What is structured data? What is schema.org? How do we use it and why should we bother? These are the questioned addressed during my talk at Search London, 19 Feb 2018.

1. Structured Data
& Schema.org
Markup
Manuel Martinez – SEO Consultant
@MforManuel
manuelmartinez.biz

2. Google is god good, but …

3. … but they still need our help

4. How have we
helped Google
understand our
content?

5. HTML tags gave some information

6. Semantic markup with
microformats gave more
information
<article class="h-recipe">
<h1 class="p-name">Chicken tacos</h1>
<ul>
<li class="p-ingredient">Chicken</li>
<li class="p-ingredient">Salad</li>
</ul>
<p>Takes <time class="dt-duration" datetime="1H">1 hour</time>,
serves <data class="p-yield" value="4">four people</data>.</p>
<div class="e-instructions">
<ol>
<li>Start by mixing the salad ingredients together.</li>
</ol>
</div>
</article>

7. But implementation was confusing
and thus not widely adapted

8. “It is important to have a common
vocabulary” – Google, 2009

9. That’s where schema.org came in (2011)

10. What is
schema.org?

11. The result of a joined effort

12. to create ONE vocabulary to markup
structured data

13. What is
structured
data?

14. “information with a high
degree of organization”
brightplanet.com
”data that resides in a
fixed field within a record
or file”
webopedia.com
”a general name for all
markups that abides by a
predetermined set of
rules”
searchenginejournal.com

15. What does all
this mean for
SEO?

16. We can now define what is what

17. Actor
Movie
Director
Production Company

18. Using the schema.org library

19. And specify how things are connected

20. We can regain some control of our
content …

21. … while building the knowledge graph

22. Why use
structured data
markup?

23. #1 - To get rich results

24. At both page level

26. As well as at domain level

27. #2 - To get more clicks

28. +25%*
+35%
+82%
+20%
Increase in CTR after implementing structured data.Google I/O '17 -YouTube

29. #3 – It’s easy to implement and test

30. #4 - Structured data prepares your
content for voice search

31. #5 - It may help with ranking 0

32. #6 – Well, because Google say so …
“It will help us understand your
pages better, and indirectly, it
leads to better ranks in
some sense, because we can
rank easier.”
Gary Illyes, PubCon 2017

33. How do we
mark up our
pages with
schema.org?

34. Browse the gallery

35. Read the guidelines

36. Choose a format

37. Select type & property

38. Available tools
to help with
markup

39. https://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/

40. https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool

41. https://www.schemaapp.com/tools/jsonld-schema-generator/
https://www.schemaapp.com/60-structured-
data-tools-create-test-plugins-more/

42. https://search.google.com/test/rich-results
*Recipes, Jobs, Movies and Courses (for now)

43. Let’s look at a
few live
examples

44. Microdata

45. JSON - LD

46. Bare in mind
the caveats

47. 1# - Schema not used #2 - No guarantee to be featured #3 – Incorrect listing

48. How do we
measure
success?

49. Clicks and conversion

50. Good luck! – call me if you need help

51. Thanks!
Manuel Martinez – SEO Consultant
@MforManuel
manuelmartinez.biz