Schema Markup Training

Learn about other google features and actions. How are knowledge graphs generated? How can schema markup help manage and improve your search results? Find powerful ways to increase user engagement using actions and actions in the inbox.

Who else benefits from using schema markup? Quickly see how schema markup is used by the major search engines and social media. See how schema markup is changing user behavior.

Learn what Schema.org is and the history of how & why it was developed. Define Semantic Search Marketing. Look at some large and early adopters of Schema.org and see how they have incorporated schema markup.

Learn to articulate the ROI of implementing schema markup. Schema markup increases click through rates, search rank position, and business intelligence. You can impact the customer experience and change customer behavior. Having a single vocabulary through schema.org makes it easier for publishers to implement these benefits for clients. It also allows search engines to better understand the context of content on websites and match that content to user intent.

Mark starts our journey into the details and takes us through some markup basics. Schema.org is a vocabulary and this video covers the body of words, how they function, and the syntax for schema markup. Learn what Classes and Properties are and how to use them in Schema markup. Mark shows us 3 kinds of syntax: Microdata, RDFa, and JSON-LD. Learn how Microdata and RDFa are similar and why Google prefers JSON-LD. Hint: it doesn’t have to be mixed in with the user visible text and Google can read JSON-LD when it is dynamically injected. Finally we are introduced to Google Developer Structured Data.

In this video we are getting a walk through for two of the foremost tools in your schema tool belt which are the Google Structured Data Testing Tool and the Structured Data Report.With the Structured Data Testing Tool we can input the URL or paste in code and the validator will show if it has found any structured data. The result is either an All Good or there will be Errors. Not all errors are the same and you can click through “what’s this” to look at the documentation. We can use this for a whole website, or just copy and paste snippets. The Structured Data Report in Googles Search Console does much of the same – it will show what relevant information was detected and if there are any markup errors preventing features (e.g. Rich Snippets) from working.

If you’re a little left behind by Mark’s description of either tool – don’t worry – you’ll get to see each tool in action as we apply them to the Hunch Manifest web domain. Or you can follow any of the helpful links and resources at the end of the video!

The homepage is possibly the most important page on your website and ensuring it has correct schema markup can be paramount. Having your markup done correctly will inform features like the Google Custom Knowledge Graph or the Sitelinks Search box. Mark shows us the JSON-LD example markup for a homepage and covers things like the search feature, your organization (or subClass), logos, corporate contacts, and social profile links.

Correct product markup is extremely important, especially for e-commerce stores. Products Rich Snippets include all kinds of information relevant to the user who can quickly see if the product is in their budget, what the reviews are, if it is available – etc. Mark takes us through what to markup and provides product JSON-LD examples of how that markup looks.

If you have tons of products then pay attention because there are two ways to differentiate and disambiguate your products. It’s happened in the past where poor markup has led to Google interpreting everything as just a single product. There is a reason why products are one of the most popular structured data and why it has been available in markup for about 5 years.

This video covers the markup for services. Your company may offer an extensive catalog of services but Mark shows us in this JSON-LD example a simplified scenario where a mortgage company has a services catalog of 3 service types. You’ll see how to properly state the area served, where the service can be found, where to list the service description, name, provider, image, and the service output.

Pro-tip: the more you can reference your data items the better. It is important to disambiguate your items as much as possible. If you are offering services that can be found in London – that’s great! But is it London ON or London UK? Clarity is king.

Having correct markup on your events pages is very important – especially if you are the publisher, venue, or ticketing agency. This JSON-LD example shows us what the correct markup looks like so that your event rich snippet can correctly convey your name, location, start date, event offers, and your URL. Don’t miss out fully leveraging that event information.

Everyone has looked up a business location online. Watch this video to learn how to earn a higher search rank and empower some of the newer features from google like booking a reservation right from the results page. This JSON-LD example walk through will show how to correctly markup your organization, opening hours, business address, Geo location, and the reserve action. Are you a multi-location business? Don’t worry that is covered too.

As you go on and complete your schema markup there are some things to keep in mind. Strive for only one top (main) entity per page. It is unnecessary and inadvisable to repeat structured data across the website. Always be as specific as possible. More is better, except for hidden text. Expected types and using values or text. Use URL property to point to more details page. Mark takes us through each principle and explains why they are important to keep in mind.

The end result of your schema markup efforts is to drive more conversions. You will want to spend your time increasing the user experience, users ability to find your content, time spent on page, and increase search rank. So how do you develop an effective semantic search strategy? Mark walks us through the process of building out a semantic search strategy that is derived from your core entities and how to prioritize your short, medium, and long term goals. So get ready to learn how to identify your top priorities, plan to build our your content database, increase the data utility of your key entities, leverage the appropriate google features, and prioritize the next steps you need to take

So by now you have a good understanding of what your markup should look like and maybe you’re itching to go take advantage of some google feature through your properly structured data. Hold on! Be sure to correctly disambiguate your content. Mark takes us through six commonly used but different properties which can tell the search engines more explicitly what you’re talking about. Also learn how best to use these with Wikipedia and Product Ontology.