Learn What is structured data? Find out all important aspects and uses of structured data for more visibility.

1. What is structured data?
Structured data is used by Google to improve its understanding of a website and its
content. It is a type of code which can help search engines crawl, organize and
display content easily. Many of you would also know it as schema.org.
Type to enter a caption.

2. Google’s algorithms are designed to look for a number of factors when ranking a page.
Structured data is one of these factors. It helps Google associate a page with specific
details and can also improve the chances of your web content being used for special
search results like Google’s graphical search results.
Structured data on a page is used to describe the content on the page. It is intended to
help search engines analyze your content easily.

3. Structured Data Formats
Google currently supports three main formats for structured data.
1. JSON-LD – Google recommends this format. It is a JavaScript notation which is
embedded in the <script> tag for your page’s head or body.
2. Microdata – It is an HTML specification which can help you nest structure data
within HTML content. Data is structured with the help of HTML tag attributes.
3. RDFa – Like Microdata, RDFa also uses HTML tag attributes for creating structured
data. It is an HTML5 extension.

4. Structured Data Guidelines
Google outlines the following guidelines to ensure that it is able to bring up relevant search
results using structured data.
Content – Google advises you to use quality content where markup is used to describe what
is on the page. Any misleading information which may not be available on the page or maybe
fake should be avoided.
Relevance – To keep your content relevant, you must mark it accurately. Label the
instructions as recipes only if your page’s content has a recipe on it.
Completeness – User search queries can lead to enriched results when you complete all
required properties.

5. Location – Structured data should be put on the page that describes it. If you place it elsewhere,
then it will not support the aim of providing rich results to users.
Specificity – Schema.org has detailed information on how to use structured data to improve rich
results in Google. Use this information to increase specificity of the structured data content.
Images – Your image URLs should be indexable and crawlable to help Google find those images.
Additionally, the image should be accurately reported in the structured data property.
Multiple elements on the page – When you are using structured data to markup elements on a
page, it must be done separately for every element. As Google explains, a recipe page with
recipe and video should include markup for the recipe separately, and the video should be
marked separately.

6. Structured Data Markup Helper
Google provides users with an easy way to mark your structured data. Use the Structured Data
Markup Helper to add structured data to any web page.
Enter the URL of the web page you would like to add structured data to and click on Start
Tagging.
On the left you will notice the website and on the right you will have the schema markup tool.
As you begin to markup your website data, the tool on the right will show the updated results.
For example, highlight the title of your page and you will see a small box show up which allows
you to mark up the title. From the drop-down menu, you must click on ‘Title’ to help Google
understand that this is the title of your web page.

7. After all the relevant properties have been marked, click on ‘Create HTML’ on the top of the
schema section. Be sure to choose the structured data format as JSON-LD instead of Microdata.
This will bring up the schema markup code to be used for that webpage.
You have to include this code in your website’s source code. This is tricky and would require a
developer especially if you do not have experience with coding.

8. Test Your Structured Data
Once you have used structured data for your web pages, it is important to test your structured
data to ensure that it shows up on Google’s enhanced search results.
Structured Data Testing Tool – It helps you test your structured data while you are developing
it.
URL Inspection Tool – It helps you monitor the health and relevance of structured data for a
URL. This tool is useful after structured data has been included in your website’s source code.

9. Read More
“Structured Data” The name itself says everything. Yes, I am right it is one of the key
points that’s Google’s brain consider while validating your website with their advanced
search engine algorithm I will suggest always keep this priority high.
To understand more about this content you can visit my recent post on How to add
structure data to your website here: https://seoexpertabhi.com/add-structured-data-
website/