Structured data, what is it?

Structured data is a standardised way of providing information about a web page. It helps search engines like Google to better understand what the content is about.

But what's the benefit to you and how can you implement them?

Let's break it down!

How structured data helps SEO

First of all, structured data is not a ranking factor. They don't help you rank better in Google directly. However, they do provide many benefits. We'll focus on the four most important ones:

Enhanced results

Google Knowledge Graph

Semantic search support

E-A-T support

Enhanced Results

Advanced results are enhanced search results with additional information that is taken from relevant structured data. The most common type of enhanced results are enhanced snippets.

They can often increase clickability and the amount of organic traffic to pages.

Google Knowledge Graph

Google Knowledge Graph is a knowledge base of entities and the relationships between them. You, your brand and your products can become entities that are created and influenced by structured data.

The very first thing that gets you into the Knowledge Graph is the Knowledge Block, which provides additional brand visibility and authority.

Semantic Search Support

Semantic search focuses on the meaning of search queries rather than just matching keywords. This is how Google manages to return perfect results when you're looking for something that doesn't quite make sense.

Because structured data helps Google better understand the content of your pages, it can help show up for more relevant queries.

E-A-T support

E-A-T stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. These are the three things that "Google looks for on the page". Using structured data helps Google better understand information about the site, its content, authors, and simplifies the E-A-T evaluation work.

Schema markup as the cornerstone of structured data

Structured data must be laid out in a consistent format. As with any programming language, syntax rules must be followed to ensure that the machine understands everything correctly.

Schema markup provides such a uniform format for structuring data on the web.

Three ways to structure data

There are three main formats for structured data on the web.

JSON-LD

Microdata

RDFa

JSON-LD.

Google recommends the JSON-LD format. It's one of the easiest formats to implement because you don't have to put labels on HTML elements here like you do with other formats. Instead, you add JSON-LD in one big block of code that tells Google, "Look, here's the most important thing you need to know about what's placed on the page."

Microdata

Unlike JSON-LD, where structured data comes in one big block, Microdata is scattered throughout the page and marks up content on the fly.

If you need to do more complex markup, it becomes confusing and almost impossible to maintain. Although some plugins use Microdata and generate the schema markup for you.

RDFa

RDFa works in the same way as Microdata. You mark up the HTML elements on the page, rather than giving everything in one block. This is probably the least popular syntax for schema, but you will occasionally come across it because Facebook's Open Graph meta tags are based on it.

Testing structured data

No one in their right mind would deploy code without testing it. Go to the Structured Data Testing Tool, enter your code or URL, and check to see if the markup is valid.

Unfortunately, Google will soon discontinue this tool and only the Advanced Results Checker will remain. As you can understand from the name, the tool shows you if advanced results can be shown. But hopefully Google will combine the functionality of the two tools. There's also a great alternative - Classy Schema.

Before marking up content

Structured data isn't very complex, but it takes time to get into it, prioritise it and learn how to implement it in work projects. Many CMSs and plugins take care of basic markup right out of the box, but we want you to realise one thing:

For most people, there are things that are far more important for SEO than implementing micro markup on a website.

Structured data off-site

It's possible to become an entity in the Knowledge Graph without implementing micro markup. Because brand and product mentions can be anywhere on the internet.

However, don't run to create a Wikipedia page just because it is often used as a source for Knowledge Blocks.

First of all, there are many other sources that Google uses.

Secondly, although it is a shortcut in the Knowledge Graph, it can be difficult to create a Wikipedia page. And finally, Google only lists a source for the description, which many Knowledge Blocks don't have.In fact, if Wikipedia and Wikidata don't have much written about you, your Knowledge Block will look much simpler.The point is to make sure that the information about you and your business doesn't change anywhere and that there are links to other sources everywhere.So make sure that all information about your company is consolidated into a single view across all social networks, other sites with company profiles like Crunchbase and other authoritative sites in your niche.Next, connect all sources using the sameAs property.

AVSEO believes that structured data is a powerful tool, but it's not the most important part of SEO for most sites.There are almost always more important things to do.However, implementing Organisation or Person markup can be quick and effortless. It can be done in just a couple of minutes.