Without structure in life, nothing works or everything goes haywire. You can relate? Well, so do I and so do our search engines. They love it when our website contains structured data.
Why? Because search engines like Google can then analyze and present the content more effectively.
This in turn benefits us as operators, because the better presentation leads to more visibility.
Find out how else structured data influences SEO and the performance of your website, what types of structured data there are and how you can implement them yourself.
Abstract: Structured data & SEO
- Structured data follows a fixed pattern and helps search engines to analyze and display the content more efficiently.
- Various types of data such as events, products, recipes, reviews, articles, FAQs, how-to guides, job offers, people, organizations, places and videos can be displayed with schema markups.
- Structured data can be integrated with JSON-LD, Microdata or RDFa, whereby JSON-LD is preferred by Google. Tools such as the Schema Markup Generator help with code creation.
- Advantages of structured data: Improved visibility, higher click-through rate (CTR), better user experience and competitive advantage through more detailed and engaging search results.
What is structured data?
With the help of structured data, you can display specific content on your website using code. Structured data follows a fixed schema that clearly defines what the data means and how it can be used.
This allows search engines such as Google to process the content more efficiently and present it in the search, for example in rich snippet format. Structured data is strongly oriented towards the needs of users and should not be missing if you want to improve your organic reach.
Types of structured data
Structured data is used for different types of content on your website:
- Events: Data on events such as concerts, conferences or sport events, including dates, locations and ticket information.
- Products and offers: Information on products, such as price, availability and reviews.
- Recipes: Details of recipes, such as ingredients, preparation and cooking times and nutritional information.
- Ratings and reviews: Rating scales and customer reviews of products, services or places.
- Articles: Information about articles, including title, author, publication date and summaries.
- FAQs: Structured data for frequently asked questions (FAQs), which are blocks of questions and answers on websites.
- How-to: Step-by-step instructions, often with pictures and time specifications, to explain processes.
- Job vacancies: Information on vacancies, such as job details, location, salary and requirements.
- Persons: Personal details such as photo, name and social media profiles.
- Organizations: Information about companies and organizations, including name, address, logo and contact information.
- Places: Details of geographical locations, such as addresses and opening hours.
- Videos: Data on videos, including title, description, duration and quality specifications.
Terms in connection with structured data
As you can see, almost all the information on your website can be presented in a structured way, giving Google the opportunity to present your content better.
You will often come across the terms SERPs, rich snippet and rich result in connection with structured data, so here is a brief definition.
SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages)
SERPs are the pages that are displayed by search engines in response to a search query. Structured data can help a website to be displayed prominently in the SERPs by enabling rich snippets or rich results.
Rich Snippet
Rich snippets are search results that contain additional information, such as star ratings, prices or author details. This information is taken from the structured data of the website and displayed in the search results.
Rich Result (Rich search results)
A rich result, also known as a rich search result, is an enhanced search result that offers more interactivity and visual components than simple text snippets. This can include a single rich snippet, a rich card (mobile-optimized rich results) or other advanced search result formats.
For example, a spaghetti carbonara recipe contains an appetizing photo of spaghetti carbonara, star ratings and the cooking time.
In some cases, the user is also given all the information they need to cook the dish, such as a list of ingredients and a brief description of the individual steps.
Advantages of structured data: Better search results and SEO
Structured data itself is not a direct ranking factor, but it helps search engines like Google to better understand the context and meaning of the content on your site. This has the following advantages:
- Improved visibility in search engines: By better understanding structured data, search engines can optimally display relevant information, for example as a rich snippet. This allows websites to be displayed in more relevant and eye-catching positions, increasing the chance of being seen by Google users.
- Higher click-through rate (CTR): By providing additional information in the search results, such as ratings, price details or event data, the results become more attractive and the likelihood that a Google user will click on them increases.
- Better user experience: Users find the information they are looking for faster without having to visit the site, resulting in a better user experience.
- Competitive advantage: Websites that use structured data can differentiate themselves from their competitors by offering more detailed and engaging results.
Step-by-step: How to use structured data
There are various methods for integrating structured data into websites. The most common are:
JSON-LD
JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) is Google’s preferred format. It is easy to implement by writing the code in a <script>-day in the <head>-area or in front of the </body>-tag of your HTML page.
Microdata
Microdata is a method in which markup attributes are embedded directly in the HTML tags. This can be a little more complicated, but just as effective. Technical know-how is required here.
RDFa
RDFa (Resource Description Framework in Attributes) is another method that is also used to embed structured data in HTML. It offers more flexibility, but is also more complex to use.
Explanation and instructions for markup SEO
So how does it all work? Markup in relation to SEO refers to structured data or microdata that is inserted into the HTML code of a web page to display search results in a meaningful way.
Languages such as JSON-LD, Microdata or RDFa can be used to insert structured data into the HTML code of your website. The most common and simplest method is JSON-LD, which is why we will focus on this in the following.
Implementing structured data with JSON-LD
- Identify relevant content: Think about which content on your website is suitable for structured data. If you run an online store, this could be product information, reviews or articles. If you have a company website, the presentation of people, your company and job offers is particularly relevant for you.
- Choose the right scheme: Decide on the right
Markup scheme that best suits the content of your website. - Create the JSON-LD code: Use tools like the Schema Markup Generator from Merkleto create the appropriate JSON-LD code.
- Paste the markup into the HTML code: Copy the generated code and paste it into the <head> area or directly before the </body> tag of your HTML page.
- Test your structured data: Check your markup for errors using structured data testing tools:
Google Structured Data Testing ToolWith this tool you can check your built-in code and make sure that there are no errors.
Rich Results TestThis tool shows you how your structured data is displayed in the search results.
Schema Markup ValidatorAnother useful tool for validating your markup. - Monitor and adjust: Keep an eye on the performance of your structured data in search results and adjust the markup as needed to get the best results.
3 tips for troubleshooting structured data
- Error 1: Missing or incorrect attributes: Ensure that all required attributes are present and correct.
- Error 2: Incorrect placement of the code: The JSON-LD data should be placed in the area or directly before the tag of your page.
- Error 3: Data does not match: The JASON-LD data should match the visible data on your page.
Now you know how to insert structured data on your website, which tools you can use to improve the performance and which errors can occur.
One group of entrepreneurs for whom this is particularly relevant are online store operators. This is because products that are inserted into the website code as structured data can also be displayed more attractively in Google search results.
Product snippets – structured data increases the click-through rate of products
Product snippets are particularly important for online stores, as they immediately provide potential customers with all relevant information about the product. Photo, price, availability, ratings and a short description are displayed in the search results.
Another advantage of structured data for products: Your offers are not presented above, but in the vicinity of paid advertisements. If you use structured data consistently, your chances for higher traffic are just as good as for competing Google Ads users.
The combination of structured data and Google Ads makes you unbeatable.
How to: Display product snippets as structured data
To display product snippets as structured data, you can also use the Merkle’s Schema Markup Generator.
There you enter your product-specific data and receive a code, which you then insert into the area or before the tag of your HTML page as described.
Structured data for blog or news articles
Different types of structured data can also be used in blog or news articles to help search engines like Google understand content better and provide more relevant search results for users.
Here are some examples:
- Article scheme: This scheme is used to provide basic information such as title, author, publication date, main image and page content.
- Breadcrumb scheme: This structural data helps to define the hierarchy of the website and show users where a particular page is located in the navigation structure.
- Person scheme: You can use the person scheme to provide information such as name, picture, profession and social media profiles.
- FAQ scheme: If frequently asked questions are answered in the text, you can use the FAQ scheme to present these questions and answers in a structured way.
- How-to diagram: The how-to diagram presents step-by-step instructions in a structured manner. You can also insert images, names and URLs here.
- Rating scheme: If products, services or places are rated on the page, you can use the rating scheme to display them as structured data.
- Event scheme: In your article, you can use the event scheme to share information about the event location, date, time and event type.
- Recipe scheme: You can use the recipe scheme to provide information such as ingredients, preparation method, nutritional information and images.
Conclusion – Structured data leads to better search results
Structured data is a part of search engine optimization and a powerful tool. They make your website easier to understand for search engines like Google and crawlers.
This increases your visibility, as structured data can be used to display content on your site such as products, articles, events, people and job advertisements in the search engines as rich snippets or rich results.
This helps you to achieve better rankings, a higher click-through rate and more potential customers. The advantages of structured data are enormous and implementation is easy thanks to JSON-LD.
You want to structure your website but have a lot of data and don’t know where to start? Then write us a message now, we will support you!
