What is Structured Data and How Should You Use It?

What is Structured Data?

Structured data refers to the data used to help search engines better understand, structure and display your information. Search engines do not comprehend information in the same way that we do and in order to help them better understand and interpret your web pages data, it requires optimising and including certain features. This may sound confusing, and not everyone has the know-how and the capacity to be able to understand the vocabulary of this data, which is why the larger search engines have complied this information through Schema.org, which is able to translate our own languages into data that search engines can understand. This makes it much easier for smaller businesses and brands to also take advantage of structured data and better display their information on search engine results pages. this is why structured data for local businesses and brands is important as it can help to increase the amount of local traffic to make their way to a webpage. The information provided through Schema.org translates into having more detailed rich results on search engine results pages, helping to generate more organic traffic to your webpage. 

What Do You Do With Structured Data?

With structured data, you are creating a way for you and a search engine to communicate, you can tell it what the most important information to display is and what context this information can be used within. One of the easiest ways to explain this is by looking at a basic structured data example, which could be a recipe. If your webpage has a recipe for a cake on it, it is important that Google and other search engines have detailed information about it that they can understand. This allows for search engines to display important information in rich results such as the total cooking time, perhaps inform users how many calories the final product will contain and it can even include a picture! Without you providing a detailed account, in a language that a search engine can understand, it would not be able to display this information correctly, leaving users with less information and web pages with less chance of being clicked on. The rich results that display the pertinent data about a webpage and provide users with a brief look at what information you have and how they could use it to better understand a certain topic. 

Why Do People Use Structured Data?

As search engines grow and become better equipped to understand and display information, it is important that website developers take advantage of these developments and create a space where they can interact and let a search engine know what is what on their webpage. As understanding and context become a higher ranking factor, with search engines no longer just using basic ranking factors to rank web pages, it is important that you move with the times and become better equipped at displaying your data on search engine results pages. People use structured data as a way of communication with search engines, letting them know what the most important information is on a webpage and why, allowing for website developers and search engines to communicate and understand one another in new and exciting ways!   

What are The Advantages of Using Structured Data?

There are many advantages to using structured data, and it is always recommended that you use it to your advantage and display and give users as much information as possible. The following are just a few reasons why you shoudl¥d include structured data on your website.

• Chances are, it’s going to help your search engine results page ranking: While many search engines have stated that having structured data does not directly impact your search engine results page ranking, it does indirectly affect it. Having your information displayed in a rich results page as a rich snippet means that your information is going to be structured with the most important information being displayed. A user is far more likely to click on your websites link as opposed to others who do not have their structured data optimised. It also ensures that those who are clicking on your website link have more information, streaming high-quality traffic and not traffic that would leave your page without checking out more of your information. 

• Unstructured data vs structured data: Unstructured data analytics show that having structured and informative information on your webpage is beneficial and can help a brand or business rank higher than they would with only unstructured data. Using both structured and unstructured data is becoming more important, as the competition grows and more brands and businesses use online platforms to attract customers. You want to be able to use every advantage possible to stay ahead of the competition, and using structured data is one way to achieve this. 

What are The Disadvantages of Using Structured Data?

Though using structured data is often considered to be a good thing and it is recommended that all web pages use this element, there are a few negatives that are associated with the addition of this information.

• Information only has one definition: When optimising your data and introducing structured data to your content, the information provided to Google can only be used for one purpose. This limit on how flexible information is and the different searches that can be brought up from having this information may be impacted. 

• Storage capacity: When uploading structured data to your website, the information immediately goes into large warehouses where information is stored. These warehouses have tons of information loaded, and if you want to change or update your information, you will have to access and update all information. This takes up time and resources, becoming an expensive issue as your business grow and changes. 

Why Is Structured Data Important for SEO?

Many search engines have encouraged the use of structured data as it allows for information to be better understood and displayed on search engine results pages. So why do search engines prefer you to use structured data? They prefer it due to the fact that it is designed to improve the overall experience of the user and will allow for information to be easily and correctly displayed through rich snippets. Structured data in SEO helps to make a webpage more visible on search engine results pages and it contributes to how your information will appear when a certain search query is entered into Google. structured data for SEO is incredibly important and it can be extremely helpful to have it on your web page, search engines actually have put rewards in place, l.ike featured snippets, for websites that have taken the time to add this information to their web pages. 

What are The Types of Structured Data?

There are structured data types that vary and have different aspects that contribute to the overall functioning of structured data on web pages. The following are the two different types of structured data that are used to communicate with search engines. It does not matter whether the data is numerical or categorical, it only matters that you have labelled the information correctly as structured data organisation and structured data processing rely on having this information. The following is a brief explanation of both numerical and categorical data. 

Numerical Data

Numerical data refers to the information the appears in numerical form (i.e. numbers)

Categorical Data

Categorical data refers to nominal or ordinal characters (i.e any words or letters). 

How Do You Generate Structured Data?

Not all of us who are hoping to use structured data have the capabilities of comprehending and using search engine language. This confusing assortment of data would get the best of most of us and search engines are well aware of it! It is for this reason that search engines have come up with an accumulation of different languages that can be translated through what is known as Schema.org, a structured data generator. This information is able to translate language and directions into information that a search engine can understand. By placing information about your content on Schema.org, you can translate it into a language that a search engine will be able to understand and display on search engine results pages. 

How Do You Add Structured Data to Your Website?

Open Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper

The Structured data markup helper tool helps you to easily add pertinent information about your website and the content on it. This unique tool is very easy to use and it is freely available for Google users. The tool can be found by clicking here.

Select Your Data Type and Enter The URL

The first page on Google`s structured data markup helper tool is where you can select your data type. All you have to do is enter your URL on the page and then click on the type of data that you are adding to the HTML markup. 

Highlight Page Elements and Assign Data Tags

The next step of the process is assigning different data tags to your information. The tool takes your URL and opens the page alongside a list of various tags to use so that you can assign different tag elements to your webpage.This tool is useful because it actually helps you to decide which tags would be better suited to your webpage, depending on the type of data you selected on the previous page. The panel on the right side of the page will show you exactly what you have assigned and the tags associated with each piece of information. 

Create The HTML

The next step to do is create your HTML, you can do this by clicking on the ‘create HTML’ tag on the top right-hand coroner of the page. 

Add The Schema Markup to Your Page

The next page will provide you with the structured data markup and the tool will automatically translate it to either JSON-LD or microdata markup, whichever one you prefer to use. You then download the HTML and publish the new HTML markup as a part of the source code for your websites. You have then completed the last step of the process and will have to check your markup with the structured data testing tool provided by Google. 

Test Your Markup With Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool

In order to be sure that your structured data model is being correctly read and interpreted by search engines, It is important to run your information through a structured data markup tool that will test as to whether or not your information is being read properly. You can open up the Google tool and copy and paste any URL into the tab, which will then provide you with information about the tags you have chosen.

Fix The Issues

There may be a few issues that are flagged by the tool and it is important that you fix these issues quickly. Any mistakes or issues that have been detected can be fixed on the panel, meaning that you do not have to go back and start the entire process from scratch. Once you are happy with your tags and structured data placement, click on ‘Publish’! 

What are The Tools and Resources for Structured Data?

As with many other SEO elements, there are a wide variety of tools that can be used to help you better place information across a webpage. The various structured data tools can help you to better understand this concept and place elements across a webpage that can help you to take advantage of various structured data features. The Google structured data testing tool is one of the top tools to use if you are wanting to see the impact that adding structured data will have and how a search engine understands your information. This testing tool is one that is used by many brands and businesses who are hoping to learn more about how structured data works and how it can be optimised to secure better rich results. The rich results test provided through this tool will be able to show you exactly what your rich results will look like, based on the information you have provided the search engine with.

Having a structured data checker to make sure that the information generated through Schema.org is correct will ensure that no mistakes are made or data is read incorrectly. There are many different types of structured data plugins and structured data products to help ensure that you put your best foot forward when it comes to your rich results on search engine results pages. 

How Can Markethinkers Help You With Structured Data?

When it comes to better understanding structured data and how it can be used to help improve your SEO, there is no better team than the seo consulting experts here at Markethinkers. With a team of skilled and determined Markethinkers, who understand and keep up to date with the latest trends and algorithms, you are sure to improve your rankings in no time at all! Whether you are looking to better understand structured data markup or are looking for help when it comes to Schema.org, our dedicated team of seo copywriting experts is on call to help you achieve your goals when it comes to SEO!