Structured Data – The King of SEO
In 2001, Google, Bing, and Yahoo! decided to combine forces to create Schema.org, promoting a standardized list of attributes and industry vocabulary about SEO and structured data. But what is structured data exactly, and how does it work with SEO?
The world of search engine optimization or SEO is complex and ever-changing. Nonetheless, once you understand the basics, even the smallest amount of SEO knowledge makes a massive difference.
In this piece, our Miami SEO Experts from GOA-TECH want to dive into both structured data and SEO and how the two correlate, and how understanding this relationship can benefit your business. Read on to learn more!
What is SEO?
SEO is an acronym for “search engine optimization and is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of your site’s website traffic. As a result, SEO aims to improve exposure to your brand through non-paid, a.k.a. “organic” search engine results.
For any business looking to optimize their SEO, it is important to understand:
- what people search for online
- the answers they’re searching for
- words they use to search
- types of content they want to consume
Determining the answers to these questions allows you to connect to organic traffic from online searches. These results are potential customers looking for solutions that your company offers! Unfortunately, identifying this base is only half of the battle.
If SEO were a two-sided coin, the other side would represent delivering content to consumers in a way that search engine crawlers can find and understand. This means crafting content that a crawler can utilize to index your site and create relations between keyword research, searches, and the information a web page provides.
To learn more about SEO and content creation, take a look at some of our primers on the topics:
What is Structured Data?
Structured data is a way to describe your site to search engines to help them understand what it provides:
- What kind of business your company represents
- What type of services or products you may offer
Structured data is a way to describe your site to search engines to help them understand what it provides:
- What kind of business your company represents
- What type of services or products you may offer
To describe your site to search engines, you will need to utilize a specific vocabulary that presents your content in an organized way it can understand.
The vocabulary relating to structured data and SEO is called Schema.org. This translates content into code that crawlers can efficiently process. Essentially, search engine crawlers will read the code before displaying search engine results in a rich, specific way.
Imagine that your company website catalogs categorized data on various pages like a media review or recipe site. By adding structured data and SEO implementations, your results with search engines could change. The search engines will “enrichen” your page listings, among other content shown in search results. Google calls these “rich snippets.“
Aside from the title, URL, and description in search results which just about every other site can achieve, Google will display relevant information related to the topic. This includes information on not only “the best books ever” but additionally why the site may catalog these titles as the best books ever.
Why Structured Data and SEO is Important for Your Company
The relationship between and utilization of structured data and SEO is essential for any company in any industry because it makes it easier for Google and other search engines to understand the nature of your company and its pages.
Google needs to index pages to show them in search results. Structured data conveys information in a way that is far easier for it to understand. With better understanding, search engines can help improve search result rankings.
Structure data and SEO additionally alters the way a snippet may appear. Search engines will display more information to customers with more specificity. As a result, this increases the likelihood of users clicking on result links. Additional clicks often equate to even higher rankings in a powerful lead generating performance improvement cycle.
Structured Data and SEO Improvements | GOA-TECH | SEO Company in Miami
There is so much to learn about structured data and SEO that a single article can’t cover. This might be why digital marketing agencies can’t stop focusing on the topic. However, our team from GOA-TECH likes to talk about SEO and structured data because of the vast performance improvement it can impart to any company’s online marketing and SEO campaigns.
Nonetheless, this basic primer is an excellent start to understanding structured data concerning SEO and why it can help your company with SEO and other digital marketing efforts. To learn more, reach out to our team today!
