Structured Data and Semantic SEO
Matthew Brown SEMPDX Sept 2012 Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdhancock/

Matthew Brown Slideshare: MatthewBrownPDX Twitter:
@MatthewJBrown matthew@audiencewise.com http://www.portlandground.com/archives/2003/05/steel_bridge_an.php

Definitions
@MatthewJbrown

Semantic Search Engine Optimization (Semantic
SEO) is the use of techniques from the Semantic Web technology stack for: 1.sending detailed information about the meaning of your page content to search engines and other data consumers, 2. in a way that can be easily processed by computers. Good definition of Semantic SEO: http://bit.ly/kUW0fJ

Structured Data = Data organized
by a markup language and a vocabulary. Can be organized and searched by machines. Linked Data = Publishing structured data so it can be accessed at a URI Semantic Web = The web of globally accessible, interlinked data entities RDF = Resource Definition Framework. This is a data model that establishes entity relationships using ‘triples’ Other notable parts of the ‘Semantic Web Technology Stack’

http://www.seoskeptic.com/seo-semantic-web/ Great overview of the
Semantic Web here Example of RDF triples describing entities. This is how semantic web data is defined.

Schema: A specific vocabulary So
what’s schema.org? Microdata? RDFa? Good primer here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/schema-examples

Choose your weapon. Which language
and vocabulary fits your situation?

There are many languages and
vocabularies for structured data. Schema is just one.

Current Status of “semantic SEO”:
Google, Bing, Facebook @MatthewJbrown

@MatthewJbrown

OUCH! Google is doing more
displacing of organic results. Deal with it: mark up your data

Rich snippets are everywhere now,
even spammy ones

There are more options everyday
to increase SERP real estate

Rich Snippets can take up
30 days or more. Don’t panic. Study at: http://bit.ly/P6pF4n

Track CTR changes for keywords
that get rich snippets to measure ROI

Google Knowledge Graph

Look for what markup gets
into Knowledge Graph

Knowledge Graph Carousel (for ‘multiple’
searches like albums)

There are multiple sources in
the carousels as well

Markup type: (Keep a running
spreadsheet)

Google Plus Knowledge Graph –
Great article at http://bit.ly/PrA7Sy

Open Graph
@MatthewJbrown

Just about every ‘entity’ under
the sun is in Facebook’s graph

Straight from Facebook at TC
Disrupt: http://tcrn.ch/OolpA4

Open Graph: Huge graph of
semantic data. HUGE.

Guardian’s FB traffic eclipsed Google
traffic at one point: http://bit.ly/GFo3sg

http://developers.facebook.com/docs/opengraphprotocol/ Wonder why services like
Socialcam and Viddy suddenly exploded?

Open Graph Schema Protip: Use
Open Graph Markup in addition to schema, etc.

Using OG can control how
your snippets, images, and description appears in Facebook and other networks

@MatthewJbrown Tools

Webmaster Tools now provides basic
structured data stats

Facebook Object Debugger:
http://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug

Mat Clayton (CTO of Mixcloud)
on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/matclayton

Schema Creator from Raven: http://schema-creator.org/

Local Business Microdata Generator: http://microdatagenerator.org/

Wordpress Schema plugin from
Raven:http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/schema-creator/

Drupal has functionality to consume
and publish RDF data. Guide to getting up and running at: http://semantic-drupal.com/

Rich Snippets Bookmarklet: http://www.blindfiveyearold.com/rich-
snippets-testing-tool-bookmarklet

Bing Webmaster Tools Markup Validator

http://linter.structured-data.org – Industrial Strength Structured
Data Display

Sindice.com – Semantic web search
engine. Good way to see what

Linked Data tools for content
marketing @MatthewJbrown

Point Blank SEO’s guide to
data visualizations: http://pointblankseo.com/visualizations

http://richard.cyganiak.de/2007/10/lod/lod-datasets_2011-09-19_colored.html - Linking Open Data
Cloud

Linked Data datasets – current
best source: http://www.w3.org/wiki/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData/DataSets

Dbpedia is Wikipedia in Linked
Data specification. Outputs are JSON/XML/RDF.

PoolParty has a Wordpress plugin
to import Linked Data as tooltips: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/poolparty-thesaurus/screenshots/

LODSPeaKr – Simple Publishing Kit
for Linked Data - http://alangrafu.github.com/lodspeakr/

Reading Materials/Resources
@MatthewJbrown

Raven has an excellent schema.org
guide here: http://raventools.com/blog/an-seos-guide-to-schema-org/

Good Relations has several great
Q+A sites and a FAQ: http://wiki.goodrelations-vocabulary.org/FFAQ

Great primer to RDFa in
HTML5 and Linked Data:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuAaa6lZxAU http://justinbriggs.org/entity-search-results-the-on-going-evolution-of-search Learn what entities
are.

Proposed schemas:
http://www.w3.org/wiki/WebSchemas/SchemaDotOrgProposals

Reading List http://learnlinkeddata.com/articles Linked Data
Primer – Start Here http://semanticweb.com/introduction-to-rdf_b17953 - Dead simple intro to RDF and associated vocabularies and tools. SemanticWeb.com rules. http://www.w3.org/2011/Talks/0607-SemTech-RDFa-IH/Talk.pdf Great intro to RDFa and highlights Best Buy, Overstock, Examiner.com http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/x-disprdf/index.html IBM Developer Works tutorial on how to combine data http://searchnewscentral.com/20110207129/Technical/rdfa-the-inside-story-from-best- buy.html Interview with Jay Myers, Lead Development Engineer for Best Buy There’s a ton of resources on the web to get you started

Semantic SEO Follow List Folks
who have some SEO/Semantic Web crossover: Aaron Bradley - @aaranged – Hands down the best curator of semantic happenings on the SEO side. When he blogs at http://www.seoskeptic.com it’s not to be missed. Jeff Preston - @JeffreyPreston – Lead SEO at Disney Corp. Happens to be speaking at the Semantic Web 2012 conference Sean Golliher - @SeanGolliher – Publisher of SEMJ – writes occasionally for http://www.semanticweb.com Jay Myers - @jaymyers – Best Buy lead dev and RDFa proponent. He’s the man responsible for Best Buy’s 30% CTR increase with rich snippets. Dan Brickley - @DanBri – Schema.org outreach for Google, works on proposed Schema.org specs People who have both search and semantic backgrounds

Semantic Tech Pros Semantic Tech
Folks who are very smart and say things I don’t get: Martin Hepp- @MFHepp– Heads up Good Relations, which is the most extensive vocabulary for e-commerce data Manu Sporny - @ManuSporny – Leader of the W3C working group for RDF. The man leading the charge for the RDF spec. Lin Clark - @LinClark – Works on the linked data/RDF integration for Drupal. Codes neat linked data things for Drupal. Gregg Kellogg - @Gkellogg – Semantic Web Developer of all trades. Wrote the Structured Data Linter. Aaron Bradley’s gigantic Semantic Twitter Group: https://twitter.com/#!/SemanticWeb/semanticweb100 - Like tapping into the Matrix of semantic tech information. People building semantic tech tools and standards

Thank you! Slideshare: MatthewBrownPDX matthew@audiencewise.com
twitter: @matthewjbrown LinkedIn: MatthewBrownPDX