The Beginner's Guide to Structured Data for Organizing ...

Structured data is any set of data that is organized and structured in a particular way on a webpage. In the case of SEO, structured data is ... TheBeginner'sGuidetoStructuredDataforOrganizing&OptimizingYourWebsite WrittenbyAllieDecker Learnhowtousestructureddatatooptimizeandorganizeyourwebsiteandmakeyourcustomers'liveseasier 21SEOMythsYouShouldLeaveBehindin2021 StopwastingyourtimeonSEOstrategiesthatdon'twork. DownloadNow 9 minremaining DownloadforLater It’sFridayafternoon,andyourteamisjonesingforHappyHour. Forthelastfewweeks,you’vebeengoingtothesameol’barbyyouroffice,soyoudecideit’stimetotrysomethingnew.Whatdoyoudo?Stepoutsideandwalkarounduntilyoufindanewspot?No,youhoponGoogleandletitconductthesearchforyou. Youridealpost-workpubisnearby,openrightafterwork,andoffersafewgluten-freeoptionssoyourentireteamcanpartake.YouplugthesecriteriaintoGoogle,andyou’vegotthreeviableoptionsatyourfingertips—inahandymapformattoboot. Pause.HaveyoueverwonderedhowGooglecanwhipupsuchaccurate,preciseanswersinsolittletime…andpresenttheminsuchaneasy-to-readway?Moreover,whatarethoserestaurantsdoingtogetfeaturedsodominantlyonGoogle’ssearchengineresultspages(SERPs)? Heck,I’dlovemybusinesstopopupwhenconsumerssearchforcriteriarelevanttome…wouldn’tyou? NooneknowsexactlyhowGoogle’salgorithmworks—but,thereareafewwaystoorganizeandoptimizeyourwebsitecontentsoGoogleknowswhatcontenttofeatureontheSERPsforthevarioussearchespeopleconducttofindyou. Thisiswherestructureddatacomesin.Structureddatacanmakeyourorganizationmorevisibletopotentialcustomersandincreaseyourclick-throughratebyupto30%. Notsurewhatstructureddatais?That’sOK.Bytheendofthisguide,you’llbeastructureddatawizard—andyourwebsitewillreapthebenefits. WhatIsStructuredData? StructuredDataandSEO ExamplesofStructuredData HowtoAddStructuredDatatoaWebsite Whatisstructureddata? Structureddataisanysetofdatathatisorganizedandstructuredinaparticularwayonawebpage.InthecaseofSEO,structureddataisorganizedandtaggedwithspecificgroupsoftextthathelpsearchenginesunderstandthecontextofthatinformationandcanreturnaccurateresultstosearchers. Weknowthatwhatsearchersseeonlineismuchdifferentthanwhatsearchenginessee. Whilesearchersseethis... Source …searchenginesseethis: ViewthesourcecodeforanywebsitebygoingtoView>Developer>ViewSource. Thisbehind-the-scenescodetellsbrowsershowinformationshouldbeorganizedonthewebsite(aspartofitswebsitedevelopment)andtellswebcrawlerswhat’sonthepage. Structureddataisalsoatplayhere.Embeddedtagsofcode(a.k.a.“markup”)throughouttheHTMLofawebpagetellGoogleandothersearchengineswhatinformationtodisplayintheSERPsandwhatthisinformationrepresents.ItalsohelpssocialmediaplatformssynthesizeyoursocialmediapostsintosnippetsthatpreviewthecontentusingOpenGraphProtocol(whichwetouchonlater). Thismarkupisimportant.Iteducatessearchenginesonwhatspecificcontentisonthepage.Thiscreatesmorerelevant,informedsearchesandmakesthesiteacandidateforenhancedresultslikefeaturedsnippets,richsnippets,imageandvideocarousels,knowledgeboxes,andmore(whichwe'lltouchonlater). StructuredDataandSEO StructureddataisimportantforSEObecauseithelpssearchenginesfindandunderstandyourcontentandwebsite.It’salsoanimportantwaytoprepareforthefutureofsearch,asGoogleandotherenginescontinuetopersonalizetheuserexperienceandanswerquestionsdirectlyontheirSERPs. Google’sSERPsweren’talwaysaseasyontheeyeastheyaretoday.Don’tremember?CheckoutthisGoogleresultfor“pooltables”from2008. Source Let’scompare.Here’sthesameresultfromtoday. Wow.That’saworldofdifference.Notonlyaretheseresultseasiertoread,buttheextrafeaturesmakeforamuchmoreinformative,intelligentsearching—andshopping—experience.Betweenthesponsoredcontentandlivemap(plustheproductcarousel,questionsnippets,andrelatedsearchesnotshowninthescreenshot),GoogleprovidesprettymucheverythingIneedtoknowaboutpooltables. Heck,sometimesIsearchforsomethingandfindtheanswerrightontheSERP—Idon’tevenhavetoclickonaresult.Doesthateverhappentoyou?Ifithas,youcanthankstructureddata. Howdoesstructureddatawork? Atthispoint,youmightbeasking:Howcanthereexistalanguage(markup)thatisconsistentlyrecognizedbysearchenginesandpeoplealike? Inorderforthismarkuptobeaccuratelyanduniversallyunderstood,therearestandardizedformatsandvocabulariesthatshouldbeused. Let’sgobacktobasicsforaminute.Whenconveyinginformation,whetheryou’recommunicatingwithahumanoracomputer,youneedtwomainthings:vocabulary(asetofwordswithknownmeanings)andsyntax(asetofrulesonhowtousethosewordstoconveymeaning). Mostterminologysurroundingstructureddatamarkupcanbeorganizedintothesetwoconcepts—vocabulariesandsyntaxes—andwebmasterscancombinewhichevertwotheyneedtostructuretheirdata(withtheexceptionofMicroformats). VocabulaRY SYNTAX Schema.org Microdata DCMI JSON-LD FOAF RDFa Okay…that’senoughofthefancydeveloperspeak.Whatshouldyoubeusingforyourstructureddata? Schema.orgistheaccepteduniversalvocabularystandardforstructureddata.ItwasfoundedandiscurrentlysponsoredbyGoogle,Bing,andYahoo.It’sflexible,open-sourced,andconstantlyupdatedandimproved. Note:Schemaiscalledsuchbecauseitfeaturesmarkupforawidevarietyofschemas—ordatamodels—fordifferenttypesofcontent. Here’sanexampleofSchemaMarkuplanguage(whichisgoodforSEO)pulledfrommyarticleonbranding. "@context":"http://schema.org", "@type":"Article", "name":"TheUltimateGuidetoBrandingin2019" "author":{ "@type":"Person", "name":"AllieDecker" }, "datePublished":"2019-04-02", "image":"https://blog.hubspot.com/hubfs/branding-2.jpg", "url":"https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/branding", "publisher":{ "@type":"Organization", "name":"HubSpot" Asforsyntax,there’snocorrectanswer.GooglerecommendsJSON-LD(anddefaultstothatsyntaxwhenusingitsStructuredDataMarkupHelper—asyouseebelow).JSON-LDusesJavascriptcodeandembeddedwidgetstodynamicallydisplayyourcontent,whichistypicallyasimplerdevelopmentprocess. GooglealsorecognizesMicrodataandRDFa.BothofthesesyntaxesuseHTMLtoidentifypropertieswithinstructureddata.Microdataistypicallyonlyusedinthepagebody,whereasRDFaiscommonlyusedinboththepageheadandbody. Ontheotherhand,JSON-LDisonlyplacedinthepagehead,meaning,forcertaintypesofmarkup,JSON-LDmakesitsoyoudon'thavetonavigatesubheaders,supportingcopy,andrelatedstylingthat'sincludedinthepage'sHTML.ThisiswhyJSON-LDisconsideredsimplerthantheothertwo. Ultimately,italldependsonthedatayou'retryingtoimplement,whatthebenefitistoyourwebsite,andwhatwouldbeeasiertosharewithyourteam. StructuredDataandMobile Structureddataaffectsmobilealittledifferently—throughAcceleratedMobilePages(AMP).AcceleratedMobilePagesisaGoogle-backed,opensourceprojecttohelpallmobilepagesloadquicklyregardlessofdevice. PageswithAMPmarkupappearwithinGoogle’sspecialSERPfeatures,suchasTopStoriesandNewsCarousels.Here’showtocreateanAMPHTMLpage. Source StructuredDataandSocialMedia Structureddatamarkupworksalittledifferentlyforsocialplatforms.ThisrequiresOpenGraphProtocolandsimilarlanguagesthatensureyourwebsiteandblogcontentappearinaneasy-to-readwaywhenyoupromotethiscontentonasocialnetwork.TwocommonsocialmediafeaturesthatuseOpenGraphProtocolarePinterestRichPinsandTwittercards.Wetalkmoreabouthowtodothisbelow. Here’sanexampleofOpenGraphProtocollanguage(whichisgoodforsocialmedia)usingthesamesource.