Last updated January 22nd, 2024 09:49
Markup schemas, also known as structured data, are special tags added to a webpage’s source code. These tags assist search engine robots in better understanding your content. Thanks to markup schemas, robots can display results in a much-improved and structured format. In this article, we’ll delve into what markup schemas are and how they can propel you to the top positions in search engine results through SEO.
What are markup schemas and why should you use them?
Markup schema defines the type of content in an article. It precisely informs the search engine robot about the content it found on the website. For instance, you can specify the content of an article, indicating to the robot that it found an FAQ, a cooking recipe, a review of a product or book, or an instructional article. With each schema, you provide additional details that enable you to appear in enhanced search results.
So, summarily put, with markup schema, you provide additional content to the search engine robot that a regular user doesn’t see because it’s part of the website’s code, but the robot comprehends it well. What’s particularly remarkable about these schemas is not only their significant contribution to SEO but also the fact that very few websites currently use them. This gives you a huge advantage over competitors who don’t employ markup schemas.
What are some basic markup schemas you can utilize?
Let’s explore several types of fundamental markup schemas applicable to your web content:
- Article: Standard schema for any blog article.
- Course: Content focused on a course, course description, or course promotion.
- FAQ: Questions and answers.
- Fact Check: Fact verification (typical for articles such as “X facts you should know about…”).
- Movie: Movie review or content dedicated to a specific film.
- Product: Review or description of a specific product (applicable for e-commerce as well).
- Software: Description or review of software.
- Book: Article about literature, an author, or a specific book.
- Event: Events like theater, concerts, demonstrations, etc.
- How To: Schema for guides on anything.
- Music: Reviews or articles about music, a band, a new album, etc.
- Recipe: Ideal for cooking blogs.
- Video: Schema for articles with embedded videos.
There are many more schemas available, and you can also create your fully customized schema at any time. You are not limited solely to these basic schemas.
How do you add markup schema to WordPress?
Personally, for markup schemas, I use what’s probably the best SEO plugin available for WordPress today: All In One SEO (AIOSEO). Yes, it’s a paid plugin, but it’s worth it. The plugin’s price starts at $124 for the basic version and goes up to $749 for the Elite version. On this website, I use the Pro version priced at $499. However, markup schemas are processed in all versions, and if you wait for Black Friday, you can get the basic version of AIOSEO for around $50.
Let’s now look at the process of adding a markup schema to an article. Specifically, we’ll focus on the How To schema, which I use for all instructional articles. In the basic article settings, you’ll click on the schema tab and select “Generate Schema.” In the subsequent window, you’ll choose the schema that describes the content of the article. In our case, that’s How To.
Now you can fill in the basic parameters of the schema, and there are quite a few of them. These include the estimated time for the tutorial, necessary materials and equipment, a description of the tutorial (meta description), the potential cost for materials users might need to purchase, and the individual steps. You can supplement everything with images from the tutorial and also with relevant anchor URLs that lead to each section of the guide.
As seen in the images below, you’ll break down the tutorial into individual steps and provide a simplified description for each.
Once you have the schema completed, the individual steps of the tutorial written, simply save the schema, and you’re done.
What are markup schemas – Schema validation
It’s good to validate every newly created schema. But what exactly is validation? It’s simply a process to verify the correctness of your code. Google has its own validator for markup schemas. AIO SEO, in its schema section, provides a validation button that sends the final code to Google. This allows you to immediately check if everything is filled in correctly and accurately.
The Google validator checks the entire markup schema and its specific items. Where something is missing, it alerts you and provides advice on what you should add.
Why are markup schemas great for SEO?
With markup schemas, you can achieve:
- Increased relevance: Markup schemas help search engines better understand the content of web pages. This can enhance content relevance for specific search queries. For instance, if you have a website about a restaurant, using restaurant markup schema provides search engines with information about the address, opening hours, menu, and other essential details. This helps your website appear higher in search results for queries like “restaurants in Prague” or “Italian cuisine restaurants.”
- Improved visibility: Markup schemas can also enhance the visibility of web pages in search results. This is because search engines can use schemas to display rich snippets in search results. Rich snippets offer more information than standard search results, including images, ratings, reviews, or reservation systems.
- Higher click-through rates (CTR): Rich snippets in search results can also boost the click-through rate (CTR) of web pages. They are more engaging than standard search results, enticing more people to click on your web pages, potentially increasing traffic and conversions.
What are markup schemas and why can they help you rank first in search engines?
Conclusion
As seen from the above text, you can only benefit from markup schemas. Adding a markup schema to an article won’t take more than 5 minutes of your time, yet the impact of using this SEO technique will quickly show in increased traffic, click-through rates, and conversions. Moreover, by using the AIO SEO plugin recommended by me, you can significantly optimize your entire website for your crucial keywords, resulting in improved SERP (search engine results page) rankings.
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