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.

But what about pages with many different types of content without a main focus? The answer is CollectionPage.

Schema.org defines this type as “Web page type: Collection page.” This definition, being quite vague, means its use cases are pretty flexible. Here at Schema App, we use the CollectionPage type when a single web page has a collection of things without an implied hierarchy. 

What does that mean?

When developing a strategy for your schema markup, understanding the intent of a web page and its place in the site architecture is essential. If a page is mostly intended as an article that contains a small FAQ section, there’s an implied hierarchy that the article is the most important piece of content. So, this would be marked up as an Article containing an FAQPage.

If the page is more of a landing page with equally important content and links intended to bring users to other parts of the site, there’s a good chance it’s a CollectionPage. 

CollectionPage Properties

While a CollectionPage isn’t eligible for rich results, it can contain other data items that are.

For example, it may contain an Article and a FAQPage while also mentioning a Product, all of which are eligible for rich results. Since the CollectionPage isn’t a Google Feature, it has no required or recommended properties. That being said, there are a number of properties available to this type that we recommend using to define your CollectionPage and how it relates to other data items.

Your list could vary depending on what features you want to call out and what information is displayed on the page. Here are some of the schema.org properties that we recommend marking up on your CollectionPage:

• about: What the page is about. This property can connect to any type of Thing, be it a Service, an Organization, or the URL of a Wikipedia page that defines a particular topic.
• hasPart: A strong connector for linking to a CreativeWork that is a part of the collection page. Some subclasses of CreativeWork that are commonly used are Article and FAQPage. 
• mentions: A weaker connector that can link to any type of Thing. This is a good property to use when connecting to something that isn’t a CreativeWork, such as a Product, Organization or Service.
• author/publisher/creator: The author, publisher, or creator of the collection page. These properties are a good way to connect to an Organization and its associated brand information.
• significantLink: One of the more significant URLs on the page. Typically, these are the non-navigation links that are clicked on the most.

Structured data markup has benefits beyond rich results. By defining your data items using @ids (aka URIs), you are defining these objects as distinct entities with their own properties and relationships to other entities. Once defined, these entities can be linked to a search engine’s knowledge graph, helping Google to match your page with more relevant search queries.

How to create CollectionPage Schema Markup

Learn how to create comprehensive and robust CollectionPage schema markup with the following tutorial using the Schema App Editor.

Step One: Create a CollectionPage Data Item

• Every schema class has a list of properties that can be used to define its features further.
• Schema App gives you access to all the Schema.org/CollectionPage properties.
• You can use our recommended list above as a starting point to call out the information listed on your web page.
• When you login to Schema App, go to your Schema App Editor, search for “Collection Page”, and click “Create”.

Step Two: Provide a name and URL for this data item

• You will be asked to provide a name for this data item and the URL.
• This is the URL where your schema markup will be deployed.
• Schema App will load all of the properties available for CollectionPage, according to Schema.org.

Step Three: Populate all required and any applicable recommended properties

• As mentioned, you’ll notice that this type doesn’t have any required properties since requirements are only applied to data items eligible for Google’s Rich Results.
• We recommend filling in the properties listed above, linking to existing data items, or creating new ones as required.
• Click “Done”. Your JSON-LD will be created.

We put together a video tutorial to walk you through your review schema markup. We hope you find it helpful!

For more information on creating CollectionPage schema markup, including examples of JSON-LD code to help you get started, see our Knowledge Base support article here.

Testing Your CollectionPage Schema Markup

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. Learn more about the SMV here.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions about CollectionPage Schema Markup

What is CollectionPage schema?

Schema.org defines this type as: “Web page type: Collection page.” This definition, being quite vague, means its use cases are pretty flexible. At Schema App, we use the CollectionPage type when a single web page has a collection of things without an implied hierarchy.

What is the correct way to use the CollectionPage type?

If the page is more of a landing page with equally important content and links intended to bring users to other parts of the site, there’s a good chance it’s a CollectionPage. 

Is a CollectionPage eligible for rich results?

While a CollectionPage isn’t eligible for rich results, it can contain other data items that are. For example, it may contain an Article and an FAQPage while also mentioning a Product, all of which are eligible for rich results.

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

These strategies are: 1. Simplified and Aggregate Product Offers 2. Each Variant as an Individual Offer and 3. Each Variant as a Product Model.

What is a Product Variant?

Generally, variants are identified as having their own Store Keeping Units (SKUs) which are unique to the Product group and used for eCommerce and Supply Chain information systems. Below is what WooCommerce and Shopify, two popular eCommerce platforms, say about Product Variants.

WooCommerce Variable Products are a product type that lets you offer a set of variations on a particular product such as price, stock, size and more. For example, they may be used on a shirt that’s offered in large, medium and small sizes and in different colours.

Shopify Product Variants are used on products that come with more than one option, such as color or size. Each combination of options is a variant of that product. For example, you might sell a t-shirt with two options, such as size and color. The size option might have three option values: small, medium, or large. The color option might have two option values: blue or green. A variant of these options could be a small, blue t-shirt.

1. Simplified and Aggregate Product Offers

For situations where you don’t have all the data readily available, or want to start off with something basic, you can simplify the product models. With this approach, your Product markup would only use the properties that are shared across all variants such as, name, image, and description. The Product type would then use the offers property to connect to either an Offer, if no variation in pricing was present, or an AggregateOffer if pricing changed among the product variants.

For example, if you’re selling shoes, there may be variations in sizing and colour, but all of them are the same price. You could create markup for a single Product, excluding all sizing and colour information, and connect it to an Offer data item with the price shared across all product models. This is what the markup would look like:

{
  "@context": "http://schema.org/",
  "@type": "Product",
  "name": "Clarks Falalala Shoes for Men",
  "image": "https://example.net/shoes/clarks-falalala.jpeg",
  "description": "A great comfortable walking shoe, carried in sizes 9-11, but you wouldn’t really know that unless you applied fancy NLP to this string",
  "offers": {
    "@type": "Offer",
    "price": 45.99,
    "priceCurrency": "EUR",
    "availability": "InStock"
  }
}

If you were selling something that varied in price—for instance, Soap that comes in 250ml, 500ml and 1000ml bottles—then you could call out the lowest price and highest price using AggregateOffer:

{
  "@context": "http://schema.org/",
  "@type": "Product",
  "name": "Super Suds",
  "image": "https://example.net/soap/super-suds.jpeg",
  "offers": {
    "@type": "AggregateOffer",
    "lowPrice": 5.99,
    "highPrice": 17.99,
    "priceCurrency": "EUR",
    "availability": "InStock"
  }
}

2. Each Variant as an Individual Offer

This first option doesn’t tell the machine-channel anything about the variation of products you carry, nor does it provide the granularity of stock information by individual SKU. The next level of detail would be to include each variant’s price and availability as a separate Offer. Each Offer should have (as recommended by Google) a sku to differentiate it from other variants, along with its price and availability. Using the same example as before, we might generate:

{
  "@context": "http://schema.org/",
  "@type": "Product",
  "name": "Clarks Falalala Shoes for Men",
  "image": "https://example.net/shoes/clarks-falalala.jpeg",
  "description": "A great comfortable walking shoe, carried in sizes 9-11, but now size 11 isn’t in stock",
  "offers": [ {
    "@type": "Offer",
    "sku": "QWERTYSHOE-9",
    "price": 45.99,
    "priceCurrency": "EUR",
    "availability": "InStock"
  },{
    "@type": "Offer",
    "sku": "QWERTYSHOE-10",
    "price": 45.99,
    "priceCurrency": "EUR",
    "availability": "InStock"
  },{
    "@type": "Offer",
    "sku": "QWERTYSHOE-11",
    "price": 45.99,
    "priceCurrency": "EUR",
    "availability": "OutOfStock"
  } ]
}

The Soap Suds example shows varying Offer properties sku, name, price, priceCurrency (in ISO 4217 currency format) and availability;

{
  "@context": "http://schema.org/",
  "@type": "Product",
  "name": "Super Suds",
  "image": "https://example.net/soap/super-suds.jpeg",
  "offers": [{
    "@type": "Offer",
    "sku": "egsoapsuds-250",
    "name": "Soap Suds 250 ml",
    "price": 5.99,
    "priceCurrency": "EUR",
    "availability": "InStock"
  },{
    "@type": "Offer",
    "sku": "egsoapsuds-500",
    "name": "Soap Suds 500 ml",
    "price": 10.99,
    "priceCurrency": "EUR",
    "availability": "OutOfStock"
  },{
    "@type": "Offer",
    "sku": "egsoapsuds-1000",
    "name": "Soap Suds 1000 ml",
    "price": 17.99,
    "priceCurrency": "EUR",
    "availability": "InStock"
  }]
}

3. Each Variant as a Product Model

If your products have significant variations among their critical properties, you may want to use the Product Model approach. Essentially, you define a schema.org/Product as the base product, adding properties that are common across all variations. Then, to express properties that are variable, use the ProductModel type. For example, the iPhone 11 is a Product with certain consistent characteristics, but there are different options for GB of memory, colour, and pricing. Each combination of these properties would be a different instance of ProductModel:

{
  "@context": "http://schema.org/",
  "@type": "Product",
  "name": "iPhone 11",
  "description": "A great device, loads of memory, 1 million different apps preloaded, outstanding camera, and even makes phone calls!",
  "image": "https://example.net/phones/apple-iphone11-jpeg",
  "offers": {
    "@type": "AggregateOffer",
    "lowPrice": 599.00,
    "highPrice": 899.00,
    "priceCurrency": "USD",
    "availability": "InStock"
  },
  "additionalProperty": {
    "@type": "PropertyValue",
    "name": "Memory",
    "unitCode": "E34", 
    "unitText": "GB",
    "value": "64"
  },
  "model": [ {
    "@type": "ProductModel",
    "name": "iPhone 11 with 64GB",
    "color": "White",
    "offers": {
      "@type": "Offer",
      "price": 599.00,
      "name": "White iPhone 11",
      "availability": "InStock"
    }
  },{
    "@type": "ProductModel",
    "name": "iPhone 11 with 64GB",
    "color": "Red",
    "offers": {
      "@type": "Offer",
      "price": 649.00,
      "name": "red usually costs slightly more because it's faster",
      "availability": "InStock"
    }
  },{
    "@type": "ProductModel",
    "name": "iPhone 11 with 128GB",
    "color": "White",
    "offers": {
      "@type": "Offer",
      "price": 899.00,
      "name": "White iPhone 11",
      "availability": "InStock"
    },
    "additionalProperty": {
      "@type": "PropertyValue",
      "name": "Memory",
      "unitCode": "E34",
      "unitText": "GB",
      "value": "128"
    }
  }]
}

Note that ProductModels themselves may contain other ProductModels. This relationship can be defined using the isVariantOf property.

ProductModel Examples in the Wild

If you’d like to see more ProductModel examples in the wild, you can use PublicWWW to search for any schema class: see example.

unitCode Lookup Values

If you’re wondering where the unitCode “E34” comes from, then you’ll want to look up UN/CEFACT Common Codes for specifying the unit of measurement. Here are some common codes for various units of measurement. A spreadsheet is available to download here.

We want your schema markup to be successful! Schema markup can be time-consuming and complicated. That’s why we’re always looking for ways to make things easier for customers through our comprehensive solutions. Book a strategy call with our technical experts today!

The post Schema Markup for Product Models appeared first on Schema App Solutions.

We’ve compiled this ultimate guide to teach you all you need to know about LocalBusiness schema markup.

Adding LocalBusiness Schema Markup to your website can make you eligible for rich results, and these results can help you stand out in search, generating higher click-through rates, higher organic traffic, and more conversions.

What is LocalBusiness Schema?

When we talk about LocalBusiness schema, we’re really talking about Types and properties within the schema.org vocabulary that are used to categorize and define information about local businesses.

The LocalBusiness Schema Type, or one of its associated Types, should typically be used to markup your homepage. Adding LocalBusiness markup to your website translates your human-readable content into the machine-readable language of JSON-LD.

Within the schema.org vocabulary, the LocalBusiness Type is a subtype of both Organization and Place, so it inherits the properties of both these Types.

Schema.org defines LocalBusiness as “A particular physical business or branch of an organization. Examples of LocalBusiness include a restaurant, a particular branch of a restaurant chain, a branch of a bank, a medical practice, a club, a bowling alley, etc.” You’ll notice that the definition lists many more specific kinds of local businesses.

Much like this list, the LocalBusiness Type contains a wide variety of subtypes that can be used to define your business more specifically. The full list of schema.org Types can be found in their Full Hierarchy, where indentations denote a subtype relationship in the hierarchy of terms.

We encourage you to check out schema.org’s definitions for any Types that are relevant to your business, that way you can be sure you’re using the most accurate Type.

What kind of Local Business Organization Are You?

The next step is to identify what kind of business you are optimizing.

As you can see from the list above, schema.org provides you with a lot of options. When choosing a type, you want to be as specific as possible. If nothing fits well, don’t worry. Pick a more generic type, like LocalBusiness or Organization, and use the sameAS property to connect to a Wikipedia or Wikidata entry that further defines your business type.

 TIP! Both Wikipedia and Wikidata can help you specify your business, but if given the option, link to Wikidata. Wikidata has been optimized for machines, while Wikipedia is meant for human readers.

The most general type of business is an Organization.

Organization has the following types:

• Airline
• Consortium
• Corporation
• EducationalOrganization (more specific types include College, University, Elementary School, High school, Middle School, Preschool, School)
• FundingScheme
• GovernmentOrganization
• LibrarySystem
• LocalBusiness (*see more below)
• MedicalOrganization (more specific types include Dentist, Hospital, Pharmacy, Physician)
• NGO
• NewsMediaOrganization
• PerformingGroup (more specific types include Dance group, Music Group, Theatre Group)
• Project (more specific types include funding Agency, Research Project)
• SportsOrganization (more specific types include Sports Team)
• WorkersUnion

Local Business has the following types:

• AnimalShelter
• ArchiveOrganization
• AutomotiveBusiness (more specific types include AutoBodyShop, AutoDealer, AutoPartsStory, AutoRental, AutoRepair, AutoWash, GasStation, MotorcycleDealer, MotorcycleRepair)
• ChildCare
• Dentist
• DryCleaningOrLaundry
• EmergencyService (more specific types include FireStation, Hospital, PoliceStation)
• EmploymentAgency
• EntertainmentBusiness (more specific types include AdultEntertainment, AmusementPark, ArtGallery, Casino, ComedyClud, MovieTheater, NightClub)
• FinancialService (more specific types include AccountingService, AutomatedTeller, BankOrCreditUnion, InsuranceAgency)
• FoodEstablishment (more specific types include Bakery, BarOrPub, Brewery, CafeOrCoffeeShop, Distillery, FastFoodRestaurant, IceCreamShop, Restaurant, Winery)
• GovernmentOffice (more specific types include PostOffice)
• HealthAndBeautyBusiness (more specific types include BeautySalon, DaySpa, HairSalon, HealthClub, NailSalon, TattooParlor)
• HomeAndConstructionBusiness (more specific types include Electrician, GeneralContractor, HVACBusiness, HousePainter, Locksmith, MovingCompany, Plumber, RoofingContractor)
• InternetCafe
• LegalService (more specific types include Attorney, Notary)
• Library
• LodgingBusiness (more specific types include BedAndBreakfast, Campground, Hostel, Hotel, Motel, Resort)
• MedicalBusiness (more specific types include CommunityHealth, Dentist, Dermatology, DietNutrition, Emergency, Geriatric, Gynecologic, MedicalClinic (COVIDTestingFacility), Midwifery, Nursing, Obstetric, Oncologic, Optician, Optometric, Otolaryngologic, Pediatric, Pharmacy, Physician, Physiotherapy, PlasticSurgery, Podiatric, PrimaryCare, Psychiatric, PublicHealth)
• ProfessionalService
• RadioStation
• RealEstateAgent
• RecyclingCenter
• SelfStorage
• ShoppingCenter
• SportsActivityLocation (more specific types include BowlingAlley, ExerciseGym, GolfCourse, HealthClub, PublicSwimmingPool, SkiResoirt, SportsClude, StatiumOrArena, TennisComplex)
• Store (more specific types include AutoPartsStore, BikeStore, BookStore, ClothingStore, ComputerStore, ConvenienceStore, DepartmentStore, ElectronicStore, Florist, FurnitureStore, GardenStore, GroceryStore, HardwareStore, HobbyShop, HomeGoodsStore, JewleryStore, LiquorStore, MensClothingStore, MobilePhoneStore, MovieRentalStore, MusicStore, OfficeEquipmentStore, OutletStore, PawnShop, PetStore, ShoeStore, SportingGoodsStore, TireShop, ToyStore, WhoesaleStore)
• TelevisionStation
• TouristInformationCenter
• TravelAgency

Required and Recommended Properties for Local Business Structured Data

Google maintains documentation explaining exactly what’s required for “LocalBusiness” markup to be eligible for rich results within search.

We’ve captured the required fields below, as listed when this post was published. You must populate the required properties for your content to be eligible for display as a rich result. Recommended properties add more information to your structured data, which could provide a better user experience.

https://Schema.org/LocalBusiness

 TIP For more information about adding Rating and Review markup, check out our tutorial Creating “Review” Schema Markup Using the Schema App Editor.

The following types (GeoCoordinates, OpeningHoursSpecification) were listed above as being recommended by Google. However, adding these to your markup can make rich results more robust. These recommended types have their own required and recommended properties:

https://Schema.org/GeoCoordinates

 TIP! Don’t know your business’ geo coordinates? They can be found by searching for the associated address in Google Maps. The URL of the location will have both the latitudinal and longitudinal values.

https://Schema.org/OpeningHoursSpecification

 TIP If certain days have different opening hours, create a separate OpeningHoursSpecification data item for those days.

Google’s documentation also lists some types that are specific to the FoodEstablishment type, or it’s more specific subtypes (e.g Bakery; BarOrPub; Restaurant). These are:

https://Schema.org/FoodEstablishment

As you can tell from the number of properties at your disposal, there’s a lot you can leverage with your LocalBusiness schema markup. Wondering how all of it might fit together? This diagram illustrates an example of LocalBusiness markup in the form of a graph. It shows all the required properties (in yellow), and some of the more common recommended properties (in blue).

 TIP For the most current guidelines on required and recommended fields, reference the Google documentation on Local Business markup.

Preparing Your Local Business Schema Markup

Before we start creating your schema markup, you’ll need to gather the information found in the table below. This strategy piece will be the most time-consuming part of your LocalBusiness markup, but it makes the process more efficient in the long run.

Examples of the various fields have been provided as well as additional guidance to help you complete the list. Note: the homepage of the business is usually what you markup as the LocalBusiness.

We also have a handy Google Sheets template that you can use to do this prep work for your markup.

By defining objects on your homepage as unique entities using schema markup, you are effectively connecting them to a search engine’s knowledge graph. This adds context and relevance to your site content, supporting your E-E-A-T and establishing relationships between your local business and other defined entities across the Web.

How to Add Schema Markup If You Have Two or More Locations

If your business has multiple locations, there are a few different ways you can mark them up. Your strategy should be informed by the architecture of your site.

Under the circumstance that the business defined on the homepage DOES NOT have an address, use the Organization type.

1. If the other locations (and their addresses) are also listed on the homepage, select the Organization’s subOrganization property, and create LocalBusiness markup for each of the locations.
2. If each location has its own page, create a separate LocalBusiness data item for each location page. Then, from each LocalBusiness data item, use either the parentOrganization or branchOf property to connect back to the main Organization data item.

If the business defined on the homepage DOES have an address and could be considered a “Headquarters”, use LocalBusiness or one of the more specific subtypes.

1. If the other locations (and their addresses) are also listed on the homepage, select the main LocalBusiness’s subOrganization property, and create LocalBusiness markup for each of the subsidiary locations.
2. If each subsidiary location has its own page, create a separate LocalBusiness data item for each location page. Then, from each subsidiary LocalBusiness data item, use either the parentOrganization or branchOf property to connect back to the main LocalBusiness data item.

If you don’t feel the subOrganization, parentOrganization or branchOf properties adequately describe the relationship between your entities, use the Schema Paths tool to see all the properties that are available to the types you’re connecting.

How to Create Local Business Schema Markup

Step One: Add Required Properties

Add the required schema.org properties for LocalBusiness 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.

Learn how to create LocalBusiness schema markup using Schema App with our how-to tutorial.

Step Two: Follow Google’s Structured Data Guidelines

Check that your schema markup follows Google’s structured data guidelines. 

Step Three: Deploy your Markup

If you are satisfied with your markup, ensure that your integration method is set up, and the markup will deploy to your page. Google recommends using JSON-LD, which is also our favourite format for deployment.

Step Four: Test your Markup

Test that your schema markup is working using Google’s Rich Results Testing Tool and the Schema Markup Validator, which has officially replaced Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool. Read more about this change in our news post here.

How to Check Your Local Business Schema Markup

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.

Rich Results Preview Testing

To validate and preview your structured data, use Google’s Rich Result Test. This tool will indicate if your page is eligible for rich results. Please note that Google’s Rich Result Test is only valid for certain supported rich result types.

Tips to Manage Existing Schema Markup

Schema markup is constantly evolving and as such, it is not something you can simply set and forget. It also has limitless possibilities beyond just your homepage markup. We will provide you with some tips to manage your existing markup and also leverage new opportunities.

1. Maintain your LocalBusiness Schema Markup

It’s important to update your schema markup based on content changes on your site and updates to Google’s documentation.

Google has recently begun posting all changes regarding structured data on their “What’s new” page. Keeping an eye on this will help you stay on top of any changes.

Another great resource is Google’s Webmasters Blog. You can subscribe via email and get all the latest news right in your inbox.

2. Expand your Local Business Schema Markup

You’ve done your homepage markup and are now wondering: What next? That’s a great question!

Here is a summary of schema types you may want to use for other common pages on your website. To make things even simpler, you’ll find links to tutorials further defining each of these.

Contact Us

If you have a “Contact Us” page on your website, you can create a ContactPage data item and connect the various types of locations and phone numbers as ContactPoints.

For example, if you have a sales line and a technical support line, you can have these as Contact Point data items, linked to the Contact Page data item via the “main entity” property.

Learn how to mark up business contact info here.

About Us

For your About Us page, you can create an AboutPage data item. You will see that there are no required or recommended fields for this data item. That being said, you can still fill out the relevant fields. We recommend linking the homepage data item using the about property.

Based on the kind of information you have on your About page, you can use as many or as little properties as you want to describe this data item.

Blog

If you have a blog and blog posts on your site you will want to add Blog and BlogPosting markup. This can be done via a plugin, such as our WordPress plugin, manually via our Schema App Editor or at scale (lots of pages) and dynamically through our Schema App Highlighter. BlogPosting data items are often connected back to the LocalBusiness using the about, author, publisher, or sourceOrganization properties.

News

If you have news articles on your website you can add NewsArticle markup with a plugin or with our tool. Check out this video which shows how to add article markup via the Schema App Editor. Properties to connect NewsArticle markup back to the LocalBusiness are similar to those used for BlogPosting.

Product

If you have products on your website you could be eligible for rich results if you apply the Product schema markup correctly. If you are on Shopify, BigCommerce or WooCommerce, you can install our easy to use plugin which will automatically markup your product pages.

Additionally, we have a highlighter tool, which is part of our premium subscription which can help you create markup and apply it across all our pages. Check out this great tutorial to learn more about product markup with our highlighter tool. It’s best to connect Products back to your LocalBusiness via the manufacturer or brand properties provided they appropriately define the relationship.

 TIP Markup you create for other pages should always connect back to your homepage in some way since it’s the heart of the knowledge graph of your content.

Frequently Asked Questions about LocalBusiness Schema Markup

Is it better to use LocalBusiness or Organization markup?

Use the LocalBusiness type (or one of its subtypes) if the business is a brick-and-mortar facility that has address information publicly available. If the business doesn’t have an address associated with it—for example it’s an eCommerce business or a service provider that does house calls—the Organization type may be the better choice.

Both of these types are eligible for rich results within search, but LocalBusiness rich results are more robust.

If you’re still unsure which type to use, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Does the business have a physical location people would walk into? If the answer is no, you should probably use the Organization type.
2. Is there a schema.org type/class that fits well? If yes, use that type. If not, use a broader type, and provide a more specific definition by linking to Wikipedia or Wikidata by way of the additionalType or sameAs property.

What is a multi-type entity and when should I use it?

A multi-type entity (MTE) is one entity that is defined using multiple schema.org types (though usually not more than two). Creating a multi-type data item allows you to utilize all the properties available to both types.

You may want to create a multi-type entity for your business if, for example, you’re using the Physician LocalBusiness type and want to add alumni information that’s only available to the Person type. To resolve this, your local business would be typed as both Physician and Person.

Can I use external ratings and reviews (e.g. Google or Yelp) to add Review or AggregateRating markup to my Local Business?

AggregateRating and Review markup can only be created if the content is visible on the page. According to Google’s documentation, this markup is only eligible for review snippet rich results if the information is coming from a third-party application to show impartiality.

What’s more, while the LocalBusiness type is eligible for rich results with AggregateRating and Review markup, the Organization type is only eligible for rich results with Review markup.

For more information about how to create review markup, see Creating “Review” Schema Markup Using the Schema App Editor.

How should I mark up an action?

Google no longer supports potentialAction markup but instead states: If you want to help users to make a reservation or place an order directly in Search results, you can use the Maps Booking API to enable bookings, payments, and other actions. If you’re interested in creating SearchAction markup to be eligible for the Sitelinks Searchbox feature, see How to create Sitelinks Searchbox markup.

There are many benefits to LocalBusiness structured data markup. The more robust and comprehensive your schema markup, the better search engines can match users with the products and services being offered.

The information included in your markup will also be used to enhance your Google Knowledge Panel and enhanced search features, which support your credibility and E-E-A-T as Google crawls your web pages.

We’ve helped businesses of all shapes and sizes to stand out from the competition in search, across multiple industries. Read more about their experiences with Schema App in our case studies, or if you’re ready to get started with your schema markup reach out to our technical experts today! We’d love to hear from you.

The post Ultimate How-to Guide for LocalBusiness Schema Markup appeared first on Schema App Solutions.

Whether they’re home services, such as roofing, plumbing, contractor or lawn care, or professional services such as marketing, search engine optimization, or defense in a court of law, most companies offer some type of service. As such, it seems odd that Google’s structured data features do not include “Service”, but instead focus on product schema markup for rich results.

In this article we are going to show you how to create schema markup for Services, so that Google can explicitly understand what services are offered, to what area, and who is providing them.

Service is our co-founder, Mark van Berkel’s favourite schema class, now we’ll explain why.

Tips for Doing Service Schema Markup

By properly marking up your service with structured data, the information you define as entities on the page can be linked to a search engine’s knowledge graph. This provides relevance and context for your content so that your services can be better matched to a user’s search query. Services could include delivery services, print services, plumbing services, roofing services, and more!

Service is the broadest class to define a service offered by a business. The Professional Service class was commonly used in the past, but has since been deprecated by Schema.org in favour of the more general Service. As a result, we recommend using Service, or one of the more specific subclasses instead of Professional Service.

Within your schema markup, you can describe exactly what type of service you offer (additionalType), who is providing the service (provider), and the area where the Service is offered (areaServed). You can also define the output of the service (serviceOutput). For example, if you are optimizing a Mortgage broker site, the output of the Service is a mortgage. Or if the service is for a home builder, the output would be a custom-built home.

These properties give you control over defining the services sold by the business so that Google and other search engines can accurately understand them and route appropriate traffic to the right pages.

Our Favourite Properties

• Use the provider property to define who is offering the Service. This is usually the Organization or Local Business that the Service page is for.
• Use additionalType to define the service more explicitly. Use a Wikidata or Wikipedia link to define this. For example, you would link to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumbing if you were optimizing a Plumbing service.
• Use areaServed to explicitly define where the Service is available. Use a Wikidata or Wikipedia link to define this.
• Use serviceOutput to define what the outcome of the service is.

List of Service Properties

Creating schema markup for services can be challenging as there are so few required properties to guide us. Instead, we will need to decide what is important about the service being offered, and use the available properties to call that out in the markup.

So which properties should we use? A good place to start is by searching for properties that contain the word “service” in their name or description. Below is a list of properties we recommend you use. Your list could vary depending on what features you want to call out and what information is displayed on the web page. If you don’t have the content for one of the properties on your page—such as an image—then consider adding it in the future.

• name: The name of the item.
• additionalType: An additional type for the item, typically used for adding more specific types from external vocabularies in microdata syntax. This is a relationship between something and a class that the thing is in. This is a great place to use Wikipedia.
• areaServed: The geographic area where a service or offered item is provided. This is a great place to use Wikipedia.
• availableChannel: A means of accessing the service which connects to a ServiceChannel data item. Creating a ServiceChannel allows you to leverage more touch point properties like servicePhone, servicePostalAddress, and serviceSmsNumber.
• brand: The brand(s) associated with a product or service, or the brand(s) maintained by an organization or business person.
• description: A description of the service.
• image: An image of the service. This can be a URL or a fully described ImageObject.
• logo: An associated logo. You may want to just leave this blank and refer to the Organization and its logo.
• offers: An offer to provide this item—for example, an offer to sell a product, rent the DVD of a movie, perform a service, or give away tickets to an event. Note that the associated Offer requires the availability and price of the item offered. If you’re worried about errors showing up in your markup, we recommend only using this property if you also have the required information on your web page.
• potentialAction: Indicates a potential Action, which describes an idealized action in which this thing would play an ‘object’ role. For example: “book a demo” or “request a quote”.
• provider: The service provider, service operator, or service performer. This is a great way to link to the primary organization offering the service.
• serviceOutput: The tangible thing generated by the service, e.g. a passport, permit, mortgage, etc.
• serviceType: Another opportunity to further describe the service being provided. This can either be implemented with text, or by linking to Wikipedia.
• subjectOf: Is there a CreativeWork (ie. Blog, Article, Video) that this service is the subject of? We recommend either using subjectOf to link your Service to the CreativeWork, or else linking the CreativeWork to the Service using the about property.
• termsOfService: Human-readable terms of service documentation in the form of either text or a URL.
• url: The URL of the page you are optimizing.

Service Schema Markup Tutorial

Every schema class has a list of properties that can be used to further define its features. Schema App gives you access to all the Schema.org/Service properties. You can use our recommended list above as a starting point to call out the information listed on your Service’s web page. Schema App will load all of the properties available for Services according to Schema.org. Services don’t have any required properties since requirements are only applied to data items eligible for Google’s Rich Results.

To see our tools in action, check out our tutorial for how to add schema markup for Services using the Schema App Editor:

Multi-Typing Service and Product

In some instances, you should consider multi-typing your data item as both a Service and a Product. This allows you to leverage all the properties granted to both types. This also makes your data item eligible for the Product rich result in search.

Schema.org defines a Product as:

“Any offered product or service. For example: a pair of shoes; a concert ticket; the rental of a car; a haircut; or an episode of a TV show streamed online.”

So, it stands to reason that any service could also receive Product markup. However, it’s always best to use the schema.org type that defines your data item most specifically. You should consider multi-typing a data item as both a Product and a Service when:

• It could benefit from leveraging Service properties like provider, and areaServed
• It has an image, as required for the Product rich result
• It has the price, aggregateRating or review information required for the Product rich result

Schema Markup for Local Services

Google’s structured data documentation doesn’t include services, but it does include Local Business. You can use the provider property to define your organization or local business schema markup for enhanced Google features in search.

Call out where the services are provided using the areaServed property. Link this to a Wikidata entity for that place, as most Wikidate entries for places have coordinate location information.

Check out our Ultimate How-To Guide for Local Business Schema Markup for more information about how to mark up your local business organization.

Schema Markup for Software as a Service (SaaS)

Service schema markup is more complicated for representing SaaS because there aren’t specific Types to describe this in the schema.org vocabulary. For specific SaaS products, use SoftwareApplication, Product, or multitype as both depending on which definition best suits your needs, and which rich results you want the content to be eligible for.

If specific products aren’t provided, you can use service more generally, and use either sameAs or additionalType to link to a Wiki entity with a more specific definition. For example, IT service management or digital security.

The post How to Create Service Schema Markup for Businesses appeared first on Schema App Solutions.

If you don’t yet have this type of content on your website, we recommend adding it so you can leverage the power of schema markup.

Before You Implement Review Schema Markup

As you scroll through search engine page results, you can visibly see which websites are utilizing the power of structured data and which are not. Star ratings and reviews help your brand to stand out from the competition by showing additional information about your organization, products or services.

Review snippets are short excerpts of a review or rating from a review website. When Google finds valid reviews or ratings structured data markup, your content will be eligible to show a rich result that includes stars and other summary information from the markup.

These reviews could also show in your Google Knowledge Panel.

Showcase your credibility in search by letting customers and users write reviews. Then, mark up these reviews with Review structured data. Not only will your website be eligible for enhanced Google features in search results, but search engines will better understand and contextualize your content.

Building Your Knowledge Graph With Structured Data

When you mark up your content with structured data, you are also creating connections between your data and a search engine’s knowledge graph. As you define objects as distinct entities with their own properties and relationships to other entities, you can link your entities to Google’s Knowledge Graph through structured data like schema markup.

Knowledge graphs represent the linking of information and data across the Web, providing context for search engines as they crawl your site.

Beyond rich results, structured data markup can also help you enhance your Google Knowledge Panel. Knowledge panels are the information boxes that appear in search engine page results. They pull this information from markup on your website or other sources that search engines trust like Wikipedia.

Schema markup gives you more control over how your content appears in search results, and in your Google Knowledge Panel.

Currently, Google supports ratings for the following schema classes:

• Book
• Course
• Event
• Local business
• Movie
• Product
• Recipe
• Software App

Google also supports reviews for the following schema.org classes:

• CreativeWorkSeason
• CreativeWorkSeries
• Episode
• Game
• MediaObject
• MusicPlaylist
• MusicRecording
• Organization

Required and Recommended Properties

Google maintains documentation to explain exactly what is required for “Review Snippet” markup. We’ve captured the required fields below, as listed when this post was published. You must populate the required properties for your content to be eligible for display as a rich result. Recommended properties add more information to your structured data, which could provide a better user experience.

https://schema.org/Review

https://schema.org/AggregateRating

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

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

How to Create Review Structured Data:

Step One: Create a Review Data Item

• In the Schema App Editor, use the class tree to search for “Review”. Once selected, click “Create”.
• Assign the data item a name and a URL.
• Once created, the page will refresh and the data item will be in Edit mode.
• You are required to have an author, item reviewed, and review rating. Date published is only recommended.

Step Two: Create a Person/Organization Data Item

• Type the name of the person or organization who wrote the review into the “author” field and click “Convert to Data Item”.
• You’ll be prompted to add the URL of this new data item, as well as its schema.org property type. Make sure to adjust the type depending on whether an individual wrote the review (i.e. person) or if it was provided by an organization.
• Once selected, the Editor automatically appends a “#anchor” tag to the end of the URL.
• The base URL should always reflect the page on the site where the Review resides.
• Once you have the correct URL, anchor tag, and property type, click “Create”.

Additional Fields

If there are additional required and recommended fields for this new data item, make sure to include them here.

Step Three: Create an Item Reviewed Data Item

• If you’re creating a review data item from within a product data item, then you do not need to have the item reviewed field populated. This is an example of a nested review. We recommend making the connection between a product and review in this way.

Step Four: Create a Review Rating Data Item

• Type a name for the “review rating” and click “Convert to Data Item”.
• When there, double check that the URL is pointing to the page the review is on and that the #anchor is correct.
• Click “Create”.
• The only required field is the review rating. If the rating is not on a 1-5 scale, then also popular the best and worst rating fields.
• Click “Done”.

Other fields to populate

• If you have a publish date listed for your reviews, use the calendar for the “date published” field.
• Other fields to popular include: review body, publisher, image, etc. These will depend on the content that you have on your site.

How to Create Aggregate Rating Schema Markup:

If you have more than one review, Google recommends you create an Aggregate Rating.

1. Create an “AggregateRating” data item in the Schema App Editor. Use the class tree to search for “Aggregate Rating”. Once selected, click “Create”.
2. Double-check that the URL reflects where the rating is shown on your site and that the anchor tag is correct.
3. Now you will have the required and recommended fields. In this case, no further data items are needed as they are easily populated with integers.
4. For the item reviewed field, simply create a new data item for whatever is being rated and reviewed.

Nested Data Items vs Singular Data Items

You can create an aggregate rating data item from within your “thing” data item for the item being reviewed. In this case, you wouldn’t need to populate the item reviewed field, just as was the case with the review markup above.

The connection between the “thing” being reviewed and its reviews and aggregate rating needs to occur in only one direction. This is why we suggest you nest the reviews and aggregate rating within the “thing” data item.

Watch our Review Schema Markup video tutorial that walks you through your review schema markup process. We hope you find it helpful!

For more information on how to create Review Schema Markup, see our Knowledge Base support article.

Testing Your Review Schema Markup

Schema Markup Validator

Export the JSON-LD and run it through the Schema Markup Validator (SMV) to view any errors or warnings. Again, this serves as an alert to either correct the markup or to highlight gaps in the content. Many SEOs preferred Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool (SDTT), as the SMV only shows errors in schema markup syntax and not rich result eligibility; however, Google officially deprecated the SDTT and officially replaced it with the SMV on August 9th, 2021.

Rich Results Preview Testing

To validate and preview your structured data, use Google’s Rich Result Test. This tool will indicate if your page is eligible for rich results. Please note that Google’s Rich Result Test is only valid for certain supported rich result types.

Deploying Your Review Schema Markup

Depending on your content management system, there are many deployment options to ensure robust, comprehensive, and error-free schema markup.

If you are a Schema App customer, explore your deployment options in the Integrations menu of the Schema App platform. We’ve grouped different methods of deployment into the following categories:

1 – Plugin / Add-ons:

• BigCommerce
• WordPress & WooCommerce
• Shopify
• HubSpot
• Drupal

2 – Add a tag once and you’re done:

• Google Tag Manager
• Tealium

3 – APIs:

• JavaScript
• Squarespace

If you didn’t see the integration option you were looking for, get in touch! We can deploy markup to any content and any content management system.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you implement Review Schema Markup on a website?

1. You should only mark up content visible on your website. Start with exploring Google’s Search Gallery to find rich result opportunities that align with your online business goals.
2. Mark up your content with required schema.org properties, as well as any recommended properties that are applicable for your content and can add more depth to your markup.
3. Validate your schema markup using Google’s Rich Results test.

How do you add Review Schema Markup to a page with multiple reviews?

1. If you have an item reviewed by more than one person, we recommend using AggregateRating schema markup.
2. Clearly refer to a specific product or service by nesting your review within the markup of another schema.org type, or by using a schema.org type as a value for the itemReviewed property.
3. Make sure that users can clearly see the marked-up reviews and ratings on the page.
4. Add the required schema.org properties to your data item, and any recommended properties that will make your schema markup more robust, where applicable.
5. Validate your schema markup using Google’s Rich Results test.

With Schema App, you have the opportunity to work with schema markup experts who can help you develop a customized structured data strategy, maximizing results from your markup!

The post How to Create “Review” Schema Markup appeared first on Schema App Solutions.

If you don’t yet have this type of content on your website, we recommend adding it so you can leverage the power of Schema Markup!

It’s important to mention that you should only use “FAQPage” markup if your page has a list of questions with answers. If your page has a single question and users can submit alternative answers, use “QAPage” instead.

We’ve seen FAQPage Structured Data Markup drive more clicks, impressions, and user engagement to customers, such as SAP and Keen Footwear. Marking up your content with FAQPage Structured Data will not only make your content eligible for enhanced Google features in search results, but you are helping search engines to better understand and contextualize the data on your website.

Required and Recommended Properties for FAQPage Schema Markup

Google maintains documentation to explain exactly what is required for “FAQPage” Structured Data Markup. We’ve captured the required fields below. You must populate the required properties for your content to be eligible for display as a rich result. Recommended properties add more information to your structured data, which could provide a better user experience.

To mark up the FAQ page, start by creating a data item for the page itself. Then you’ll need to create an embedded data item for every Question, each of which will have its own embedded data item for its Answer.

FAQPage

Question

Answer

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

We created the following visual to help conceptualize the structure of a FAQPage markup.

How to Create FAQPage Schema Markup

To help you get started, we put together the fundamental steps for creating FAQPage Schema Markup:

Step One: Required Properties

Add the required schema.org properties for FAQPage 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.

Step Two: Structured Data Guidelines

Check that your markup follows Google’s structured data guidelines

Step Three: Deployment

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

Step Four: Validation

Test that your Schema Markup is working using Google’s Rich Results Testing Tool and the Schema Markup Validator, which has officially replaced Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool. Read more about this change in our news post here.

This short video demonstrates the basics of creating FAQPage Schema Markup using the Schema App Editor:

Learn how to create FAQPage Schema Markup using Schema App with our how-to tutorial here.

Testing your FAQPage Schema Markup

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.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions about FAQPage Schema Markup

What is FAQ Schema Markup?

FAQPage Schema Markup indicates that your page has a section with frequently asked questions (FAQs) and answers. When you mark up those questions and answers with structured data, your content will be eligible for a collapsible menu under your search engine page result with the question, that when clicked on will reveal the answer.

What are the benefits of FAQ Schema Markup?

FAQPage Schema Markup increases your website’s visibility in search results both through enhanced Google search features like rich results, and by showing a wider variety of keywords thanks to the content in your FAQs. This is an example of how rich result opportunities should inform your content strategy, as the more SEO keyphrases that you’d like to rank for can be included in your FAQs where it makes sense to do so.

Do you see opportunities on your website for FAQPage Schema Markup? If you don’t already have a section of your website for frequently asked questions, we recommend adding one and marking it up with structured data. It’s a great way to boost your search engine optimization performance! If you need help getting started, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

The post How to Create “FAQPage” Schema Markup appeared first on Schema App Solutions.

By marking up your how-to instructions with HowTo structured data, not only will your content be eligible for enhanced Google features in search results but search engines will be able to better match your data to a user’s search query.

Required and Recommended Properties for HowTo Schema Markup

Google maintains documentation to explain exactly what is required for How-To markup. We’ve captured the required and recommended fields below. You must include the required properties for your content to be eligible for display as a rich result. Recommended properties add more information to your structured data, which could provide a better user experience.

HowTo

https://schema.org/HowTo

HowToStep

https://schema.org/HowToStep

HowToDirection

https://schema.org/HowToDirection

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

How to Create HowTo Schema Markup

To help you get started, we put together the fundamental steps for creating HowTo schema markup:

Step One: Add the required properties for HowTo Schema Markup

Add the required schema.org properties for HowTo Schema 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.

Step Two: Review your HowTo Schema Markup to ensure it follows Google’s Structured Data Guidelines

Check that your markup follows Google’s structured data guidelines

Step Three: Deploy your HowTo Schema Markup to the relevant pages

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

Step Four: Validate your page to make sure the Schema Markup is working

Test that your schema markup is working using Google’s Rich Results Testing Tool and the Schema Markup Validator, which has officially replaced Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool. Read more about this change in our news post here.

This short video demonstrates the basics of creating HowTo schema markup using the Schema App Editor.

Learn how to create HowTo schema markup using Schema App with our how-to tutorial here.

Testing Your HowTo Schema Markup

Schema Markup Validator

The Schema Markup Validator (SMV) was modeled 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.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions about HowTo Schema Markup

What is HowTo schema markup?

HowTo schema markup is code you can add to the backend of your website, explaining to search engines what your content is and what information you would like displayed in search results. When HowTo content on your website is properly marked up with structured data, you will be eligible for Google search enhancements like rich results, helping your content to engage with users before they even enter your website.

When should you use HowTo schema markup?

You should only mark up content that is visible on your web pages. If you have how-to content, or see an opportunity to add this content to your website, marking it up with HowTo structured data will make that content eligible for Google search enhancements like rich results. Additionally, you will be improving your E-E-A-T by demonstrating to Google your expertise in that subject matter.

Do you see opportunities for how-to content on your website? Structured data not only enhances your existing content, but SEO experts use rich result opportunities to actually inform their content strategy. If you’re looking for a way to stand out in search results and take control of what information is being shown about your brand and website, get in touch! We’d love to help.

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

Learn more about Q&A page structured data in Google’s documentation here.

Q&A Schema Markup: A Timeline

December 2017 – Google released a question and answer rich result card

December 2018 – Google search results now include a “Top Answer” rich result

On December 3rd, 2018, Aaron Bradley pointed out that he saw the new Q&A Page rich result.

“There’s a new Google Rich result in town, “Q&A Page”, powered by #schema.org/QAPage, Question and Answer…”

Right away people started asking us how to achieve this new iteration of the question & answer rich result. But first, what does it look like? How will your snippets change by implementing this QAPage schema markup? Here is the example provided by Google:

Let’s take a second and discuss the type of content this rich result is built for. The documentation for Q&A Page is very clear that this is meant for pages that answer and discuss a single question. Therefore this is excellent for support pages and forum posts, or any page with a single question and multiple answers. This is not intended for a single page with a long list of FAQs. With that out of the way let’s get into how to achieve this stand out rich result!

Q&A Page Schema Markup Requirements

There are 3 schema classes that we will need to use to complete our Q&A Page markup. They are:

1. QAPage
2. Question
3. Answer

Each of these will be connected and nested underneath one another. An example looks like this:

<html>
  <head>
    <title>How many ounces are there in a pound?</title>
    <script type="application/ld+json">
    {
      "@context": "https://schema.org",
      "@type": "QAPage",
      "mainEntity": {
        "@type": "Question",
        "name": "How many ounces are there in a pound?",
        "text": "I have taken up a new interest in baking and keep running across directions in ounces and pounds. I have to translate between them and was wondering how many ounces are in a pound?",
        "answerCount": 3,
        "upvoteCount": 26,
        "dateCreated": "2016-07-23T21:11Z",
        "author": {
          "@type": "Person",
          "name": "New Baking User"
        },
        "acceptedAnswer": {
          "@type": "Answer",
          "text": "1 pound (lb) is equal to 16 ounces (oz).",
          "dateCreated": "2016-11-02T21:11Z",
          "upvoteCount": 1337,
          "url": "https://example.com/question1#acceptedAnswer",
          "author": {
            "@type": "Person",
            "name": "SomeUser"
          }
        },
        "suggestedAnswer": [
          {
            "@type": "Answer",
            "text": "Are you looking for ounces or fluid ounces? If you are looking for fluid ounces there are 15.34 fluid ounces in a pound of water.",
            "dateCreated": "2016-11-02T21:11Z",
            "upvoteCount": 42,
            "url": "https://example.com/question1#suggestedAnswer1",
            "author": {
              "@type": "Person",
              "name": "AnotherUser"
            }
          }, {
            "@type": "Answer",
            "text": " I can't remember exactly, but I think 18 ounces in a lb. You might want to double check that.",
            "dateCreated": "2016-11-06T21:11Z",
            "upvoteCount": 0,
            "url": "https://example.com/question1#suggestedAnswer2",
            "author": {
              "@type": "Person",
              "name": "ConfusedUser"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
    </script>
  </head>
  <body>
  </body>
</html>

Let’s have a look at each class, they’re required properties as called out in the Documentation, and what values these properties should be defined by:

QAPage Schema Class for Q&A Markup

https://schema.org/QAPage

Question Schema Class for Q&A Markup

https://schema.org/Question

Question Schema Markup Properties Explained

• text – The actual text of the question itself.
• name – Choose an identifier to name the data item. Using the actual question is a good idea, just to keep things simple.
• Url – The URL for where the question lives on the page.
• suggestedAnswer – This property is expecting you to create an Answer data item. Best to use suggestedAnswer when there are many possible answers. The documentation indicates they don’t have to be relevant or accurate answers. Think of answers on a question/answer web page like Yahoo Answers.
• acceptedAnswer – This property is expecting you to create an Answer data item. It is best to use acceptedAnswer for the best answer to a question. This can be the only answer or it could be one among many other answers. It just needs to be the best answer.  If the question is in a forum, then use the one with the most positive votes. If it is a list of answers, choose the best from the list.
• publisher – This property is expecting an Organization or Person data item. Usually, it is the organization that owns the domain the question/answer content is found on.  Note, that all types of organization markup can be used here, such as LocalBusiness, MedicalOrganization, etc.
• about – This property is expecting a Thing data item, which describes what the questions are about. If you’re creating markup for a business FAQ page, then they would be about your business.  Use a Wikipedia lookup if the question is about a topic described there. If it is about a service or product you offer, reference the service/product page.
• isPartOf – This property is expecting a CreativeWork data item and it is our opportunity to tie all our questions together. The property isPartOf indicates that the question is part of some other creative work. In most cases, you will want to use the QAPage class type.
• description – This property describes the question. If the question has a group heading then this may be an appropriate place to call out what that heading is.
• upvoteCount – If this question has an upvote count then this would be the property to indicate that. This property is expecting an Integer data item

Answer Schema Class for Q&A Markup

https://schema.org/Answer

Accepted Answer & Answer Schema Markup Properties Explained

Note, that the accepted answer above is a link. That’s because we are linking to a new data item, or entity, that details out the Answer.  The schema.org class type Answer is very similar properties to Question.  It has the same two required properties, text and name. There are no recommended properties for Answer, but we will still want to use many of the same properties that we did for Question. Again, not all the properties are necessary. Use them when they are applicable.

• text – The actual text of the answer itself.
• name – Choose an identifier to name the data item. Using the actual answer text is a good idea, just to keep things simple.
• Url – The URL for where the answer lives on the page.
• about – This property is expecting a Thing data item, which describes what the answers are about. If you’re creating markup for a business FAQ page, then they would be about your business. Use a Wikipedia lookup if the question is about a topic described there. If it is about a service or product you offer, reference the service/product page.
• publisher – This property is expecting an Organization or Person data item. Usually it is the organization that owns the domain the content is found on, like an FAQ answer. Sometimes it is a person who is writing on your page, like a response in a forum or a guest blogger.
• isPartOf – This property is expecting a CreativeWork data item and it is our opportunity to tie all our answers together. The property isPartOf indicates that the answer is part of some other creative work. In most cases you will want to use the QAPage class type.
• description – This property describes the answer. If the answer is from a group that has a heading then this may be an appropriate place to call out what that heading is.
• upvoteCount – If this answer has an upvote count then this would be the place to indicate that. This property is expecting an Integer data item.

How to Create Q&A Schema Markup

To start let’s have a look at the schema.org class type: Question. The only required properties for questions are text and name. There are 5 recommended properties: URL, suggested answer, accepted answer, publisher, and about.  About is a great property, because you can use a Wikipedia reference to define the topic explicitly.

Finally, there are 3 useful other properties that I will highlight: is part of, description, and upvote count. Please note that you do not have to use every property listed in Schema App (we show all the properties possible in the schema.org vocabulary for the Question class).

Step One: Add the required properties for QAPage structured data

Add the required schema.org properties for QAPage 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.

Step Two: Review your markup to ensure it follows Google’s Structured Data Guidelines

Check that your markup follows Google’s structured data guidelines

Step Three: Deploy your Schema Markup to the relevant pages

Deploy your markup. Google recommends using JSON-LD, which is also our favorite format for deployment!

Step Four: Validate your Schema Markup to make sure it is working

Test that your schema markup is working using Google’s Rich Results Testing Tool and the Schema Markup Validator, which has officially replaced Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool. Read more about this change in our news post here.

In order to understand how to create the markup in practice,  watch this short video, where Martha van Berkel steps you through Question and Answer Schema Markup in Schema App.

Learn how to create Q&A schema markup using the Schema App Editor with our how-to tutorial here.

Tools Test QAPage Schema Markup

Schema Markup Validator

The Schema Markup Validator (SMV) was modeled 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.

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.

Benefits of QAPage Structured Data

The benefits of structured data extend beyond achieving Questions and Answer rich results in search. You’re taking control of the data on your web pages, instead of hoping search engines will be intuitive enough to understand the content on your site and show the best information in search. Through schema markup, you can define objects in your content 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, streamlining Google’s ability to contextualize your content.

QAPage structured data is great for forums or online message boards where users can ask a question, and the community can submit their answers to that question. Q&A schema is not intended for pages that have multiple questions and answers—that’s what FAQPage schema markup is for! Q&A structured data also goes very well with speakable schema markup, as these types of answers feed well into voice search with smart devices.

Frequently Asked Questions about QAPage Schema Markup

How do I use Question and Answer (Q&A) schema markup?

This type of schema markup should be applied only on page that have one question as the main focus of that page, as opposed to a page with multiple questions and their respective answers. Make sure you include the URL that links directly to each individual answer to improve the user experience of your Q&A structured data markup!

QAPage vs FAQPage Schema Markup?

If users are not able to submit answers to the question being asked on the page, then FAQPage schema markup should be used. Learn more about frequently asked questions (FAQPage) schema markup here.

Q&A schema is a relatively new schema type, and an interesting one. It’s used for pages that contain an question and a way for multiple users to submit answers to that question. Obviously, this type of content doesn’t fit for every website, but it is a great opportunity to engage with users right on the search engine results page. This is another example of how rich result opportunities can inform your content strategy. If questions and answers seem like a good fit for your online business goals, or a new opportunity to engage with users in search, don’t hesitate to get in touch! We can help you get started.

We help you go beyond the fundamentals of search engine optimization, leveraging structured data to showcase your unique value in search. In a rapidly changing SEO environment, we introduce agility to your digital team, saving you time and resources for managing other aspects of your business portfolio. We deliver to your online business goals using our structured data expertise and advanced technology.

The post Creating Question & Answer (QAPage) Schema Markup appeared first on Schema App Solutions.

If you haven’t already done so, you may want to consider creating a Google Merchant Center account. You’ll be able to manage your appearance across all Google e-commerce products, upload product information (like pricing & pictures), and be displayed in Google Shopping searches.

What is Google Merchant Center?

Google Merchant Center is an online dashboard where you can manage your shop and product appearance and make it available to shoppers across Google. You can upload and maintain product information and your online listings where needed, including pictures and pricing that can be displayed in Google Shopping searches. Google Merchant Center also integrates with other Google services like Google Business Profile, allowing you to reach potential customers at different stages of their buyer journey.

What is Google Shopping?

Google Shopping isn’t technically an online marketplace. It’s more of an ad platform where you can advertise your products, providing shoppers an opportunity to browse physical products based on a search query. Google Shopping is also known as a Comparison Shopping Engine (CSE), where shoppers search for, compare and shop for physical products across different retailers.

Fun fact! When Google Shopping was released in 2002, it was called Froogle.

Structured Data Markup for Google Merchant Center

You can use structured data to mark up your organization and your products so that search engines can reliably retrieve up-to-date information from your website and display these details in search. In Google Merchant Center, this structured data markup can be used to update your product data, simplifying the creation and maintenance of your product feeds.

What is structured data?

Structured data, also known as Schema Markup, is a type of code that can be added to your website, making it easier for search engines to crawl, organize and display your content in search.

When you mark up information on your website with structured data, you are basically explaining to Google what your data means. Through structured data or schema markup, you can define objects in your data as distinct entities with their own properties and relationships to other entities. Once defined, entities can be linked to a search engine’s knowledge graph through schema markup. Knowledge graphs represent the linking of information and data across the Web, providing context for search engines as they crawl your website.

For e-commerce, structured data markup unlocks great opportunities to display products and store information in search results so customers can engage with your brand before even entering your website.

Structured Data Markup for Products

It’s recommended that you add new schema markup to your product pages to help Google reliably retrieve up-to-date information, and enable click-driving search features like Automatic Item Updates, Google Sheets Merchant Center add-on, and Product Rich Results. This ensures that you’re set up optimally and simplifies the creation and maintenance of your product feed in search.

Product entities and review snippets are two of the most important considerations for any brand with an e-commerce presence. Customers want to know the most up-to-date information about your products and/or services, and like to see what other customers have to say about your brand through reviews. Having an aggregate star rating and reviews can improve click-through-rates and conversion rates – when they’re over 3 stars!

Here are the essential product markup properties that we recommend:

• Price
• Product Name
• Product Description
• High-Resolution Product Images
• Availability
• Brand
• Reviews
• Breadcrumbs

Google recommends marking up individual product pages instead of a category or list of products. Read more about Google’s guidelines for product schema markup here.

If you’re looking to set up your product schema by hand there are a number of things to keep in mind. Be sure to follow all the Structured Data General Guidelines and abide by the Google Merchant Center requirements for structured data markup.

Once you’re comfortable with that, you’ll want to know which corresponding attributes and accepted values are supported by Google Merchant Center, and how to handle a single offer vs multiple offers with product variants.

If you’re new to schema markup, this can seem daunting.

Schema App for Google Merchant Center

Schema App has a much easier solution. To start, you’ll need to sign up for our Schema App end-to-end solution. This will give you access to our Highlighter, Editor, Schema Performance Analytics, as well as our Google Merchant Center integration.

With Schema App’s Google Merchant Center integration, you can start processing and generating JSON-LD Schema Markup from the product data in your Google Merchant Center account. This will allow you to quickly generate and deploy robust product Schema Markup to your product pages.

Note: The Schema App Google Merchant Center integration is not available for customers on our Pro subscription.

Here’s how you can use the Google Merchant Center Integration on the Schema App platform:

1. Login to Schema App and choose the Active Project you want to set up.
2. Go to https://app.schemaapp.com/merchantcenter
3. Authenticate with Google – If you have Merchant Center authority, you can directly Authorize Access to Merchant Center. Once connected, Schema App will start processing and generating Schema Markup JSON-LD from the Product. You are done!
4. Request Access – If you do not have Merchant Center access directly, you can request a colleague delegate the access. We provide an email template that invites them to connect the account. The system will generate a link to set up the authorization that expires after 72 hours.
5. Request Access – your colleague will receive an email, click on the link, and proceed with the Authorization.

If you have any questions, please reach out to our support team.

So long as you have set up one of our integration methods, this is a TWO-CLICK solution to completing all your product markup.

Considerations for Google Merchant Center Structured Data Markup

While structured data can help to showcase your e-commerce store and products in Google Merchant Center, there are some considerations you should keep in mind:

• Don’t change your product or store landing pages based on the user, such as adjusting prices based on the customer’s location
• Your structured data should be present in the HTML returned from the web server and not generated with JavaScript AFTER the page has loaded
• Only mark up information that is shown to the user on your landing pages, which means even the prices in your structured data markup should match the values shown on the page

Maintaining schema markup for e-commerce products can be tedious as prices may change and supply may shift. That’s why Schema App offers dynamic structured data services that can update your markup in tandem with any content changes on your web pages. Learn more about our e-commerce solutions.

We’ve helped retailers from Keen Footwear to Home Hardware overcome website challenges and reach their e-commerce goals through structured data. If you’d like to learn more about what we could do for your online business, get in touch!

The post Structured Data Markup for Google Merchant Center Feed appeared first on Schema App Solutions.