Schema Markup, also known as Structured Data, is a standardized vocabulary that helps search engines like Google understand the information on your web pages.

What are the Benefits of Schema Markup?

When your pages contain Schema Markup, it allows search engines and AI powered machines to gain a deep, semantic understanding of your website content, which offers a host of SEO related benefits for your business.

Schema Markup also enables search engines to display your content as a rich result under certain circumstances. These rich results are displayed prominently on the SERP and include extra information about a page, like ratings and reviews of local businesses.

However, as rich results come and go, the one thing that remains consistent is the semantic value of Schema Markup.

Here are some of the top benefits of Schema Markup.

1. Help Search Engines Better Understand Your Content

Humans are great at inferring the meaning of online content. Google, on the other hand, has to teach its tech to understand your content using machine learning.

That’s why search engines need extra help interpreting the meaning and intent of your site content. You can assist them by adding semantic Schema Markup to your web pages.

Schema Markup is a standardized vocabulary developed by Google, Yandex, Yahoo, and Bing. As such, these search engines can easily interpret the Structured Data on your page, allowing the algorithms to present users with content that better aligns with their search intent. It also helps search engines be more efficient because their machine learning and algorithms are built to understand Schema Markup.

2. Build a Knowledge Graph and Re-Use It Within Your Organization

At Schema App, we do more than just generate Schema Markup. We utilize our semantic technologies to generate connected Schema Markup to build a reusable marketing knowledge graph. This knowledge graph can then be used to inform search engines or train your LLMs using structured information about your business.

When you implement connected Schema Markup, you are defining the objects in your content as individual entities with their own properties and relationships to other entities. Once defined, these entities can be connected with the people, places, things and concepts that other authorities have described like Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Google’s Knowledge Graph. Your Schema markup can even enhance your Google Knowledge Panel in search.

Building a knowledge graph using Schema Markup enables search engines to better understand the connections between your content, your organization, and other entities on the web. Search engines can use this information to infer new knowledge with greater context and accuracy.

At Schema App, we implement semantic Schema Markup and entity linking to assist customers in developing their knowledge graph. This knowledge graph enables search engines to effectively match your page with user search queries, driving higher qualified traffic and boosting click-through rates.

3. Be AI-Search Ready

Search engines are increasingly relying on artificial intelligence (AI) to provide users with more relevant answers to their queries. By implementing Schema Markup, you can enhance search engines’ understanding of your content. This, in turn, enables them to accurately match your content with your target audience, ensuring a more precise and effective user experience.

In Google’s podcast titled, “Structured Data, What’s it all about?”, Ryan Levering shared how machine learning and structured data go hand in hand. When you take into consideration that machine learning is the building block for AI, an action you can take to prepare for more AI in search (such as Bard and ChatGPT) is to adopt structured data to inform the machine learning about your content and have it be fully understood.

By using semantic Schema Markup to develop your knowledge graph, AI can tap into this resource and be grounded in more context. This provides them with a richer understanding of your brand and its associated entities.

By developing your knowledge graph, you are creating AI search-ready content.

4. Control How Your Brand Appears in Search

Adding Schema Markup to your web pages lets you exercise greater control over your brand’s appearance in search, empowering you to shape and manage your brand image. One of the key advantages of implementing Schema Markup lies in its capacity to establish a robust control point within your Knowledge Graph, by enabling you to communicate essential information about your organization and entities directly to AI search engines.

Without structured data, search engines rely on algorithms to infer details about your business, which can lead to inaccuracies and misunderstandings. However, with Schema Markup, you take the reins, grounding and informing the AI systems with precise, structured data. By doing so, you mitigate the risk of search engine “hallucinations” – where the algorithms misinterpret or misrepresent your brand.

Imagine your website displays two prices for the same product: one for members and another for non-members. Left unchecked, AI search engines might not recognize the difference, potentially displaying incorrect information in the SERP.

This lack of differentiation can severely impact the trustworthiness and clarity of your brand. However, by clearly indicating which pricing you want displayed using Schema Markup, you can accurately communicate these distinctions, guiding search engines to present the correct pricing information to the users.

Schema Markup is your safeguard against such discrepancies, ensuring your brand and products are accurately represented and preventing any potential confusion for users.

5. Help You Stand Out in Search With Rich Results

When Google understands your Schema Markup, it can use this data to show your content as a rich result (also known as rich snippets) on the SERP.

A standard search result will deliver a title, URL, and meta description. However, rich results include captivating images that draw users’ eyes to your search result and web page.

In total, Google has more than 32 different types of rich results. You can classify your content as local business content, recipes, articles, event pages, and more. If you’re promoting an event, you can improve its visibility by adding Event Structured Data, making your page eligible to appear in the event experience section on Google.

Once you add Schema Markup to your page, you can use Google’s rich results test to see which rich result your page is eligible for. We also suggest using the Schema Markup Validator on Schema.org to detect any mistakes in your Structured Data.

If you want to ensure that your Schema Markup efforts align with your overall branding strategy, here are some examples of rich results you can consider using.

Review Snippets

Review snippets provide prospective customers with reviews and ratings from your past customers and help improve your brand’s credibility in search results.

Product

Product rich results reveal sought-after details like pricing, availability, etc. You can generate more leads and increase interest in your product offerings by providing consumers with this information on the SERP. Beyond the fundamentals, you can also expand your Product rich result to include price drops, ratings, reviews, shipping details and more.

6. Drive Business Results

Schema Markup is an SEO strategy that can provide your company with measurable results and a strong return on investment.

You can use tools like Google Search Console and Schema Performance Analytics to closely monitor how your newly marked-up pages are performing.

When implemented strategically, Schema Markup can:

• Help ensure that your content appears in search results for highly relevant queries. This means that the traffic you receive is more likely to be interested in your products or services, which leads to increased CTR and an overall higher likelihood of conversion and engagement.
• Make your search results more appealing and informative to users, leading to higher CTR. Rich results can provide users with additional information about your content, such as star ratings, prices, and product availability, making them more likely to click your link.
• Be particularly beneficial for local businesses. By marking up local business information, you can improve your visibility in local search results and map listings, driving foot traffic to your physical locations.

Achieving robust results with Schema Markup isn’t unusual. At Schema App, we’ve seen customers across a wide range of industries achieve great results with this SEO strategy.

For instance, SAP saw a 400% growth in clicks from rich results after working with our team, and Sharp Healthcare enjoyed an 843% increase in clicks in just nine months.

As more businesses recognize the benefits of Schema Markup, implementing it can give you a competitive edge. Your content will stand out in search results and provide a more comprehensive, informative, and trustworthy experience to users.

7. Attract Job Applicants

You can incorporate Schema Markup into job postings to help attract quality talent. By applying Structured Data to your job listing pages, your job posting will be eligible for display among Google’s job search experience results.

Top listings are displayed at the top of the SERP. If your listings make the cut, they’ll feature reviews, ratings from past employees, job details, and your company logo.

8. Improve Your Content Strategy

Chances are that you’re already investing heavily in creating SEO content, optimizing it for priority keywords, and engaging in other on-page SEO tactics to rank higher on the SERP. Unfortunately, your competitors are likely doing the same.

Fortunately, you can beat the competition and inform your content strategy by utilizing Schema Markup. Thinking about your content from the perspective of the rich results you want to achieve can help to generate ideas for new content or existing content. If you want your page to be eligible for a Review Snippet, you can improve your content by adding customer reviews and ratings on your site.

Start by looking at Google’s Structured Data Guidelines, then generate the required Schema Markup using Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper or our Schema App Editor. Once you’ve generated the markup, you can add the Schema Markup to your pages so your content can stand out as a rich result.

You can go one step further to create connected Schema Markup by linking the topic covered in your content to the Wikipedia or Wikidata page for the specific topic within your Schema Markup.

Read our step-by-step guide to learn how to develop a Schema Markup strategy for your website.

Start implementing Schema Markup today

The benefits of Schema Markup are undeniable.

When you add Schema Markup to your website, you’ll help search engines understand your content and make your pages more visible in organic search. In turn, you’ll increase your click-through rates and generate more organic traffic for your web pages.

Any business with an online presence can generate measurable results using Structured Data. However, to tap into the full potential of Schema Markup and stand out online, you must build, manage and optimize it as part of your ongoing site strategy. Otherwise, you’ll encounter issues like Schema Drift which hinder your ability to achieve rich results.

The good news is you can streamline the implementation and management of your Schema Markup by working with Schema App. We work with enterprise SEO teams to fully leverage the benefits of Schema Markup. Contact us today to learn more.

The post 8 Benefits of Schema Markup and Why It’s Important for SEO appeared first on Schema App Solutions.

Schema Markup (aka Structured Data) can help your websites stand out in search and drive traffic to your site. However, calculating the return on investment on your Schema Markup efforts can be tough – even more so when you’re trying to measure value by department, geography location, or line of business.

To solve this challenge, we’re excited to announce Page-Level Report – a new reporting dashboard on Schema App’s Schema Performance Analytics (SPA) platform.

What is the SPA Page Level Report?

The new SPA Page Level Report combines data from Google Search Console and Schema App’s Highlighter and Editor. This allows users to customize their reporting and gain more granular, page-level insights on their Schema Markup strategy and performance.

Users can see the performance metrics (clicks, impressions, click-through rate) by URLs, date, and query, as well as the performance of a specific URL and the corresponding query in a single table.

What insights can I gain from the SPA Page Level Report?

Stakeholder Reporting

With the Page Level Report, users can filter their data by groups of pages/URLs using the URL Match and URL Wildcard filters. This feature enables users to view their performance based on certain groups of URLs, departments or lines of business.

They can then report to each business unit on their Schema Markup share, allowing each area of the business to better measure the ROI of Schema Markup on their business unit and the impact SEO has on their business results.

Identify Opportunities for Content Improvement

With the Page Level Report, users can get insights on their top-performing keywords, rich results, and Schema App template. These insights can help users identify areas in their Schema Markup strategy that are working / not working and implement these learnings across their sites.

URLs without Schema Markup – Users can view the URLs that do not currently have any Schema Markup on the page and look at expanding their Schema coverage to those pages to be eligible for more types of rich results.

Filter by search appearances – Users can also see their mix of rich results. This information can help users identify opportunities to diversify their rich results and inform their content strategy moving forward.

Compare Performance over Different Time Periods

The Time Periods Comparison tab in Page Level Report will allow users to compare the performance of specific URLs over two time periods. Users can see trends or match the changes with their Schema Markup efforts to gain insights into the effectiveness of their strategy.

Downloads for Further Analysis

Unlike Google Search Console, Schema Performance Analytics enables users to export more than 1000 lines of data for further analysis. They can download an entire dashboard to PDF or download specific widgets to Excel. This dashboard can then be shared with different stakeholders and used for further analysis. 

Learn more about the 6 main reporting tabs in the Page Level Report dashboard here. 

Difference between Schema Performance Analytics and Google Search Console

Schema Performance Analytics provides users with data from Google Search Console, with the added ability to view more data. Users can also drill down further into data dimensions such as their Schema App template and branded keywords that are not available on GSC.

Here are some key differences between SPA and GSC.

Who can get access to SPA Page Level Report?

Schema Performance Analytics is available to all Schema App Enterprise Customers. The analytics reporting tool will help your SEO team better visualize the performance of their Schema Markup efforts and gain insights to inform their content strategy and continue to stand out in search. 

If you are currently a Schema App Enterprise Customer, please contact your Customer Success Manager to set up SPA. 

If you’re not currently a Schema App customer, we’d love to help you leverage Schema Markup to stand out in search. Get in touch with us today to learn more!

The post Introducing Schema Performance Analytics Page Level Report appeared first on Schema App Solutions.

The reason I share that is that you have now inferred that you are three degrees from Kevin Bacon since I’m two degrees from Kevin Bacon. The same inference that you just made for Kevin Bacon is the same type of inferencing that Google does when trying to figure out how to provide searchers with the best answers to their questions.

In this article, we’re going to talk about schema markup and structured data. I’ll use those terms interchangeably, although I do prefer schema markup because it’s actually meant to disambiguate the definition of things, whereas structured data can be lots of different things.

If you’re not familiar with it, it’s what helps search engines truly understand the content so that it can best match things with the searcher’s intent and also reward you with rich results.

1. ROI Beyond Rich Results

Schema markup provides ROI (return on investment) beyond just rich results. Google’s John Mueller stated that it’s not just about rich results, but really promoting understanding, which provides great value. In our work with customers, from small/medium business all the way up through large enterprise, but specifically focused on enterprise clients, we’re seeing outstanding results.

Not just in impressions and click-through rates, but all the way through to customer journey including impact to rank, more interaction with the content, more time spent on sites, and eventually even higher revenue.

In May 2019, Google announced that they had a specific motivation for continuing to invest in structured data.

It was during Google IO that they talked about how users are trying to reach out at different moments and through different services, so different times of their day and through different devices or surfaces (think of your phone, your car). This is a great opportunity for content creators, despite building and maintaining those customer experiences being hard work.

They said this is why they’re doing structured data: if we focus on building amazing content and translating it into structured data, Google will then help reach those users across those different surfaces and those different experiences. What this means is that when you’ve optimized with structured data, you’ve actually optimized not only for search but also for voice. 

2. Errors, Warnings and Content Strategy

The schema markup process starts with strategy, and then moves into authoring where the JSON-LD or schema markup is created. You then have to get it on to the site through deployment. Over time you’ll need to maintain it, either if you get new results, new content, or changes to the layout of your page. You then report and analyze it and then go back to strategy – it’s an iterative process. 

When you get Google errors and warnings, it doesn’t always mean that there’s anything wrong with your structured data. It just means that the required and recommended fields that Google is looking for in order to qualify for those rich results and present the content appropriately aren’t being met.

When you get a warning or an error, it’s just a matter of addressing the fact that the content isn’t visible on the page. Once that is understood, you can add the content, optimize it, and eliminate the errors and warnings.

While Google errors and warnings mean that your rich results eligibility could be at risk, it doesn’t actually mean that the way you’ve written your structured data is wrong.

One example is that we at Schema App don’t put a salary on our job postings. That’s a choice we make for the business not to include that information. But because of this omission, we receive an error or warning that that content is missing for JobPosting rich result eligibility, but we just dismiss it because it’s not appropriate to our content.

3. Schema.org Extensions and Actions

Schema.org extensions are entire vocabularies that have been written for specific areas of the industry. There’s one for Automotive, one for Health and Life Science, one that’s just started around the Internet of Things, a bibliographics one around Library Sciences, and then Finance (sometimes referred to as FIBO).

The finance extension has actually been merged into the overall schema.org vocabulary. This allows for an even more specific language that you can use to describe things within these other industries. If ever you’re trying to describe a business, but it’s a medical business, or an article that is a medical article, you can look at schema.org for specific examples or specific classes that describe those things within those industries. 

The other piece that is hugely underutilized is ‘actions’. There are roughly 14 specific actions that you can use.  Here’s a list of some of them:

• CreateAction
• FindAction
• PlayAction
• SearchAction

The more users start interacting through these different services, the more relevant they will become. You won’t always be looking at content with your eyes on a browser on your computer. You might be interacting with it through a voice channel or while you’re driving in your car. The actions that you can take, or that your assistant will give you options for, can actually be defined in the structured data so that interaction can take place.

This is an important area to understand, as it allows the user to take that clickbait into action and ensures the content is relevant across any surface.

4. “Proper” Connected Schema Markup

At Schema App, we love to talk about connected schema markup. It’s very common for people when doing structured data to exclusively seeking rich results, but there is so much more to it. In order to get that understanding piece that John Mueller was talking about, you actually have to connect the dots in order for search engines to understand the context of how things are connected on your pages.

For example, from my introduction, you know how I’m connected to MIT, Schema App and Kevin Bacon. You can do the same thing with your content.

Here are some tips and tools for you to figure out how to ensure that you’re fully optimizing on not only rich results, but how your information is connected: 

Don’t Put the Same Schema Markup on Every Page

We’re talking about plugins or other things that put Organization markup on every page. The reason this isn’t ideal is because if the same markup describing exactly the same thing is on every page, then search engines don’t actually know which page is really talking about that thing. You want to be really specific so that you can bring clarity on what it is you do.

Don’t Create Islands of Schema Markup

An example of this would be creating your locations, your organization and your products, but not describing how they’re connected.

Here are some tips on how to do that appropriately:

Ensure You are Telling the Story

The most important thing you can do with your schema markup is make sure that you’re telling the story; you’re explaining how these things are all connected. This is really what then yields a knowledge graph. It’s not just doing schema markup but doing proper schema markup where it’s really well connected.

Here is an example of ensuring the connections on your page are explained appropriately:

We’re going to look at a food establishment with an amazing marketing video on it. How do we actually say how those things are connected? We don’t want to have two entities where we have just a video and just a food establishment – we want to make sure they’re embedded. 

If you go to Schema App, we have a free tool that helps you figure out how to connect them.

Schema Paths Tool

Go to Resources > Tools > Schema Paths. 

Schema Paths was developed by my co-founder Mark when he got tired of going to schema.org to figure out how he was going to relate two different things. Within Schema Paths, you can simply just pick the two different classes. In this case, you would choose a food establishment and a video object and it will tell you how you can relate those two things.

For example, ‘subjectOf’ is the appropriate way to connect the food establishment as the subject of the video. This would be a really clean way of applying it so that the primary entity on the page is around the food establishment. It highlights that it is a page about the restaurant, and then embedded within that would be subjectOf, then you would link to the data item or link to the video object.

You can also relate it the other way: if the page was primarily about the video object then you might use about and say that it’s primarily about this video. The video is then about the food establishment and that way I’m being very clear as to which one is the primary entity of the page.

Use Strong Connectors

The other suggestion we have is to use very strong connectors. As you’re looking at linking things, use fields such as About, Mentions, subjectOf and hasPart.

For example, say you’re writing a news article and you want to be very clear that it’s about ‘Jack Ward the Cowboy’. You ideally want to use a Wikipedia entry in order to define who Jack Ward is. In this news article you could say that it mentions interstate 10 and also avocados. Again, starting to link key topics that were within the article to authoritative sources that clearly define those topics. In this news article you could say it’s the subjectOf the video object ‘The Bees’.

Now, a more advanced option is this example:

You have a very long web page that talks about a specific service that is being delivered. On the page are many FAQs about that service, as well as blogs related to the service. We would opt to classify it as a Collection Page because it contains many different things. We would use a very strong connector (About) to specify it’s about the service, and then hasPart FAQ. The FAQ then hasPart Questions and AcceptedAnswers and then it mentions BlogPostings.

As you can see the strong connector is the About field, and then the less strong ones are hasPart and mentions. This allows us to make sure that we’re still getting that rich result for the FAQ but that it’s all nicely connected so Google really understands how this information is related.

5. Main Entity of Page

The main entity of a page is really identifying the primary topic of the page. This often comes out if there’s different schema markup data items on a page. You could have a news article, a video that haven’t been embedded, and it leaves you wondering “what is this about?”

An example I often give is a scenario where there was an event site that had five different events on five different days. But, what is the primary event that we’re talking about? If there are different items on the page, ideally you would have embedded them and linked them like we just talked about. But if you don’t, it’s unclear which one of these is actually the main entity of the page.

The primary thing that is the primary topic of the page? In order to identify that, what you can do is use the property mainEntityOfPage and add in the URL of the page it’s on. Now, you would only pick one of these to do it on and then that would actually indicate to Google that this is the main topic of that page.

6. Multi-Type Entity

This is where you can actually merge two different schema.org classes and use properties across both of them. Where we see this really commonly used are situations like a house for sale or a house for rent. As you saw my previous example, it’s both a product and a single-family home. Or a comedy event on-air is both a comedy event and a broadcast event. A book for sale is both a product and a book. A hotel for rent is a product and a hotel room. You really want to do this only when it adds more clarity. Multi-type entities are where you merge those two. I believe Schema App is one of the only tools out there that allows you to do this both within our Editor as well as in our Highlighter, either one page at a time or across many.

7. Additional Type

Additional type also adds clarity to a schema.org type that maybe isn’t in the vocabulary. I always joke that there’s no local business class for a marketing agency even though digital marketing agencies make up a large portion of the people doing schema markup.

In this example we’re going to look at an orthodontist, hence the smiling face.  You would identify the type, which in this case it would be a dentist. Then for additional type I would use a Wikipedia entry to define more clearly what type of dentist I want. Think of this as a way to further clarify the type that you’re using within schema.org.

Now I was in Texas when I first presented this, and this is Texas Longhorn. So it’s not just a Thing, but there’s no animal class in schema.org. What I could do is use additionalType and use the Wikidata entry to further define what this is. The Wikidata is even more specific than Wikipedia since Wikipedia is often localized for different languages. When you see a number like this it means it’s identifying the entity in the Wikidata database, which then populates Wikipedia’s.  In this case I’m saying it’s not just a Thing; it is very much a Texas Longhorn as defined by that Wikidata entry.

8. Additional Property

All right, additionalProperty. AdditionalProperty allows you basically to use free variables to further describe something within a Product or so forth. As an example, let’s consider a camera. You might want to call out some specific features, such as the number of megapixels.

In this case you would use additionalProperty and you would create a data item using propertyValue. PropertyValue is really a property value pair where you define relationships between a variable and what its actual number or quantity is.

There are some things already set in here, like a max value measurement type, min value, name, etc. You always want to include name and then value; those would be the minimum. If you can find a unit code, such as a UNC fact code for megapixels, you can go above and beyond and also use that.

9. Lists: Item List, Collection, Offer Catalog

There are the basic kind of lists like a BreadcrumbList and a HowToSection and a HowToStep and an OfferCatalog. I decided to clarify when to use these lists. An item list is a list of any type of Thing. An OfferCatalog is a list of offerings, which could be a list of Products.

So, if you had a landing page on your store you would have an OfferCatalog. A CollectionPage is really interesting because it can kind of put a container around a list and then allow you to connect it. You saw this example when I showed this previously where this CollectionPage allows us to have lists within it, but then also use strong features or properties such as About and Mentions.

10. Analytics

Structured data really goes beyond search – it can also help you structure other things like your analytics. Schema App recently released a Trend Report for all our clients and this replaces the Google Structured Data Report that used to be in Search Console. It allows you to track your schema markup over time. We also have an offering called Enhanced Analytics which allows you to take the schema markup that you’ve built and add any property into Google Analytics and soon into Adobe Analytics.

In this example we wanted to ask the question “Which author gets the best results?” We’ve taken the schema markup out of our WordPress plugin, loaded it programmatically into Google Analytics, and lo and behold Martha and Schema (who Mark says is him in his Admin mode).

What this tells me is that I should continue to write the content because my posts drive the most sessions. You can imagine there are a lot of insights that you can start getting now from your search data if you reuse that structured data.

Get in Touch

If you’re interested in learning more, feel free to reach out to us at Schema App. We’re happy to show you more about Enhanced Analytics.

If you need a hand getting started with your structured data strategy, we’ve helped customers such as SAP and Keen Footwear drive more quality search traffic to their websites. 

The post 10 Things You Don’t Know About Structured Data appeared first on Schema App Solutions.

Assuming you want to know both, this article breaks down which tools to use, and how to use them.

Schema Markup doesn’t stop with deployment. By properly defining entities in your content through structured data like Schema Markup, these entities can be linked to a search engine’s knowledge graph. Knowledge graphs connect information from all across the web, and structured data helps search engines like Google contextualize your content to better match your site with search queries.

Your content can also be eligible for rich results in search, which can help your brand stand out from the competition.

For example, for two eCommerce stores selling the same product, if one displays the price, customer ratings, and reviews and the other does not, our eyes are typically drawn to the differences. This additional information can all be included in your Schema Markup as long as you follow Google’s structured data guidelines.

Test that your Schema Markup is working using the following methods so that your website doesn’t miss out on the opportunities of structured data.

Has my Schema Markup Been Successfully Deployed?

The first step is to make sure that your markup is on the page.

If you are copying and pasting the JSON-LD into the page, you can simply right-click on the web page, view the source and search within the elements tab for “LD+JSON” to see if the code is there.

If you are using Schema App or Google Tag Manager to deploy your code, it’s easier to use Google’s Rich Result Testing Tool for rich result eligibility and the Schema Markup Validator (SMV) for any errors in your Schema Markup syntax.

Alternatively, you can wait and check within Google Search Console to report on the rich results or features tied to certain structured data. This could take anywhere from a few days up to a month, depending on how regularly Google crawls your site.

For websites that populate the Schema Markup dynamically, e.g. using JavaScript, then only the Schema Markup Validator will show these results.

Dynamic Schema Markup requires the structured data testing tool to load the HTML and process JavaScript, something Google has supported for a couple of years.

If you create Schema Markup using inline HTML (e.g. microdata, RDFa) or the JSON-LD is created Server side, all tools should work.

Are There Any Errors in the Implementation?

It’s very important that you check your Schema Markup to ensure it is working hard behind the scenes for your website. While you are waiting for the Google Search Console results to appear, there are a variety of tools that allow you to check for any errors or warnings that your markup may be generating.

Schema Markup Validator (SMV)

The Schema Markup Validator went live May 2021, and officially replaced Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool on August 9th, 2021. Google originally intended the Rich Results Testing Tool to replace the SDTT, but following backlash about this change Google decided to incorporate validation tooling into Schema.Org to support SEOs as they test their structured data markup.

The Schema Markup Validator is based on the Google Structured Data Testing Tool and is essentially a Schema Markup checker. The service, provided by Google for the Schema.Org community, can validate Schema.Org based structured data embedded in web pages, otherwise known as Schema Markup.

The SMV has the ability to extract JSON-LD, RDFa, and Microdata markup, display a summary of the extracted structured data, and identify syntax mistakes in the markup.

Rich Results Testing Tool (RRTT)

The Rich Results Testing Tool supports all rich result features, and is most closely aligned with Google Search Console. This tool lists all the rich results one page may be eligible for, and—in some instances—shows you a preview of how your rich result could appear in the SERP.

It’s important to remember that the Rich Results Testing Tool only validates schema.org Types that are eligible for rich results in search. If you’re using Types that aren’t eligible for rich results, view the “raw” JSON-LD, to ensure it’s being crawled, but that’s it.

If you want a comprehensive view of all markup on a page, rather than only the types that are eligible for rich results, this tool is best used in tandem with other structured data testing tools.

Schema App’s Analyzer

The Schema App Analyzer validates markup site-wide, for up to 10K pages. Run the Analyzer on any site and discover JSON-LD, RDFa and microdata, even when loaded dynamically.

Once the site has been crawled, the Analyzer provides a comprehensive health report in the form of data visualization and a list of “Items Analyzed” by Type. Clicking “Show Details” for a specific item presents a list of each URL containing that item and a breakdown of any errors or warnings.

Since this tool validates schema.org syntax, it follows more stringent rules. These can guide your Schema Markup beyond just the requirements of Google features.

The Schema App Analyzer identifies markup that Google won’t be able to read as a result of site speed issues. If you see errors or warnings about “missing” properties that definitely exist on your page, you should investigate site speed to ensure all your markup is visible to search engine crawlers.

Ultimately, this tool provides a micro and macro view of the overall health of your markup, pointing out what to revisit for enhanced performance.

The Analyzer is available to all Schema App subscribers from Pro through to Enterprise.

Note: Be on the lookout for imminent changes to the Analyzer, as we are readying reports to provide new ways of understanding your Schema Markup:

• Schema Markup by Type
• Schema Markup by Error / Warning
• Schema Markup by Page Path
• Schema Markup by Google Feature

Moreover, an updated user flow and historical view of your data will show how your markup is trending over time.

Schema App’s Structured Data Tester 

The Schema App Structured Data Tester can be found in the “Maintenance” tab in Schema App. Enter any URL, and this tool will display the Schema Markup found on that page. It is the only testing tool that displays dynamic schema.org data and does not cache the results.

Having a testing tool integrated within Schema App improves your markup workflow so you don’t always have to go to another site to check your markup.

We recommend getting into the habit of using at least one of these tools when authoring your markup. It not only confirms whether it’s deployed correctly but also gives you an idea of the scope of your markup, allowing you to assess its accuracy.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console is an excellent tool for monitoring both whether your markup is valid, and the impact it’s having on site performance. For more information about using Google Search Console, check out our article How to Measure the Impact of Structured Data.

Frequently Asked Questions About Testing Schema Markup

How do I know if my site has Schema Markup?

There are several tools you can use to know if your site has Schema Markup.

Google Search Console provides insights into how Googlebot views your website. Within Google Search Console, you can check the “Enhancements” section to see if Google has detected and processed your structured data.

Schema.org Validator allows you to input a URL and check for Schema Markup. It provides a detailed report of the structured data found on your webpage.

Rich Results Testing Tool is another valuable tool provided by Google for checking and validating structured data on a webpage, specifically focusing on how it may impact search results. This tool will state whether the markup is valid to create an eligible rich result and whether any opportunities exist to improve the item’s appearance. From there, it also states whether there are any errors in the markup to identify what needs to be addressed to create a valid instance. This is particularly useful for websites looking to visually enhance their appearance in search using structured data.

Before you add custom schema markup to your website, it is important to review your site for any existing markup. Many SEO plugins like Yoast tend to automatically inject Schema Markup on your site. Though convenient, the markup added by these plugins tends to be generic and less customizable.

Therefore, we recommend checking to see if your site has any existing Schema Markup before you go ahead and implement custom Schema Markup that accurately describes your website content. That way, you can remove any existing markup added by any plugins and prevent duplicate markup issues.

Where do I start with Schema Markup?

When you decide to implement Schema Markup on a website, first identify what pages you want to optimize. From there, decide what part of the schema.org vocabulary will achieve the best organic search results and most Google rich results. Start with developing your schema strategy using our guide: How to Develop a Schema Markup Strategy for a Website.

Then, move to authoring and deployment. Schema App makes Schema Markup implementation and validation easy. Our expert tools help you mark up your content with structured data—no coding required on your part! Validate your Schema Markup using the tips and tools we mentioned in this article.

How do I find errors in my Schema Markup?

The first step is to make sure that your markup is on the page using the Schema Markup Validator (SMV). You can also use Google Search Console to report on the rich results or features tied to certain structured data. Another powerful tool is Schema App’s Analyzer, which validates markup side-wide for up to 10K pages.

What is the purpose of Schema Markup?

Adding Schema Markup to existing pages helps search engines find information and present it to users through engaging rich results. Schema Markup is code added to your website that translates content into a language search engines understand. This advanced SEO strategy can increase your E-E-A-T, improve your brand findability, and help your online business drive more quality organic traffic to your website.

There are plenty of helpful tools out there to gauge whether your markup is working. We have experience with testing Schema Markup for enterprise organizations and have created testing tools for testing at scale. 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. We deliver your online business goals using our structured data expertise and advanced technology.

The post Schema Markup Checker: How to Test If Your Schema Markup Works appeared first on Schema App Solutions.

Users are often trying to figure out what properties they should include because they want to:

1. Achieve a rich result on Google
2. Fix issues that appear on the Schema Markup Validator (SMV) or Google’s Rich Result Testing Tool.

Schema.org itself does not have any required fields. Therefore, it is important to decide what outcome you are trying to achieve from implementing Schema Markup before picking the right properties to utilize.

In this article, we will explore the Schema.org vocabulary and help you understand which properties to use for your markup.

Schema.org Does not Require Fields

Schema.org is a standardized vocabulary. It provides a list of types and properties that you can use to describe the content on your site.

The closest Schema.org comes to requirements are property restrictions so that you provide the expected values. For example, the description property on Schema.org expects you to provide a text value for the property, while the offers property expects users to describe the Offer (another Schema.org Type).

Schema.org Data Consumers Require Fields

The consumer of the schema.org applies requirements based on the use case.

Google’s Search Documentation for the Recipe Data Type lists several required and recommended fields. These properties are required in the Schema.org markup to meet the needs of the Recipe Use Cases. If you are not interested in achieving a rich result, your markup is still valid if you don’t include the required properties.

Google SDTT Recipe Validation Error

Schema App Required & Recommended Fields

Many people find schema.org requires a steep learning curve, I believe it’s because there is so much choice. Nearly 600 data types and 800 properties can appear daunting for beginners. For most intents and purposes users want guidance for schema.org fields to prioritize their efforts.

While Schema App has had some validation rules for some time, e.g. Organization require Name, Logo, we have significantly extended the ruleset. We now have 211 schema.org rules that mirror Google’s Structured Data Search Documentation.

The Schema App Editor property layout is reorganized based on these rules, pulling up the required and recommended fields to the top, while the remaining properties specific to each class remain below. As before, you can still save data items without filling in required fields, it will show you a warning and ask for confirmation.

Schema.org/Recipe Required & Recommend Fields

Moreover, we built rules into the Data Items report to quickly see errors and warnings.

Data Items Errors & Warnings

At Schema App, we offer comprehensive schema markup reporting tools to make sure you are maximizing your results from structured data. Set up a strategy call with our technical experts today!

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