[[{"@type":["BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.schemaapp.com\/schema-markup\/10-things-you-dont-know-about-structured-data\/#BlogPosting","@context":{"@vocab":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","kg":"http:\/\/g.co\/kg"},"url":"https:\/\/www.schemaapp.com\/schema-markup\/10-things-you-dont-know-about-structured-data\/","publisher":[{"@id":"https:\/\/www.schemaapp.com\/#Organization"}],"audience":"https:\/\/schema.org\/PeopleAudience","inLanguage":[{"@type":"Language","@id":"https:\/\/www.schemaapp.com\/schema-markup\/10-things-you-dont-know-about-structured-data\/#BlogPosting_inLanguage_Language","name":"English"}],"mentions":[{"@id":"https:\/\/www.schemaapp.com\/entity#Thing6"}],"dateModified":"2023-09-05T20:25:44+00:00","headline":"10 Things You Don\u2019t Know About Structured Data","datePublished":"2019-11-07T02:39:18+00:00","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.schemaapp.com\/schema-markup\/10-things-you-dont-know-about-structured-data\/#BlogPosting_image_ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.schemaapp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/10-Things-You-Dont-Know-about-Structured-Data.png"}],"mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.schemaapp.com\/schema-markup\/10-things-you-dont-know-about-structured-data\/","name":"10 Things You Don\u2019t Know About Structured Data","articleBody":"When I introduce myself, I like to do so with a knowledge graph. I explain that I\u2019m an alumni of Cisco; I spent 14 years there doing online support strategy as well as product management. I\u2019m an alumni of Queens University and MIT,  I have a very technical background in mathematics and engineering, as well as strategy and innovation. I\u2019m Canadian, the co-founder of Schema App, and I used to own this awesome car that was an Austin Healey Sprite. My actual car was in the movie Losing Chase, which was directed by Kevin Bacon. Kevin Bacon used to drive my car. \nThe reason I share that is that you have now inferred that you are three degrees from Kevin Bacon since I\u2019m 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.\n\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/ID\/hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\">\n<iframe title=\"10 Things You Don't Know about Structured Data\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FW3rt6lUWvA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\nIn this article, we\u2019re going to talk about schema markup and structured data. I\u2019ll use those terms interchangeably, although I do prefer schema markup because it\u2019s actually meant to disambiguate the definition of things, whereas structured data can be lots of different things. \nIf you\u2019re not familiar with it, it\u2019s what helps search engines truly understand the content so that it can best match things with the searcher\u2019s intent and also reward you with rich results.\n1. ROI Beyond Rich Results\nSchema markup provides ROI (return on investment) beyond just rich results. Google\u2019s John Mueller stated that it\u2019s 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\u2019re seeing outstanding results. \nNot 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.\nIn May 2019, Google announced that they had a specific motivation for continuing to invest in structured data. \nIt 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. \nThey said this is why they\u2019re 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\u2019ve optimized with structured data, you\u2019ve actually optimized not only for search but also for voice. \n2. Errors, Warnings and Content Strategy\nThe 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\u2019ll 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 \u2013 it\u2019s an iterative process. \nWhen you get Google errors and warnings, it doesn\u2019t always mean that there\u2019s 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\u2019t being met. \nWhen you get a warning or an error, it\u2019s just a matter of addressing the fact that the content isn\u2019t visible on the page. Once that is understood, you can add the content, optimize it, and eliminate the errors and warnings.\nWhile Google errors and warnings mean that your rich results eligibility could be at risk, it doesn\u2019t actually mean that the way you\u2019ve written your structured data is wrong.\nOne example is that we at Schema App don\u2019t put a salary on our job postings. That\u2019s 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\u2019s not appropriate to our content.\n3. Schema.org Extensions and Actions\nSchema.org extensions are entire vocabularies that have been written for specific areas of the industry. There\u2019s one for Automotive, one for Health and Life Science, one that\u2019s just started around the Internet of Things, a bibliographics one around Library Sciences, and then Finance (sometimes referred to as FIBO). \nThe 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\u2019re trying to describe a business, but it\u2019s 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. \nThe other piece that is hugely underutilized is \u2018actions\u2019. There are roughly 14 specific actions that you can use.  Here\u2019s a list of some of them: \n\nCreateAction\nFindAction\nPlayAction\nSearchAction\n\nThe more users start interacting through these different services, the more relevant they will become. You won\u2019t 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\u2019re 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.\nThis 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.\n4. \u201cProper\u201d Connected Schema Markup\nAt Schema App, we love to talk about connected schema markup. It\u2019s 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.\nFor example, from my introduction, you know how I\u2019m connected to MIT, Schema App and Kevin Bacon. You can do the same thing with your content.\nHere are some tips and tools for you to figure out how to ensure that you\u2019re fully optimizing on not only rich results, but how your information is connected: \nDon\u2019t Put the Same Schema Markup on Every Page\nWe\u2019re talking about plugins or other things that put Organization markup on every page. The reason this isn\u2019t ideal is because if the same markup describing exactly the same thing is on every page, then search engines don\u2019t 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.\nDon\u2019t Create Islands of Schema Markup\nAn example of this would be creating your locations, your organization and your products, but not describing how they\u2019re connected. \nHere are some tips on how to do that appropriately:\nEnsure You are Telling the Story\nThe most important thing you can do with your schema markup is make sure that you\u2019re telling the story; you\u2019re explaining how these things are all connected. This is really what then yields a knowledge graph. It\u2019s not just doing schema markup but doing proper schema markup where it\u2019s really well connected.\nHere is an example of ensuring the connections on your page are explained appropriately:\nWe\u2019re 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\u2019t want to have two entities where we have just a video and just a food establishment \u2013 we want to make sure they\u2019re embedded. \nIf you go to Schema App, we have a free tool that helps you figure out how to connect them.\nSchema Paths Tool\nGo to Resources > Tools > Schema Paths.  \nSchema 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.\nFor example, \u2018subjectOf\u2019 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.\nYou 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\u2019s primarily about this video. The video is then about the food establishment and that way I\u2019m being very clear as to which one is the primary entity of the page.\nUse Strong Connectors\nThe other suggestion we have is to use very strong connectors. As you\u2019re looking at linking things, use fields such as About, Mentions, subjectOf and hasPart.\nFor example, say you\u2019re writing a news article and you want to be very clear that it\u2019s about \u2018Jack Ward the Cowboy\u2019. 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\u2019s the subjectOf the video object \u2018The Bees\u2019.\nNow, a more advanced option is this example:\nYou 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\u2019s about the service, and then hasPart FAQ. The FAQ then hasPart Questions and AcceptedAnswers and then it mentions BlogPostings.\nAs 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\u2019re still getting that rich result for the FAQ but that it\u2019s all nicely connected so Google really understands how this information is related.\n5. Main Entity of Page\nThe main entity of a page is really identifying the primary topic of the page. This often comes out if there\u2019s different schema markup data items on a page. You could have a news article, a video that haven\u2019t been embedded, and it leaves you wondering \u201cwhat is this about?\u201d\nAn 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\u2019re 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\u2019t, it\u2019s unclear which one of these is actually the main entity of the page.\nThe 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\u2019s 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.\n6. Multi-Type Entity\nThis 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\u2019s 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.\n7. Additional Type\nAdditional type also adds clarity to a schema.org type that maybe isn\u2019t in the vocabulary. I always joke that there\u2019s no local business class for a marketing agency even though digital marketing agencies make up a large portion of the people doing schema markup.\nIn this example we\u2019re 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\u2019re using within schema.org.\nNow I was in Texas when I first presented this, and this is Texas Longhorn. So it\u2019s not just a Thing, but there\u2019s 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\u2019s identifying the entity in the Wikidata database, which then populates Wikipedia\u2019s.  In this case I\u2019m saying it\u2019s not just a Thing; it is very much a Texas Longhorn as defined by that Wikidata entry.\n8. Additional Property\nAll right, additionalProperty. AdditionalProperty allows you basically to use free variables to further describe something within a Product or so forth. As an example, let\u2019s consider a camera. You might want to call out some specific features, such as the number of megapixels. \nIn 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. \nThere 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.\n9. Lists: Item List, Collection, Offer Catalog\nThere 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. \nSo, 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.\n10. Analytics\nStructured data really goes beyond search \u2013 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\u2019ve built and add any property into Google Analytics and soon into Adobe Analytics. \nIn this example we wanted to ask the question \u201cWhich author gets the best results?\u201d We\u2019ve 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). \nWhat 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.\nGet in Touch\nIf you\u2019re interested in learning more, feel free to reach out to us at Schema App. We\u2019re happy to show you more about Enhanced Analytics.\nFor your convenience, here are the slides from Martha\u2019s presentation: \n10 Things You Don\u2019t Know about Structured Data\n \nIf you need a hand getting started with your structured data strategy, we\u2019ve helped customers such as SAP and Keen Footwear drive more quality search traffic to their websites. \nStart reaching your online business goals with structured data.Let\u2019s Talk\n ","description":"Want to learn how to take your structured data from basic to advanced? 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