How Schema Markup Increase SEO and Traffic

Schema markup is an important part of a website’s SEO. It is a slightly newer form of optimization that can greatly boost your website’s ranking in search engines. However, schema markup is not used as often as it should be.

If you work with your schema markup, you will be giving yourself an edge over the competition who do not. If you want to learn more, be sure to keep reading.

What is a Schema Markup? 

Schema markups are part of a website’s code. They are used to inform search engines on what the website is about- allowing the search engine to determine what would be the best results for users.

This code can also display certain pieces of information in their search results. For example, if you want to display a business’s address or even information, you can do that as well.

In short, schema markup tells the search engine what types of content are present on a website, making it crucial for SEO practices.

Why It is Important

Schema markup allows your website to rank higher, no matter the content you post or what your site’s focus is on. Small businesses, blogs, and more can all greatly benefit from the positive impact this code has on your SEO.

On average, websites that use a schema markup rank about four positions above those that do not use it. So, if you are looking to increase your SEO and organic website traffic, you will want to consider markups as an option. There are plenty of ways that you can use them as well.

Overall, if you want to rank above websites that do not use schema, you can reach out to Virtual Surge. We are experts in working with this type of code.

How to Use Schema Markup

If you decided that schema markup is for you- you would want to know how to use it! When applied correctly, markups can elevate your site in the engine’s results. Here’s how to get started:

• Visit Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper

• Choose your data option

• Copy and paste the URL/HTML you want to work with

• Click “Start Tagging”

• Highlight the elements you want to markup

• When finished, click “Create HTML.”

• Copy/Paste or add the schema markup to your website’s code

• Test your new schema markup

However, there are many different ways to go about getting the schema markups that your website needs. You can also work with the code manually to create something that works much better than a generated option. If you are not able to do this yourself, you might want to hire a professional to take care of it for you.

Overall, the more content your markup, the better SEO you will have. There are a lot of elements at play within SEO and schema markups, so you will need to ensure that you are using them properly.

Microdata

Schema markup is a sort of microdata- which is what the search engines use to read the information on a website. If you are interested in using it on your own site, you will want to be familiar with the following terms.

Itemscope, Itemtype, and Itemprop

These terms are part of microdata, which is what the search engines use to determine what type of content a website is focused on. 

Itemscope assigns the scope of the data. It then creates a new item that is then associated with that element or type of content.

Itemtype refers to the URL that is used to define Itemprops in the data. 

Finally, Itemprop is used to add properties to an item; any HTML element can have a property associated with it.

How Do Schema Markup Improve SEO Results?

When you use markups, your websites are going to show up more strongly in search engine results. Less than ⅓ of Google search results include a schema markup, giving your link broader visibility- meaning people are much more likely to click on it.

Schema Optimization Practices

Optimization will need to be considered when you work with a schema. When building the site, you may accidentally cause performance issues when the schema markup code is too complicated.

You want to avoid this, as it would cause your website to run slower and make it more difficult for people to use.

Good schema optimization comes with practice- people tend to get a better feel for it with more experience. Our team is very experienced in working with this type of code, allowing us to create impactful SEO results.

This article was originally posted at Virtual Surge.