What is Schema?

Yahoo, Bing and Google got together and  agreed to sponsor the implementation of Schema, which are html tags (structured data) for code in websites so that search engines can more easily read your website.  By using Schema, Mannix Marketing hopes to make it easier for the search engines to know about your website. Most notably, we use Schema as we want to have rich snippets, which make our clients’ search results stand out in the search engines.

Why should my website use Schema; isn’t that more work?

Yes, it’s more work, but it’s how SEO friendly websites are being designed. It’s called “semantic SEO”.  According to semanticweb.com – websites that use structured data have up to a 30% increase in click-through rates when search results display rich snippets.  Best Buy saw a 30% increase in traffic to individual store websites by enhancing store descriptions with structured data (Schema).

What are Rich Snippets? What do they look like?

Rich snippets are the few lines of text under the search results with extra information to let web searchers know exactly what is on that page.  Here are some examples:

By adding Reviews Schema to your website, you may end up with star ratings on your results:

Event Schema can result in this type of search results:

Product schema can result is rich snippets like this:

Authors stand out in the search engines and this can increase your website’s click through rate by over 30%!

By using the Author Snippet, Mannix Marketing’s blogs stand out in competive search results and therefore get a higher click through rate.

What are the most popular types of Schema?

• Person
• Product
• Event
• Organization
• Movie
• Videos
• Book
• Recipes
• Review

Where can I learn about Schema?

Schema.org is the official site: http://www.schema.org/
Raven Tools has a fabulous site: http://schema-creator.org/
Structured Data Testing Tool: http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets
Google Webmaster Tools: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1211158
See what your competitors are doing – who is using Schema: http://sindice.com/

How can I get Schema added to my site?

Call Mannix Marketing (800) 928-9154 or fill out our contact us form and talk to a digital marketing strategist today.

Tags: authorship, breadcrumbs, microdata, microformats, Raven, reputation management, reviews, rfda, rich snippets, schema, schema.org, semantic web, structured data, Yoast

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2012 at 3:34 pm and is filed under Schema, SEO & Internet Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.