What is Schema Markup?

Schema markup is code (semantic vocabulary) that you put on your website to help the search engines return more informative results for users. If you’ve ever used rich snippets, you’ll understand exactly what schema markup is all about.

Here’s an example of a local business that has markup on its event schedule page. The SERP entry looks like this:

Schema tells the search engines what your data means, not just what it says.

The content on your website gets indexed and returned in search results. Obviously. But with schema markup, some of that content gets indexed and returned in a different way.\

Schema markup helps your website rank better for all kinds of content types. There is data markup for…

• Articles

• Local businesses

• Restaurants

• TV episodes and ratings

• Book Reviews

• Movies

• Software Applications

• Events

• Products

Steps on how to use it on your website

1. Go to Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper.

2. Select the type of data tha you plan to markup

3. Paste in the URL of the page or article that you want to markup

4. Highlight and select the type of elements to be marked up

5. Create the HTML

6. Use the Structured Data Testing Tool to find out what your page will look like with the added markup.

Once the code is pasted, I click “preview.” The testing tool shows me what the article will look like in Google search results:

Tips on using schema markup.

The purpose of this article was to get you started in the world of schema markup. It’s a big world.

The next few tips will show you how to dive even deeper, and gain even richer results from schema.

Find the schemas that are most commonly used.

Schema.org provides a list of the most common types of schema markup. You can visit the Organization of Schemas page to see this list. Check out the types that are best suited to your business.

Schema Markup for Now and the Future

As simple as schema markup is to implement, it’s surprising how few businesses and websites have taken advantage of it.

Schema markup is one of those SEO innovations that will probably be with us for a long time. Now is the time to learn and implement the relevant microdata to improve your search results. Doing so right away will put you ahead of the curve, giving you a leg up on the competition.