Why Schema Markup Should Be Part of Your SEO Strategy

Schema markup is a critical part of any great SEO strategy. You may have never heard of schema markup before, but you can bet that your competitors are already using it. If you are unfamiliar with schema markup or you’d like to know why it’s so important, read on.

What Is Schema Markup?

Schema markup is structured data. It’s descriptive information about your website, written using the Schema.org vocabulary, and added to the HTML code of your site. It helps Google and other search engines make sense of the content on your website. The Schema.org vocabulary, founded in 2011 by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Yandex, is often referred to as the language of search engines.

The vocabulary is comprised of 614 different Types that tell search engines what your website or webpage is all about (e.g., an event, a person, a local business, a product, etc.). Each Type has accompanying Properties that further describe your website or webpage. For example, if your page Type is an event, then the Properties you can define will be details about the event, such as start and end times, location, organizer, sponsor, etc.

What exactly do search engines do with this information? They use it to create more robust search results, like Google’s Knowledge Graph cards and rich snippets.

The Major Benefit: Schema Markup Improves Your CTR

The primary way that schema markup boosts your SEO is by improving your click-through-rate (CTR). It does this by giving search engines all the information they need to generate rich search results. Rich search results, also known as rich snippets, are search results that include additional information beyond just a page title and description. This extra information includes star ratings, prices, prep time (for recipes), and more.

The rich results enabled by schema markup are considered better results because they give the searcher more information about what’s on your page. This extra information leads to a higher CTR because users are confident that your site has the information they need—they can already see it, right there on the search results page! Rich results also occupy more real estate on the search results page itself, which draws the user’s eye to your result faster and holds their attention for longer.

Implementing the Schema.org vocabulary on your website doesn’t require an expert, but it’s a whole lot easier when you have someone who knows what they’re doing! If you’re ready to use schema markup to boost your site’s SEO, let us know. We’d be happy to help.

About Kara Franco
Kara writes copy that speaks. She has a knack for creating clear, compelling messages without wasting words. She is passionate about digital marketing and believes that copy is the cornerstone of user experience.

Copywriter + Content Strategist
Kara@diacedesigns.com