Structured Data
& Schema.org
Markup
Manuel Martinez – SEO Consultant
@MforManuel
manuelmartinez.biz
Google is god good, but …
… but they still need our help
How have we
helped Google
understand our
content?
HTML tags gave some information
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>
But implementation was confusing
and thus not widely adapted
“It is important to have a common
vocabulary” – Google, 2009
That’s where schema.org came in (2011)
What is
schema.org?
The result of a joined effort
to create ONE vocabulary to markup
structured data
What is
structured
data?
“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
What does all
this mean for
SEO?
We can now define what is what
Actor
Movie
Director
Production Company
Using the schema.org library
And specify how things are connected
We can regain some control of our
content …
… while building the knowledge graph
Why use
structured data
markup?
#1 - To get rich results
At both page level
As well as at domain level
#2 - To get more clicks
+25%*
+35%
+82%
+20%
Increase in CTR after implementing structured data.Google I/O '17 -YouTube
#3 – It’s easy to implement and test
#4 - Structured data prepares your
content for voice search
#5 - It may help with ranking 0
#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
How do we
mark up our
pages with
schema.org?
Browse the gallery
Read the guidelines
Choose a format
Select type & property
Available tools
to help with
markup
https://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/
https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool
https://www.schemaapp.com/tools/jsonld-schema-generator/
https://www.schemaapp.com/60-structured-
data-tools-create-test-plugins-more/
https://search.google.com/test/rich-results
*Recipes, Jobs, Movies and Courses (for now)
Let’s look at a
few live
examples
Microdata
JSON - LD
Bare in mind
the caveats
1# - Schema not used #2 - No guarantee to be featured #3 – Incorrect listing
How do we
measure
success?
Clicks and conversion
Good luck! – call me if you need help
Thanks!
Manuel Martinez – SEO Consultant
@MforManuel
manuelmartinez.biz

Manuel Martinez - Structured Data @ Search London SEO Meetup