced to other items in your graph.

You can develop a knowledge graph by using the Schema.org vocabulary to connect the entities on your site to other entities on your site and other external authoritative knowledge bases like Wikidata or Wikipedia. By doing so, you are establishing your entity and defining how it connects to other things that exist in the world.

Download our guide to learn how to connect the entities on your site using Schema Markup.

What Makes Knowledge Graphs So Valuable?

At Schema App, we leverage Schema Markup to enable you to present your data in the form of a semantic knowledge graph, but the real magic lies in how you choose to use this connected data.

Your knowledge graph is a versatile resource that opens up a world of possibilities tailored to your specific business objectives.

For instance, you can harness the power of SPARQL Queries to extract precise data and information from your knowledge graph. This capability enables tasks such as generating insightful reports, counting the number of pages related to a particular topic, or tracking external entities linked to your Schema Markup.

These reports not only offer valuable insights but also serve as a foundation for identifying content gaps within your domain. By analyzing your existing content against your knowledge graph, you can determine which topics are well-covered and which areas require further exploration.

This strategy helps you build your authority by pinpointing opportunities for content expansion.

Enhance User Experience with Better Content-Query Alignment

When left to their own devices, search engines rely on natural language processing to parse the information on a site, which can lead to inaccuracies. When the information on your site is organized in a structured knowledge graph using the schema.org vocabulary, it makes it easier for search engines to understand and contextualize your site content.

This leads to more precise matches between your content and search queries, ultimately improving user experience and the quality of traffic you are getting to your site.

Our Customer Success team has even experimented with linking entities on a page to external authoritative knowledge bases like Wikidata and Google’s knowledge graph. This approach has yielded positive results, increasing click-through rates for queries related to those entities.

While it might not necessarily boost the visibility of your pages like a rich result, it does ensure that the clicks are from users who are genuinely interested in your content.

Integrate Your Knowledge Graph

Your knowledge graph can also seamlessly integrate into your workflow, serving as a backbone for various tools and applications.

At Schema App, for instance, our Editor tool relies on the knowledge graph to provide a comprehensive experience. All of the information in that interface is part of our knowledge graph. Any changes made to data items in our tool directly impact and update the knowledge graph.

Additionally, you can leverage your content knowledge graph to build custom web applications. This is accomplished by providing data for new apps and enabling developers to create user interfaces that utilize the wealth of information within your knowledge graph.

Ground and Train Your Internal LLMs

In the realm of AI search engines, one significant challenge is the potential for incorrect inferences leading to hallucinations. Hallucinations occur when Large Language Models (LLMs) making up false information that is not based on real data.

You have the power to mitigate this major risk by using your knowledge graph as a control point to define your content more precisely to AI search engines. 

Although major search engines have yet to officially confirm this, there’s potential to train AI search engines to provide more accurate results by grounding their understanding with your knowledge graph.

Another interesting use case for knowledge graphs is that you can reuse them to train your own internal LLMs. An example of this is the use of AI chatbots on your site to address common customer queries. 

Grounding your LLMs with a knowledge graph enhances the performance of customer queries. It also ensures the accuracy of the information provided, since the LLM is restricted to the statements (RDF triples) expressed in your knowledge graph. 

You can clearly define entities in your content knowledge graph to ground it with factual and accurate information about your organization.

Leveraging the True Power of Schema Markup

As search engines become more sophisticated and semantic, they attempt to grasp the nuances of human language, meaning and intention.

Schema Markup serves as a bridge between your content and these semantic search engines.  It enables your content to be interpreted more accurately, leading to improved relevance in search results.

While rich results undoubtedly hold distinctive value and can elevate your content’s visibility, they should be seen as a bonus rather than the sole objective of Schema Markup.

Schema Markup’s true value lies in its ability to help search engines understand your content’s context and intent. When you implement Schema Markup with machine comprehension in mind, you not only enhance your chances of securing rich results but also ensure your content remains resilient and relevant in an ever-changing search landscape.

Looking to develop your very own marketing knowledge graph through the power of Schema Markup?

Get started today to learn about our solution.

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