Search engine optimization is a long-term investment, but during periods of change in user behavior SEO can also be your greatest short-term ally. Remember that SEO doesn’t just increase traffic to your website; it also drives higher-quality traffic. Users finding their way to your site are interested in what you have to offer because of how you’ve communicated your business in search, underlining how SEO helps you identify more qualified leads for your business. 

For example, many patients begin their healthcare journey in Google search. When choosing a provider, they want to know things like the area served, the contact hours, how to book an appointment, and any medical specialties.

With structured data markup, you have more control over what information appears in search engine results pages, and how it appears. This additional information is displayed through enhanced Google search features like rich results, that allow you to stand out from your competition.

What is Structured Data Markup?

Structured data markup is metadata that can be added to the backend of your website. In SEO, this usually refers to Schema.org, a specific structured data vocabulary created by Google, Microsoft, Yandex and Yahoo! back in 2014. This standardized vocabulary is always being updated with new types and properties to categorize and connect data.

The fact that Google continues to invest in schema markup demonstrates that it’s an investment worth making for your website. It essentially provides an enhanced description of your content that allows search engines to relay additional information in search through engaging rich results and other Google features.  The more that Google understands, the better it can match your content to a user’s search query.

When getting started, it helps to think of structured data as a way of defining entities across your web pages, and connecting them in a graph. Your homepage will be your primary entity, or entity home, so it’s best to add markup to that page first. Typically, you’ll want to mark up your homepage as either an Organization, LocalBusiness, or a more specific subtype. Our Ultimate How-to Guide for Local Business Schema Markup can help you establish which type to use, and which properties are most useful for describing your homepage. 

One of the benefits of LocalBusiness schema is that Google uses the information in your markup to enhance your local Google Knowledge Panel, which is the information box that appears on the right side of desktop search results, and at the top and throughout the search engine results page (SERP) for mobile devices.

Schema Markup Enhances your Google Knowledge Panel

If you’re a small or medium-sized business offering local or essential services, keeping your Google Business Profile (GBP) up-to-date is so important during times of change. Marking up your website with LocalBusiness structured data can also enhance your Google Knowledge Panel. Most consumers don’t become customers immediately, which is why increasing your findability and viewability in search engine page results will help you nurture that customer journey from start to finish. 

It’s important to note that there are many subclasses of LocalBusiness schema, including AnimalShelter, ChildCare, Dentist, ShoppingCenter, and more! See the full list in our guide. Try to be as specific as possible when defining your type of  business, but if there isn’t an existing type at schema.org LocalBusiness will do just fine.

Demonstrate your credibility by letting customers leave reviews, and then mark up that content with Review structured data while following Google’s structured data guidelines. Here are some important technical guidelines for Review schema markup to keep in mind, pulled from Google’s documentation:

• Mark up an aggregate evaluation of an item with AggregateRating schema
• Refer to a specific product or service by nesting the review in the markup of another schema.org type, like Book or Recipe, or by using a schema.org type as the value for itemReviewed
• Your reviews and ratings should be immediately available to users from the marked up page
• Reviews should be about a specific item, not a category or list of items
• Don’t aggregate reviews from other websites
• For a LocalBusiness or Organization, your markup is not eligible for star review features if the entity being reviewed, aka your local business or organization, controls those reviews. In other words, don’t review yourself and mark those reviews up with structured data! 
• Your ratings should be directly sourced from users
• Don’t use human editors to create, curate, or compile ratings or reviews for a local business

Learn more about creating review schema markup in our guide.

You’re building trust and familiarity with your brand, both with your customers and with search engines. Publishing quality content engages and converts more quality leads, and the more engaging touchpoints you have, the more likely quality prospects will get in touch with you.

Diversify Your Rich Results Portfolio

In the height of COVID and vaccinations, people need reliable and up-to-date information. Google introduced the SpecialAnnouncement schema.org type, the markup of which was used for urgent announcements published by locally-oriented organizations such as schools, pharmacies, healthcare providers, community groups, police, and local governments. Learn more about implementing SpecialAnnouncement structured data in our Guide to COVID-19 Structured Data.

On May 20th, 2021, we suddenly saw this type of rich result drop off. That is why we recommend diversifying the rich results that your content is eligible for. We expect medical organizations to create new content that is in line with any changes in the healthcare industry, but making sure that rich result eligibility is part of your content strategy will set you up for success in terms of your search engine optimization performance. 

Here is a list of the rich results available through Google’s Search Gallery:

To learn more about each rich result opportunity, click on the links in our list above or explore the Search Gallery here.

It is even possible to achieve more rich result opportunities through multi-type entities. 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 Local Business 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.

Diversification of rich results prepares your SEO team to switch focus from one search enhancement to another whenever there are updates to Google’s structured data documentation, demonstrating the agility a robust structured data strategy provides.

Google Continues to Invest in Schema Markup

As we mentioned above, Google continues to demonstrate their investment in schema markup by regularly updating their structured data documentation, and introducing new schema.org properties.

We always get excited about new schema markup properties, because that means more opportunities for our customers to maximize their results from structured data! Your schema markup should stay updated and in line with the visible content on your website, so as not to violate any of Google’s structured data guidelines.

There have already been two hearty schema.org releases this year, but in 2020 we saw eleven releases, so we are expecting many more to come before the end of 2021. Some of our favorites from this most recent release include a number of terms proposed by the Bioschemas project, additions around ecommerce returns and job postings, and the addition of startOffset to the SeekToAction schema.org type for Videos. Read more about this latest release in our news post.

Keeping an eye on new schema.org releases and updates to Google’s structured data documentation will help you diversify your rich result portfolio, as you never know when the next opportunity for your content to stand out in search will come along. Having the foundation in place across your site gives you a head start. Sign up for the Schema App Newsletter to receive regular updates to the schema markup vocabulary and Google’s structured data guidelines.

Example of Healthcare Client being Agile with Structured Data

Here’s an example. One of our healthcare clients is currently restructuring their service lines and simultaneously using structured data to inform their content strategy by targeting different audiences in different geographic locations. This is one way structured data can make your SEO team more agile. 

Through structured data, they’re implementing a number of pending schema.org types and properties that were introduced to support medical content. This follows our best practice of diversifying your rich result portfolio by remaining informed of any updates to the schema.org vocabulary.

SEO is especially important for healthcare organizations, as their success relies on how easily users can find them online. In August of 2018, Google rolled out a core update named the “Medic” update, which disproportionately affected sites in the health and wellness vertical as part of a large-scale impact across all verticals. Structured data has become even more strategic for healthcare organizations as they try to regain any SEO ground lost from said update.

How the Schema App Highlighter Increases Your SEO Agility

At Schema App, one of our key values is agility. Technology is advancing quickly, but the ability to be agile means we are prepared for anything at any time. That’s why we created the Schema App Highlighter, a world-class, scalable structured data authoring and management platform. 

One of the best parts about the Highlighter is that you don’t need to write a line of code! The tool does it for you at scale and with accuracy. Because the Highlighter is dynamic, any changes made to your content will be reflected in your structured data automatically, and any changes to Google’s Documentation will be reflected in our tools. If you make any changes to your website structure, the Highlighter can accommodate this with ease. You’ll also be working with a schema markup expert from our Customer Success team, who is always up to date with Google’s changes to structured data so you don’t have to be.

We have seen significant increases in how our physicians are being found. Physician bio clips increased 90% from 150,000 clicks to about 285,000 clicks and we saw a 38% increase in the click-through rate of the search results as well”

— Brandi West, Executive Director, Digital Brand & Content Strategy I Digital Marketing, AdventHealth

How does your website content currently look in search results? How do you want it to look? Structured data markup gives you more control over what content appears in search, and how it appears. A diverse portfolio of rich results will empower your SEO team to be more agile, letting them focus on strategy and when/where to add more structured data markup to your website instead of chasing after trending keyphrases for short-term boosts of traffic.

We’ve helped customers across multiple industries diversify their digital strategies with a robust schema markup portfolio, but especially in healthcare where the rich result opportunities are vast, and building trust with patients is important. If you need help getting started with your structured data markup or want to analyze the rich result opportunities on your website, set up a call with our technical experts today!

The post How to be Agile with Structured Data in a Changing SEO World appeared first on Schema App Solutions.

Google Knowledge Panels are information boxes that appear in search results when Google recognizes an entity in a user’s search query. Google pulls this information from entities defined in its knowledge graph and from trusted resources like Wikipedia. You can help Google along by feeding and enhancing your local or branded knowledge panel through structured data like schema markup.

What do knowledge panels look like on mobile devices?

On mobile, screen size doesn’t allow for side-by-side display so information from Google’s Knowledge Graph may be presented by one or more knowledge panels spread among the search engine page results. Mobile knowledge panels for companies display information similar to the desktop version including:

• Company name
• Company Logo
• Link to the company’s website
• Summary of the company
• Contact information
• Links to social media
• Stock prices and revenue (if available and/or applicable)
• People Also Search For carousel

For topic matter, mobile knowledge panels don’t show as much information as a desktop experience because of the limited screen size. 

For people, mobile knowledge panels start to get really interesting. Instead of showing a logo like company knowledge panels or corporate panels, for people Google knowledge panels show a carousel of images for the entity in question in a mobile experience. Other carousels that may show at the bottom of a person’s knowledge panel are videos, books, and of course People Also Search For. What’s really awesome about mobile knowledge panels is that they will show pertinent information for the entity being searched for. For example, when searching for LeBron James the mobile knowledge panel displays his height, because as a professional basketball player this information is relevant to the search query.

Another feature of mobile knowledge panels is to categorize and display the information in tabs. Looking back at our LeBron James example, you can see  different data displayed based on which tab is chosen.

What are the types of Google Knowledge Panels?

There are two types of Google Knowledge Panels: Local and Branded (ex. Organization, Person). This article will explain the differences between them and how to use structured data markup to get a knowledge panel for your online business.

Local Knowledge Panel

Local knowledge panels are information boxes that appear when Google interprets a search query to have local intent. For example, if I search for “Block Three Brewing Company St Jacobs”, a local brewery, its local knowledge panel will display because Google has determined that my search had local intent. You will also see multiple knowledge panels showing throughout the search engine page results.

The first step to getting a local knowledge panel for your company is to create a Google Business Profile account. Google Business Profile (GBP) is the catalyst for a local knowledge panel to show in search results. Once created, you can verify that you’re the owner of that business and start adding in any relevant information that you want to display in Google search. Your Google Business Profile can show your company’s phone number, customer ratings and reviews, address, hours, and more! This information can also be shown in your local knowledge panel.

Structured Data for Local Knowledge Panels

You should also verify your website within Google Search Console and add LocalBusiness schema markup. Through this structured data, you define your business as an entity for Google and connect it to other entities defined in Google’s Knowledge Graph. This way, search engines can contextualize your website content and better match it to a user’s search query. Structured data will also increase the chance of Google showing your local knowledge panel in search.

Branded or Personal Knowledge Panels

You can’t apply for a personal or branded knowledge panel, and Google will decide whether you or your brand has enough credibility and authority to warrant one. People and brands who are well-known and have Wikipedia pages dedicated to them often have a knowledge panel appear in Google search. See how Canadian actor Ryan Gosling has a personal Google Knowledge Panel.

However, you don’t need a Wikipedia page to have a personal knowledge panel! Schema App COO and the creator of Schema App Mark van Berkel has a personal knowledge panel without one because he is an established figure in his field with multiple sources and publications supporting his authority.

Personal knowledge panels are particularly challenging for Google. There may be hundreds or thousands of people across the web with the same name, and this ambiguity can lead to confusion for the information within knowledge panels. You can see why defining a home for your entity, the subject of the personal knowledge graph, is so important. Here’s where structured data comes in.

Structured Data for Branded Knowledge Panels

This “entity home” is the authoritative source of information for Google to reference. Examples of entity homes for people are an about me page or homepage on the person’s personal site, the about me page on the person’s company website, or a social profile. We recommend choosing an owned domain instead of a social media profile, as they are only semi-owned so you don’t have absolute authority. Once you have decided on your entity home, mark up all relevant information with structured data to help Google understand the content and better display it in your knowledge panel.

When do knowledge panels appear?

A knowledge panel will appear when Google recognizes an entity in a user’s search query. An entity, or a named entity, is a single, well-defined thing or concept. You can use specific identifiers like @ids or URIs to define objects in your web content as distinct entities with their own properties and relationships to other entities. Once defined, you can link them to Google’s Knowledge Graph using structured data. Once you’ve achieved a Knowledge Graph, your entity will receive a unique URL defining it as a part of Google’s Knowledge Graph. This can be found by clicking the share button beside the entity’s name.

Within your homepage markup, you can then use sameAs to link your organization to the knowledge graph URL, creating another credibility loop for your brand. Link the information on your website to other entities in other knowledge graphs with high E-E-A-T like Wikipedia pages. For example, you can support local search for your brand or local business by using the areaServed property to link to the Wikipedia page for that city, region, or country. Knowledge graphs, more generally, represent the linking of information and data across the web, which allows search engines to contextualize the content you mark up on your website. 

The information shown in knowledge panels comes from sources trusted by search engines to have high E-E-A-T. These sources include Wikipedia, Wikidata, LinkedIn, Facebook, and many others. If Google is confident that this information is correct, it is stored in its knowledge graph.

How does structured data feed and enhance knowledge panels?

Is structured data a direct trigger for Google knowledge panels? The answer is no, but it does feed and enhance your knowledge panel. Adding markup to your website translates your human-readable content into the machine-readable language of JSON-LD, making it easier for search engines to catalogue and contextualize the data on your website.

You’ll likely type your homepage as either a Person, an Organization, a LocalBusiness, or a more specific subtype. Generally speaking, you should use the LocalBusiness type 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, a brand, or a service provider that does house calls—the Organization type may be the better choice. 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. 

Refer to our Ultimate How-to Guide for Local Business Schema Markup to help you get started!

Adding schema markup to your homepage means your website can be the authoritative source of information for Google’s Knowledge Graph, rather than relying on a Wikipedia page (which you don’t own) or your LinkedIn or Twitter profile (which you only semi-own). 

But wait, didn’t we say above that the information shown in knowledge panels comes from trusted sources like Wikipedia or LinkedIn? This is another area where structured data can help! As you build your homepage schema, be sure to use the sameAs property to link to the appropriate Wikipedia page, LinkedIn profile or Twitter profile and leverage the additional E-E-A-T of these resources. Information about your organization should be consistent across all connected sources, and better yet, if those sources link back to your entity home you create an infinite loop of credibility. Everything is connected!

Advanced Tip: use the schema.org property type knowsAbout within your Person or Organization markup to link to an external vocabulary URL, such as Wikipedia, to connect your structured data to Google’s Knowledge Graph.

While Wikipedia is often used by Google to populate knowledge panels, control over your knowledge panel is key for your credibility. So, managing the information internally and through schema markup is the best route to take.

How long until my knowledge panel starts showing on Google?

The timeline for your knowledge panel to appear varies. If you’re relying on a Wikipedia article for your organization, your knowledge panel could appear in a few days. If you don’t rely on Wikipedia, it could take a few months. In this case, it’s better to wait so you have more control over the information appearing in your knowledge panel.

How do I claim my knowledge panel?

Before you can claim your knowledge panel, you need to be verified by Google as an authorized representative of your organization:

1. Ensure that you have a Google account and, if not, create a new one
2. Go to Google Search
3. Search for yourself or for your organization (the entity you are representing for the knowledge panel)
4. Scroll to the bottom and click Claim This Knowledge Panel

When you click on the option to “Claim this Knowledge Panel”, you’ll be redirected to Google Search Console. Learn more about claiming your Google Knowledge Panel here.

Why should my brand have a knowledge panel?

We’re used to seeing knowledge panels for prominent brands in search results, so if your brand is missing a knowledge panel, you may not appear as credible to users. Your brand will be able to capture users at different parts of the customer journey and funnel by providing information about your organization through your knowledge panel.

Helping you get a knowledge panel for your organization is only one of the many benefits that come from structured data markup. We’ve helped customers like SAP and Sharp Healthcare increase their clicks, impressions and click-through rates for organic search traffic through structured data, with strategies tailored to each brand’s online business goals.

The post How Schema Markup Helps You Gain or Enhance a Google Knowledge Panel appeared first on Schema App Solutions.

With more and more small- to medium-sized businesses jumping on the local SEO bandwagon, it’s more difficult than ever to rank your local business.

Local SEO: 5 Tips to Rank Your Business for Local Search

There are a variety of SEO tactics you can utilize to help rank your business for local searches. Here are some of the best practices to add to your SEO arsenal:

#1. Optimize Your Page for Mobile

A mobile-friendly website is not optional anymore. Google has publicly stated that more searches occur on a mobile device vs. a desktop computer, so if your business doesn’t have a mobile or responsive website, you’re going to get passed up by your competitors that do have a mobile site. When two sites are (for the most part) equal and one has a mobile-friendly site and the other business doesn’t, Google will more than likely show the mobile-friendly business’ website first in the search results.

Surprisingly, many SMBs are still not on board with mobile. According to Clutch’s Small Business Websites in 2016: A Survey, nearly half of small businesses don’t even have a website. Of the more than 350 small business owners and managers surveyed, the majority claim they don’t have a website because it’s not relevant to their business (WRONG!) or because the cost of developing a website is too expensive (the cost of NOT having a website is greater, in my humble opinion!)

For those businesses wise enough to have a website, 23 percent of the sites are not mobile-friendly. (Ooops!) This is a major flaw — especially when it can impact where you rank in the search engine results. It’s worth it to get your site up now so that you don’t fall even further behind and be sure to tell your web designer and developer that you want a “mobile-responsive” site.

#2. Optimize Your Page’s Title and Description Tags

Every page on your site must have a unique title and description meta tag that accurately tells the search engines more about the content of your pages. The Title and Description meta tags are pieces of code that search engines see and use to pull in your business information into search engine results:

You can even spy on what your competitors are using for their Title and Description Tags – which will help spur ideas for your pages. Simply right-mouse click on any blank section on a site and click View > Source and you can see the Title and Description tag code that the search engines see.

The result? Those Title and Description tags show up in search engine results:

The great thing about Title and Description tags is that you can use those to your advantage if you’re trying to rank for local cities. Notice how Stuff Etc., a consignment store in Cedar Rapids, IA, used the keywords “Cedar Rapids” in both their Title and Description tag. And they used it in such a way that it doesn’t appear spammy to the search engines.

You need to take a look at every page on your site, identify which one or two keywords/phrases you want to focus on for that page and then write a Title and Description tag that accurately describes what’s on the page. When you’re a local business, it’s perfectly okay to mention the city or towns you serve as long as you don’t over do it.

#3. Set Up Your Google Business Profile and Bing Places For Business Accounts

Have you ever wondered how local businesses show up in that great boxed section of search results? You know the one I’m talking about. It looks like this:

This is the local three-pack. These local search results often show above organic search engine rankings. You’ll notice, however, that there are only three coveted spots available in the “snack pack” box with a teeny-tiny “More Places” link at the bottom. (Wanna bet that few people actually click on the “More Places” link?)

So how do you increase your chances of getting into the local three-pack? Claim your Google Business Profile (Formerly Google My Business  “GMB”) Page!

Claiming your Google Business Profile (GBP) page is free and any local business — brick and mortar AND service business — can claim their business’ location through a verification process. To get started, visit https://www.google.com/business and go through the steps. Once your business has been claimed, it’s time to optimize your Google Business Profile (GBP) Page with your company’s name, address, phone number (also known as NAP), business hours, types of payments accepted, business description, photos and more. Fill out your GBP page as much as you can — the more info you provide, the better.

Many people forget about Bing. Oh, Bing… Well, Bing offers the same type of FREE page for local businesses: Bing Places for Business. Going through the Bing Places for Business claiming process is very similar to Google’s so if you’re able to easily claim your Google Page, Bing’s will be a breeze. To get started, visit https://www.bingplaces.com.

#4. Get Listed on Online Business Directories

Online business directories are the modern-day equivalent of the old-fashioned printed YellowPages. Gone are the days where a printed book is needed when all you need to do now is a Google search to find a local business. You’ll see online business directory sites show up directly in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) when people search for local businesses, so it’s incredibly important that you get listed on as many QUALITY directories as possible (whatever you do, don’t risk your reputation by getting your business listed on a potentially shady/untrustworthy directory site.)

When you search for “wedding dress shops in dallas” you will see several online business directory sites showing up in the Search Engine Results Pages:

Examples of Online Business Directories include Google Business Profile, Yelp, Merchantcircle, Foursquare, Citysearch, TripAdvisor among others. The key is for you to pick the right online directories for your business and then check to confirm that your business is listed on the directory correctly.

Getting listed properly means that your business’ name, address and phone number appear EXACTLY the same on as many online business directories as possible. (And I do mean EXACTLY the same — right down to whether you have your address as White Ivy SE vs. White Ivy Southeast. EVERYTHING must match. That’s why it’s crucial that you find the popular online directories for your businesses niche, do a search and see if your business appears. If it does and you’re given the opportunity to “claim” it — do so. That means that you will be the one in control of your listing. If your business isn’t listed (perhaps you just opened shop?) most online directories will allow you to add your business listing for free. Again, just make sure that all the information you put in these directories match.

Now, I will be the first to admit that finding, reviewing, claiming and editing all these online directories can be a royal pain. Luckily there are online directory (a.k.a citation sites) services that will go in, find online directories/citation sites for your business to be included in and get you listed consistently and professionally. Services like Moz Local, BrightLocal, Whitespark and others all have their good qualities and are competitively priced. You can find a detailed comparison of Citation Site Services here.

#5. Get Online Reviews From Happy Customers

Reviews are important to almost any consumer buying virtually anything. People look up reviews before selecting a restaurant to eat at and take a look at reviews for products they’re thinking about buying.

According to the BrightLocal 2016 Local Consumer Review Survey 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. That’s powerful! You must have a strategy for easily (and politely) asking your happy customers to leave you a review. There are a variety of online reputation companies that have software platforms that make it easier for businesses to collect those reviews. Find a system that works best for you and then just start asking for a review!

Where Next?

Who knows! In the SEO industry, things move pretty fast. Just trying to keep up can be sometimes exhausting, but if you do your local SEO work step-by-step you will start to see results.

Investing in advanced SEO practices like structured data markup will give you more control over your appearance in search engine page results. Instead of hoping that search engines will be intuitive enough to understand the intent of your content and show the best information in search results, you will be helping Google understand through schema markup. For local SEO, this means enhancing your Google Knowledge Panel and Google Business Profile (GBP), better matching your content to a user’s search intent, and more! If you need help getting started with your local business schema markup, get in touch.

The post Local SEO: How to Get Your Business to Rank Higher on Google appeared first on Schema App Solutions.