Schema markup is structured data that consists of “tags” and helps search engines understand your site better and rank every page for relevant queries. These tags are incorporated into the content of the site. Then, when engine bots crawl your pages, they can analyze your content and bring it up in searches that are the most relevant to the information you provide on your pages.
There is one big reason to use these tags on your site. Since it simplifies the process of crawling, markup enables Google and other engines to detect and pull more information from your pages. This fuels up rich snippets – results that go beyond a standard blue link and provide users with additional data, such as product ratings, reviews, price range, etc.
As you now see, adding these tags can help your website perform better and, thus, fuel up your business. And first of all, it can pose significant benefits for your SEO. Luckily, using this tool for optimization isn’t hard. You can find a large vocabulary of tags on the web and either add them to your site manually or do this easily with the right plugin.
In this guide, I am going to delve deeper into the topic to help you learn how tags really affect your optimization and how you can use it to your benefit too!
Also read: SEO Guide for Schema Vocabulary with Microdata
3 Ways Using Tags Improves Your SEO
These days, search engine optimization is a big thing in business. It gets your brand noticed and generates revenue. Due to this reason, the majority of companies now invest heavily in SEO. They seek out various opportunities to stand out from the crowd and reach their target customers.
Luckily, there are plenty of tools that can take you higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). You can check out Top10seosoftware.com to find all the tools you need to rank high. This website provides thorough reviews of the best SEO platforms to help you find the perfect match for your needs.
On top of this, there is also schema markup. And here is how it can affect your position in SERPs:
1. Increased Visibility in Search Results
I already mentioned that these tags can help your website appear in rich snippets in SERPs. These results are much more informative and, thus, eye-catching than regular results. So if your website ranks as a rich snippet, you will have a higher chance of getting noticed by your prospects.
Source: Google
Alt: Example of how rich snippets look in SERPs
Also read: Voice Search Best Practices To Improve Voice SEO
2. Improved Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Rich snippets can help you drive more attention to your pages. But also they can boost your CTR. Click-through rate stands for the number of clicks your pages receive from organic search. Simply put, the higher your CTR is, the more traffic you get. And the more sales you can potentially make.
According to a recent study, sites that get into rich snippets tend to collect more clicks – 35.1% of the total click share. So you want to use this tool to get into featured snippets and boost your click-through rate in the first place.
3. Improved SEO Rankings
Currently, tags are not among Google’s ranking factors. That is, it doesn’t directly affect how high you get in SERPs. But this doesn’t mean that it doesn’t affect your ranking at all.
These tags can affect other things, such as:
- Click-through rate;
- Traffic;
- Rich snippets;
- Google’s Knowledge Graph, etc.
These things affect your ranking directly. So schema markup is already an excellent tactic for boosting SEO. Besides, Google says that it could become a direct ranking factor in the future. So if you start using it now, it can give you a competitive advantage in the future.
Also read: Top seo ranking factors 2012
How to Add Schema Markup to Your Website
Basically, there are two ways to help engines crawl your site better thanks to tags:
- Manually – This is a more intricate method that requires knowledge of coding. Markup tags are basically a code that tells engines the details from your pages. The vocabulary of codes for different categories and purposes is available at Schema.org and can be used for creating your code manually. And once you write it, all you need is to paste the code into the header or footer of your website.
- Using a plugin – In case you don’t know how to code, there is a more straightforward option. Now, there are many convenient plugins that can help you add tags to your website. All you need to do is find a plugin that works best for you, and it will save you a lot of time and effort.
Source: Schema
Alt: Example of how markup tags look like
Once you’ve crafted the code and added it to your website, you need to do one more thing. Submit your markup to Google Search Console. This is a handy free tool by Google that was designed to help users measure their websites’ performance and various metrics and find areas for improvement to shine brighter in SERPs. With its help, you can analyze the performance of your tags and detect any mistakes that might be holding you back from success.
Also read: A Short Guide to Date, Times and Durations Schema
Conclusion
Schema markup is a set of structured tags that tell Google and other engines more about your site. As you now know, these tags help engines’ bots crawl your site better and retrieve more information from it, thus, helping them rank your pages better for relevant results.
These days, such tags have become powerful SEO tools. They help you get into rich snippets, get noticed by your prospects, and drive more traffic (and, hopefully, more sales).
After reading this article, you know all about the benefits of using these tags on your website. Also, you know about the ways to start using them right now. By following the tips from this guide, you can empower your own website with the right tags and, thus, boost your visibility in search results.
