Secret Tool in SEO Tool Chest: Schema Markup or Microdata
Schema Markup/Microdata is often neglected while doing SEO. I have been guilty of the same. They should be included in the standard SEO hygiene of your website. You don’t even need a developer to add it. My goal in this article is to tell you what it is and how to add it.
Schema Markup aka microdata is a fancy word for structured data. Schema markup is a simple piece of code that can be added to your website to tell the search engines what exactly is on your page in a strucutred manner. Eg XYZ is a date, ABC is the author.
Google loves structured data.The more you give it, the better it understands your website. With JSON-LD, it has become super simple to add schema markup to any page of your website.
Schema Markup was founded by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yandex, Schema.org vocabularies developed by an open community process.
There are several types of schema, the exhaustive list can be found on schema.org, some of the important ones are given below:-
- Creative works: CreativeWork, Book, Movie, MusicRecording, Recipe, TVSeries
- Embedded non-text objects: AudioObject, ImageObject, VideoObject
- Event
- Organization
- Person
- Place, LocalBusiness, Restaurant …
- Product, Offer, AggregateOffer
- Review, AggregateRating
You can find all the types of schema here.
Add Schema Markup/Microdata to your website
JSON-LD is the best way to add schema markup generator, that’s what I use at Slang Labs and that’s what I recommend to everyone who asks me. There are some plugins available that do this based on the platform you have used to build your website. Here is a manual way which will work on any platform.
Step 1: Go to this schema generator select the schema you want to create from the given list like Breadcrumb, FAQ, Recipes etc.
Step 2: Fill in all the details you want to add, leave the ones you don’t know the answer. Remember the more data you give to Google, the easier it will be for Google to understand your website.
Step 3: Copy the entire schema markup on the right and paste this blob of code under the <head> or <body> tag in the page where you want to add this. Push the page live.
Step 4: Validate your Schema Markup: You can use a simple schema validator to verify your schema. Just enter the URL and make sure everything is okay.
Google’s Schema Validator has been ported here and will be depricated soon.
That’s it folks!
I write about marketing related stuff on Substack and Medium, under Minimum Marketing. Follow me on Twitter and Linkedin to read more such articles :)
