Schema.org
Schema. org is a web portal that provides a markup for the marking of structured data. Schema.org is the result of the cooperation between the search engines Google, Bing, Yahoo and, as of 2011, Yandex (Russia). The award system helps to mark and structure content on web pages so that search engines can process this content more easily. Markups are used by search engines, for example, to display rich snippets in the SERPs.
Use of Schema.org
Since the world's largest search engines stand behind this uniform standard, webmasters can be sure that the markup with itemprop and itemtype can also be read correctly by these search engines. The markup used offers website operators the chance that content from search engines can be indexed better and used for Rich Snippets or the Knowledge Graph.
What Schema.org provides
Schema.org offers free documentation on the most important schemata of markup language. The semantic markup of structured data on the Internet is made possible with this HTML markup language. Schema.org uses different, frequently used element types, for example:
- People
- Places, shops, restaurants
- Health and medicine
- Events
- Creativity: creative work, book, film, music, recipe, TV series
- Organization
- Review, rating
- Product, offer
Schema.org represents the complete type hierarchy on this overview page so that users can be directly oriented. The marking of the microdata is carried out with the attributes <itemprop>, <itemscope> and <itemtype>.
Examples of use
The schema.org typologies are used in particular to create Rich Snippets. These are automated excerpts from a webpage that will directly display the required information in Google SERPs. For example, a search for “Rolling Stones concert” will yield in the search results the upcoming concerts dates, tour destinations, and ticket prices. If you are looking for a recipe, recipe suggestions with preparation time and calorie count will be shown.
Criticism
Schema.org entails a huge workload for website operators. The search and implementation of the respective semantically correct codes takes time, which often gets done at the expense of the range of information provided, especially for smaller websites. Moreover, Schema.org has not yet been implemented in many free CMS. There are Plug-ins which take over part of the work. Alternatively, structured data can also be marked with JSON-LD without having to mark the HTML source code directly. With the so-called "Data Highlighter" in the Google Search Console, Google offers its own tool that can be used to mark data on the website without having to use markups.
Relevance to search engine optimization
Schema. org labels can help search engines structure the source code and make structured data more indexable. Thus, Schema.org, or the labelling with markup, is of great importance for Search Engine Optimization. In addition, the specific markup of certain content enables the preparation of websites for future requirements of any new Google services.
Rich snippets created with the help of structured data increase the attractiveness of search results and can significantly improve the Click Through Rate on these results. For example, marking ratings with schema. org can lead to rating stars being displayed in the SERP. If users now see these ratings, they are more motivated to click on them.
Structured data can also play an important role in the use of digital assistants such as Amazon Echo and Google Home. They enable the programs to provide useful answers to simple questions.
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