Schema Markup: What Is It and How Can it Supercharge Your SEO

March

26

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by Tim Fitzpatrick // in SEO

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Schema Markup is one of the latest evolutions in SEO for small businesses.

Other digital marketing strategies like content marketing and website design depend heavily on SEO and schema markup is one of the secret weapons you can start using to improve your SEO.

Let's dig into schema markup a little deeper...

What is Schema Markup?

Schema markup is code (or vocabulary) used to create structured data you can incorporate into websites to yield more informative, descriptive and intelligent results on search engines like Google and Bing.

Don't let this definition scare you, the bottom line is schema helps search engines identify more information about your content and display better information in search results...it can help your content stand out from other content that shows up on the search results page.

Types of Items Described by Schema Markup

Schema markup can be applied to a number of different items. Here are a few areas you can apply schema markup.

  • Articles
  • Blog Posts
  • News Articles
  • Events
  • Products
  • Videos
  • Services
  • Reviews
  • Aggregate Ratings
  • Restaurants
  • Local Businesses

Here's a complete list of the items you can mark up with schema.

Schema Markup vs. Rich Snippets

Is schema different from rich snippets? What is the relation between the two?

A snippet is a result Google shows to users in the search results. There are two types - normal and rich.

A normal snippet only shows simple information about a page like the URL and the description. It looks like this:

Normal Snippet Sample

Meanwhile, a rich snippet is more informative. It shows additional information between the URL and the description like pictures and ratings. This is what a rich snippet looks like:

Rich Snippet Sample

Rich snippets are the result of the information you provide in your schema. In the example above, the schema markup provided the image and rating information that is being displayed in the rich snippet.

Make sense?

So what are the benefits of schema? How can SEO for small businesses improve by using it?

Let's take a look...

5 Benefits of Using Schema Markup

1. Improves SEO

Schema helps search engine crawlers to understand your content. It helps your website stand out in the organic search results and it provides a better position in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

2. Schema Creates Rich Snippets

When your small business website has schema markup, Google will show rich snippets, as discussed earlier, in the search results when content from your website is shown for relevant keywords.

Which creates...

3. Better Online Presence

Schema injects rich snippets (#2 above) to increase your online presence in the search engine results pages. Take a look at the normal snippet vs the rich snippet in the example above.

Which one stands out better? The answer is obvious...

4. Increase Click Through Rates (CTRs)

When your schema helps your listings in search results stand out better, it encourages and entices people to select your listings over others.

This improves the CTR (click-through rate) which means you'll be driving more traffic to your website.

5. Enhances Website Ranking

Web pages with schema markup rank higher compared to web pages without schema markup. 

EASY TWEAKS TO HELP YOU AVOID THE MOST COMMON WEBSITE MISTAKES TODAY

Are you Making These Common But Avoidable Website Mistakes?

Once you know what they are, they are easy to fix, and this cheat sheet will show you how. You'll bring in more leads and sales with your website immediately.

Best Schema Markup Tools

Schema markup might sound complicated but there are schema markup tools you can take advantage of to generate the code you need to add to your website.

TIP: If you are using WordPress for your website, there are a number of schema plugins to make adding schema markup to your site a breeze.

We use the WP SEO Structured Data Schema plugin and it works great.

If you're not using WordPress, you'll find one of the tools below very helpful.

SCHEMA MARKUP GENERATOR BY DENTSU

This tool offers schema markup for a number of items, including:

  • Website information
  • Breadcrumb navigation
  • Articles
  • Product information
  • Local business
  • People
  • Events
  • Recipes
  • Job postings
Schema Markup by Merkle

GOOGLE’S STRUCTURED DATA HELPER & DATA HIGHLIGHTER

Google offers two tools for generating schema markup:

Structured Data Helper is used when you are creating schema markup for another person or website. It lets you tag elements of your web page so that Google can generate the appropriate code. You can then download the HTML and upload it to your website.

Data Highlighter is Google's near-identical tool available in Google Search Console. If you have access to a website’s Search Console profile, then this tool is the way to go.

Schema Markup by Google

JSON-LD GENERATOR BY HALL ANALYSIS

Generate JSON-LD code with this tool for the following schema markup applications:

  • Local business
  • Person
  • Product
  • Event
  • Organization
  • Website

And that's how schema markup works and how it can boost SEO for small businesses. You can go DIY or consider hiring an expert to schema markup for you. Remember to ask the right questions before you hire an expert.

Did this article give you a better understanding of schema markup?

Feel free to comment below or share.

Need more lead generation tips? Check out our entire Ultimate Guide to Lead Generation.

Are you looking for more solid local marketing tips and tricks? Check out our Ultimate Guide to Local Marketing.

EASY TWEAKS TO HELP YOU AVOID THE MOST COMMON WEBSITE MISTAKES TODAY

Are you Making These Common But Avoidable Website Mistakes?

Once you know what they are, they are easy to fix, and this cheat sheet will show you how. You'll bring in more leads and sales with your website immediately.

Header image courtesy of Pixabay.

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About the author, Tim Fitzpatrick

You're a growth-minded MSP or B2B tech company owner who's great at what you do, and your clients get real results. But customer acquisition remains your biggest challenge. You're stuck in what we call The Marketing Maze: a frustrating cycle of disconnected tactics, wasted spend, and false starts. You've hired agencies, run ads, done everything you're supposed to do, and none of it has reliably solved the problem. The worst part isn't the wasted money. It's the doubt. You start wondering if you're the problem. You're not.

We believe being great at what you do should be enough to grow a business. It's not right that it isn't. Excellence deserves to win, and with the right system, it can. At Rialto Marketing, we come at growth differently. Tim Fitzpatrick built and scaled a distribution company 60% year over year before selling it. He sees growth through a revenue lens first and a marketing lens second, because he's lived what it takes to grow a business, not just studied it.

We've built a proven system called the Supercharged Marketing Engine, and we install it using a simple three-step framework: Strategy fuels the engine with clear positioning and direction. Planning builds the engine with a focused execution roadmap. Leadership keeps the engine running with metrics, implementation/execution, and optimization that produce predictable results.

Without the right system, the problems only compound. Inconsistent customer acquisition, unpredictable revenue, wasted spend, and growing doubt with every passing month. But when you install the right engine, everything shifts. Your pipeline becomes predictable. Your revenue becomes consistent. And you become the thriving owner with clarity, momentum, and a growth system working in the background, and you're free to lead your business from the front instead of chasing tactics from behind.

The only growth system for MSPs and B2B tech companies that turns client acquisition from your biggest challenge into your biggest advantage. Ready to see how it works? Let's talk.