Schema and Structured Data

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The largest search engines out there, including Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Yandex have collaborated to create Schema.org, which is an agreed upon dictionary of the types of structured data that companies can use on their sites. Schema is essentially a list of definitions of different types of structured data that can be included in web pages that search engines can understand. One of the most important advantages of using structured data when it comes to online marketing or search engine optimization (SEO) is that structured data is necessary for rich snippets to appear underneath your pages. The image below is an example of what a rich snippet might look like.


The most useful aspect of this is that through structured data, star reviews from your satisfied customers can appear directly beneath your link on a search engine results pages (SERPs), which is likely to drive more traffic to your site. Generally, the larger your page link is on a SERP, the more likely a user is to click on yours.

Differences Between Structured Data and Schema

Structured data and Schema are closely related, but they aren’t necessarily the same thing. Schema.org provides guidelines and definition for how structured data can be used in web pages. This helps web developers determine how best to implement structured data in web pages and what structured data categories to use for different businesses or page types. The guidelines outlined by Schema are very important because if the structured data in a webpage is formatted incorrectly then rich snippets or other benefits of structured data might not show at all in SERPs.

Can Structured Data Help My Search Results Rankings?

There is no definitive evidence that using Schema markup improves rating, but there is a good amount of evidence that search results with rich snippets (the text that shows up directly beneath the title of a page in SERPs) have a better click-through rate. A better click-through rate means that users or potential customers are more likely to click on your link in their search results. This means that, while structured data might not be guaranteed to place you higher on the SERP, it is still a great tool to drive traffic to your site by making your link larger and more attractive on the page.

What Can Structured Data Tell a Search Engine About Your Page?

Structured data puts a lot of different information about your company, such as your address, social media accounts, your logo, or customer reviews, in a format that search engines can understand. Doing this makes it that much easier for a search engine to display relevant information about your company on a SERP. What this means is that rather than your page coming back as just a title on a results page, the search result for your page can display extra relevant information about your business. Structured data also contributes to knowledge cards about your business like the one shown below. This can be the difference between someone clicking on your page over another business which is why we recommend that it is implemented on as many pages as possible.


A Few Things Structured Data Can’t Do

  1. Guarantee rich snippets will appear in search results.
    2. Structured data is necessary for rich snippets to appear in the first place, but using structured data on a web page isn’t a guarantee that rich snippets will appear in search results consistently. This is true even if all of the structured data in your page is implemented correctly for the search engine to read
  2. Improve your rank in SERPs
    3. Including structured data isn’t guaranteed to improve your ranking, but including extra data about your page or company that search engines can use can improve your relevancy signal which helps. As mentioned earlier, structured data can help display rich snippets on SERPs which often leads to a better click-through rate which can improve rankings, though.
Even with these disclaimers though, structured data can be a huge help in driving traffic to your site or making your company’s page more attractive in SERPs. While search engines, like Google, are pretty good at finding information about companies on their own, structured data is a great tool because it ensures that search engines will be able to find information easily. Add in the fact that structured data has to be included in order to display rich snippets, which studies have shown can potentially improve your click-through rate by up to 30%, and structured data implementation is an obvious necessity

How To Implement Structured Data On Your Company’s Website

The guidelines for structured data can be confusing, especially if you aren’t familiar with web development. If structured data is formatted or used incorrectly, then rich snippets and other information may not show on SERPs at all. An experienced web developer or search engine optimization company can implement structured data on your page for you, though, and make sure that your company’s search results are as attractive to potential customers as possible.