A Cost Effective Solution To Improving Your Website and SEO
The proper use of structured data and schema mark-up on a websites is often overlooked by small/local business owners and entrepreneurs. Some reasons why it is overlooked is due to them not being aware of the benefits of schema and structured data, or they lack the resources to implement schema and structured data. Sometimes Web designers and Companies do not fully implement or stress the importance of having it to their clients. It is even more important for those with dynamic or constantly updated websites to be using Schema.
Schema Helps Search Engines Understand the contents of Your website and gives them the necessary information to provide the best answers and features to searchers
In short it is a standardized format used to mark-up your website(s) to help search engines (Google, Bing, Yandex and Yahoo) better classify and understand the content on it:
1. Information about your business/organization
2. Information about events
3. Reviews
4. Products/Services
5. Persons, Places or Things
The benefits of Schema markup and structured data:
Search engines want to provide users with the best answer, result, or option possible × You Want To Be At The Top. Having Schema and Structured Data present on your website helps search engines index and better understand the content on your web pages better.
People search the internet for solutions to their problems. Whether it is for entertainment, a simple/complex answer to a question, some place to eat, a way to lose weight, a product or service - people are looking for an answer. If you have that answer you should aim to be the first option they see. Providing search engines with Schema and Structured Data helps them place you in front of the right customers searching for that answer on SERPs.
Even though Schema has no effect on how your site or content ranks on a SERP, Schema improves appearance in rich results and depending on your ranking:
Rank for the Answer Box/Featured Snippet | Position 0
Boost CTR
Increase Conversions
Rank for the Response to a Voice Search
Improve the User Experience for Searchers
Rank in the Knowledge Graph
Make a Great First Impression with Rich Results
They're missing out on Local SEO ranking and potentially losing out on HUNDREDS of potential clients.
Many search queries are "... Near Me". By providing search engines with the accurate and detailed Schema mark-up on their site(s) businesses can help searchers find them easier. It's a win, win, win. The searcher gets the answer they are looking for, the search engine provides the answer and receives the trust of the searcher, and finally the business gets a new customer. Businesses benefit by improving their appearance on maps and business listings such as Google My Business or Bing Places.
Entrepreneurs, bloggers, stylists, make up artist, photographers with tutorials , writers, and anyone else with a website and content to share should be leveraging schema to give their web pages a chance to stand out on search engine result pages.
A person, place, product, service or thing can be described using Schema and structured data which makes it possible for the content on their web page to appear in specific search results. Surrounding the right content with the right structured data will instantly give them an advantage over competitors.