Google, Schema and SEO
Welcome to this weeks SEO Video blog, Last week we looked at the rise of aggressive PPC adverts in the Google results pages. We did however mention schema micro-formatting, this could help balance the listings and improve click through rates for organic rankings.
Schema for those who don’t know is a selection of markup language supported by Google, it provides a collection of schemas, i.e., html tags, that webmasters can use to markup their pages in ways recognized by major search providers http://schema.org/
The advantages of using micro-formatting is to aid the search engines to understand what elements are being discussed on a web page via HTML. These ‘tags’ can describe ratings, addresses, movies, places, people, videos and much much more.
So… I hear you ask how can this help my organic rankings, well directly we wouldn’t want to suggest that it will improve actual SERPs. But we can say there is opportunity to improve CTR by adding extra value to the listings displayed. For example:
Ratings – these can be referenced from credible sources for your industry.
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Recipe Cooking Times -Does what is says on the tin, by illustrating how long the dish takes to cook before having to click the ranking.
<Screen Shot 2>
Movies – Shows director, cast and ratings.
<Screen Shot 3>
You can also add micro formatting to your address in the footer or contact page, this will help Google identify your location and could ‘could’ help your regional SEO performance.
Our friends over at SEOmoz have done a comprehensive blog post previously which is worth taking at look at and linked from the supporting blog post. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/schema-examples?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+seomoz+%28SEOmoz+Daily+Blog%29
Thanks for watching, any questions or queries add them to the comments.
