What is rich snippet Schema Markup data?
By Implementing Structured we are helping search engines analyze our content more easily. It makes easy for search engines to crawl your website and will get an SEO advantage.
Another reason schema markup is totally necessary is because it makes the job of the search engine even easier.
So, we are writing the schema markup to help the human beings
You would do that by using this markup:
It looks complex…
Here’s what you need to know:
1) The type of structured data to use.
There are three main types of structured data. Here’s a table courtesy of Google:
Since JSON-LD is the recommended type, that’s what we’ll be using.
I’m sharing this because I want to make you aware that microdata and RDFa are not the same as JSON-LD.
So if you research structured data, make sure you’re reading about JSON-LD and not one of the other two types of structured data.
2) The most common schema terms.
You could probably get away with not knowing these, but if you take a little time to learn these fundamental terms, you’ll get better faster.
i) itemscope:
This is one of the most common schema terms. It essentially organizes your content by topic.
More specifically, it tells search engines that all of the content marked with an itemscope tag is about the same topic. Think of it as categorizing your content into different sections.
Here’s an example from Schema.org. Let’s say your HTML looks like this:
You can make one tiny change to let search engines know that all of this info is about the same topic. Simply include “itemscope” at the end of your opening <div> tag, like this:
Now search engines will group all of the data between the <div> tags into one group.
ii) itemtype:
The itemtype term further categorizes your content. The itemscope term told search engines that your content was about an item, and the itemtype term will tell search engines what kind of item your content is about.
In this example, the itemtype markup would look like this:
This will tell search engines that all of the content between the <div> tags is about one movie.
iii) itemprop:
This term lets you define certain properties that your items have.
Basically, the itemprop term is communicating additional information about the item.
There are countless types of itemprops you can assign. For our example, here are some possible itemprop types:
By using all of these terms, you’re going into extreme detail, which is a good thing. That means search engines can more easily and more accurately organize your content.
3) Google’s structured data guidelines.
If you’re doing SEO for Google––and let’s be honest, who isn’t?––you need to play by their rules.
Structured data is no exception. They have quality guidelines for using schema markup:
It’s important to keep these in mind when using schema markup. This is not a time for black hat or gray hat SEO.
Remember, the whole point of using structured data is to help search engines display your content better for people.
Help out the search engines, and they’ll help you out in return, which will increase your visibility.
Adding structured data to your site-
Now let’s go through the process of adding schema markup to your site.
Click here to get the link to tools to Generate Schema Tag
Unfortunately, this can be a somewhat lengthy process. It all depends on the system you use to manage your site and the level of control you want over the process.
I’ll cover two of the best ways to implement schema: Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper and WordPress plugins.
1) Using WordPress plugins
If you’re one of the millions of people who use WordPress for a website, then utilizing schema markup will be extremely easy for you.
There are several dedicated plugins that you can use. In my opinion, the best is Schema App Structured Data.
This plugin will generate schema markup for your whole site, and you can even go in and manually edit the markup yourself. (Or you can find the plugin by searching in Plugins > Add New.)
Once you download the plugin, you can upload it by going to Plugins > Add New. Then click “Choose file” and select the zip file for the plugin you downloaded.
Click “Install Now.”
Finally, click “Activate Plugin.”
Now when you edit a post or page of any kind, you’ll see a box below the editing pane that says “Schema App Structured Data:”
Usually, the plugin will add the best types of schema markup.
But this is where knowing the basics of structured data will come in handy. You can review the markup and make any changes that seem out of place.
If you want to edit the markup, click on the pencil icon on the lower right.
(Also, notice how the top left of the box specifies JSON-LD. That’s exactly what you want.)
That’s the plugin in a nutshell. It’s really simple to use, so if you use WordPress, I recommend using this.
2) Using Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper
I know many of you don’t use WordPress, so here’s another method of adding structured data that’s actually pretty simple.
This method will work for any site, no matter where you host it or what kind of site it is.
Google provides the Structured Data Markup Helper to help webmasters add schema markup to their sites without any hassle.
It’s straightforward to use. First, go to the Structured Data Markup Helper page:
Make sure the website tab is checked:
(Yep, you can also mark up emails with this tool.)
Next, copy and paste the URL of the page you want to mark up. Paste it in the URL box at the bottom of the page:
If you just have HTML, choose the HTML tag and paste your code in the box:
Next, choose one of the ten categories that Google provides. This selection can feel a little bit limiting, but you’ll find that most often your content will fall under one of these ten categories.
Since I’m using a blog post for this example, I’ll choose “article.”
When you’ve done all of that, click “Start Tagging.”
On the next page, you’ll see two panes. The pane on the left is your content (your page or HTML code), and the pane on the right is the schema markup tool.
To mark something up, highlight it in the left pane.
For example, to mark up the title of the article, highlight it by left clicking and dragging over the text you want to highlight. You’ll see a box pop up that will give you options for different markup tags:
Since this is the name of the article, choose the “Name” markup tag.
You’ll see the change reflected in the right-hand pane under “My Data Items.”
If you want to mark up an image, click on the image and choose “Image” from the box that pops up.
Those are the basics of the Structured Data Markup Helper. The process is the same no matter what type of content you want to mark up.
In the “My Data Items” pane, Google lists all of the main elements that you’ll want to mark up:
You don’t have to mark up all of these elements, but I’d recommend it.
That way, you can make sure you’re creating the most thorough markup that you can. This will give you the biggest advantage.
Once you’re done marking up everything on your page, click “Create HTML” in the upper right-hand corner.
Here comes an Important step
In the second box from the left, click it to open and select “JSON-LD” instead of microdata.
Make sure you do this since JSON-LD is Google’s preferred type of structured data.
Copy and paste the code that gets generated. (I recommend leaving this page open in case you need to copy it again.)
Everything’s been pretty easy so far, but at this stage, it can get a little tricky.
That’s because you have to add the markup to your website, which is often the hardest part of this process.
Basically, this schema markup (written in HTML) needs to go in your source code.
If your site has only static page files, it’s super easy to put the markup on your site. Click the “Download” button in the top right corner.
Next
Go into the source code for this specific page. Then, delete the current code and paste this new code in its place.
But if your site has non-static pages, it gets more difficult. And unfortunately, this is the case for most content management systems (CMS).
When it comes to implementing structured data, WordPress is one of the trickier CMSs to use because it splits up your content. Though you have access to the body copy and code in your page editor, but the header for each page is contained in its own file.
Moreover, some schema markup needs to go in the header. That means you’ll have to go your theme file and manually insert the code.
You can potentially mess up your website if you do this the wrong way. Even if you have site backups, it’s still a huge pain if your site breaks. For that reason, I recommend hiring a developer if you have to go this route.
If you’re worried about this, you can just put the schema in the code for the body copy.
One more option…
There is a third option that you can go for, but I don’t recommend it unless you have coding or developing experience.
The third option is to add the schema markup manually.
This ties into what I said about potentially messing up your website. You can do some damage if you’re not careful.
But this option does have its fair share of advantages.
For one, these tools I’ve shared are somewhat limited. You can go much more in depth if you input schema markup manually.
And you can also ensure everything is exactly the way you want it.
So if you’re confident and have coding experience, this might be an option to consider.
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