How to use Schema Markup for SEO – Complete Guide

Schema Markup is one of the most important Technical SEO you can implement in your website.

Schema Markup helps your website stand out in the search results and get more Clicks. Get Rich results like these –

In this article I delve deep about Schema Markup and how to use them in your website to help Search engines bring to more traffic. In case you prefer a detailed video, here it is –

What is Schema Markup?

Schema Markup is Structured data (semantic vocabulary) that defines entities, attributes, and relationships on the web to help search engines understand the information on your website to provide better results for users.

Basically, you put some code snippets to your website’s backend that search engines crawl, understand, organize, and display for the users.

So Schema data is really important for SEO as it can improve visibility in the search and increase traffic.

You might be thinking, Google is already so good at understanding the content, why does it require another vocabulary to do that?

Well, they still do. Let’s say there is a mention of “cars”, now how does Google or anyone know that if you are talking about automobiles in general or about Cars movie?

That is why, in 2011 Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Index collaborated to create a standardized list of attributes, which they all agreed to use to make search results more interesting. This is called Schema. Schema.org is the official website, where all the Schema types are listed. It is an excellent resource if you want to implement Schema Data.

With Schema markup you can clearly indicate for the search engines what you exactly mean.

Sample encoded as JSON-LD in a HTML script tag

<script type="application/ld+json">
    {
        "@context": "https://schema.org",
        "@type": "Dentist",
        "name": "City Smiles",
        "description": "Dental care service",
        "slogan": "Let your teeth shine",
        "openingHours": "Mo-Sa 9:00-12:00",
        "telephone": "+12025550198",
        "email": "city.smiles.dental@example.com",
        "address": {
            "@type": "PostalAddress",
            "addressLocality": "Detroit",
            "addressRegion": "MI",
            "postalCode": "48226",
            "streetAddress": "1001  Eagle Drive"
        },
        "paymentAccepted": "Cash, Credit Card",
        "priceRange": "$$",
        "aggregateRating": {
            "@type": "AggregateRating",
            "ratingValue": 4.5,
            "reviewCount": 22
        },
        "image": "https://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~ece533/images/lena.png",
        "review": [
            {
                "@type": "Review",
                "author": "Liam",
                "datePublished": "2020-06-26",
                "description": "Great prices, excellent service",
                "name": "Great dental clinic",
                "reviewRating": {
                    "@type": "Rating",
                    "ratingValue": 5
                }
            },
            {
                "@type": "Review",
                "author": "David",
                "datePublished": "2020-05-16",
                "description": "I am totally satisfied with the quality of service, but the waiting time should be reduced",
                "name": "Waiting time",
                "reviewRating": {
                    "@type": "Rating",
                    "ratingValue": 4
                }
            }
        ]
    }
</script>

Benefits of Using Schema Markup for SEO

Better visibility: Chances are your content will appear in rich results. Suitable for branding and traffic.

Rank better: When Google understands your content better, chances are it will rank your content better. And if you succeed in acquiring Featured Snippet, you on 0th position, at the top of all the organic results and Google maps.

More traffic: When you rank higher and get better visibility, CTR increases, so traffic to your website increases.

Types of Schema Markup

At the time of writing this article, there are 778 Schema Data types listed in Schema.org.

But Google Currently uses only 29 types. Here are the popular ones –

• Article
• Breadcrumb
• Event
• FAQ
• How to
• Local Business
• Logo
• Movie
• Product
• QnA
• Recipe
• Review Snippet
• Sitelink Search box
• Video

Most Search Engines support three Schema Markup formats

• JSON-LD
• Microdata
• RDFa

I use JSON-LD format, and even Google recommends using JSON-LD. And this format is the easiest to implement. You will need HTML experience to markup data with Microdata or RDFa.

3 Steps Implement Schema Markup to your website

1. Choose the right Schema markup:

Choosing the right schema markup is essential. If you use the wrong Schema, it will not help you, and all the effort will go vein. In fact, using the wrong schema data may spoil your SEO effort.

Thankfully choosing the right Schema Markup isn’t that difficult.

1. You can Google some of the terms in Google and See what kind of rich Snippets are coming up.
2. Check your competitors. Yes, your competitors are already using Schema. Steal theirs. Just Copy your competitor’s URLs and test in the Structured data testing tool. It will show all the Structured data that the URL is having. You can have those schemas on your website.
3. I also recommend checking out the List of Schema Markups that Google Supports and use the relevant ones.

2. Generate the Schema Code (JSON-LD)

Once you know the types of Schema Markup you want to use, there are several ways you can generate Schema Codes to put on your website.

1. Just use a WordPress plugin that has the Schema Type you want. This method will not require you to generate code. And it is by far the easiest. But Implementing some Schemas might not be possible. Then the following types come in handy.
2. Find the type you want and go to Schema.org‘s page about that. You will find the JSON-LD code there, copy and modify.
3. View the page source of your competitors URL, who is doing it well. You will find all the Schema code. Copy that and modify it. You can even use the Structure data Testing tool to detect the Schemas and See the code.
4. This one is the most recommended method if the first one doesn’t work – Go to Structure Data Markup Helper and Generate the code. Let me know if you need a tutorial on this.
5. Go to Technical SEO’s Schema Markup Generator, choose the Schema type, provide all the information. It will generate the code.

3. Add the Schema code to your website

Just add code anywhere on the backend of the website. If the code should be on all the pages, add in all the pages, or if a specific page adds that there.

Adding Schema Markup on WordPress websites:

1. If you are Plugin for Schema, you don’t need to do this. Add through that specific plugin. Or else,
2. if you need to add the JSON-LD code on the entire website, use a plugin like Head & Footer Code. Go to the plugin’s settings and page the code in the header of the footer. Both works.
3. If you want to add on specific pages, edit the page, scroll down, you will see the Head & Footer Code plugins have a box to enter the code. Paste it here. If you are not using the plugin, then For classic editor, go code view and paste the JSON-LD somewhere. If you are using the Guttenberg editor, pick any paragraph, open it as HTML paste the code somewhere.

If you are using Elementor, then the Head & Footer code plugin works. If you don.t have that plugin, then their Code block element, type the code there and publish.

Testing Schema Markup

After adding the Schema code to your website it is essential to test if the implementation of Schema is appropriately done. Use these tools below and test if everything is ok or there may be some error.

• Google Structured Data Testing Tool
• Google Rich Results Test

Final verdict

There are a few things to know About Schema markup.

• Schema Markup doesn’t guarantee you featured snippet. But the thing is, if you do for many pages/posts, some will very likely receive.
• Don’t markup content that is not visible on a page – it’s considered as a spammy technique!

I hope this helps; later, I am planning to create detailed videos of each part. Also, please mention if you need anything.