Entrepreneurs often shy away from the more technical aspects of SEO. This is likely because some are uncomfortable working in the backend of their websites, while others worry they might irreversibly harm their website’s SEO performance.
Unfortunately, this timid behavior puts many small businesses at a disadvantage in the SERPs. For small business owners who want to better compete in search with larger or incumbent brands, they need to learn the foundations of technical SEO and leverage optimizations like adding schema markup.
Despite its effectiveness in driving more organic clicks from SEO, it’s estimated that only about 30% of websites are using schema markup. That means those business owners who take the time to implement this powerful optimization on their web pages are already one step ahead of much of their competition.
While the word “schema” may sound techy, the practice of implementing schema markup is straightforward and you don’t have to be a web developer to do it. There are plenty of tools that can help you create your schema, add it to your web pages, and verify that it qualifies for Google’s rich results.
What is schema markup?
If you’ve ever compared recipes at the top of results for cooking times or ratings, you have schema to thank for that.
Schema markup is its own language–a language that search engines understand. Also referred to as “structured data,” schema markup is a way to tell search engines specifics about your website’s content. So, for example, the recipes schema (below) clearly communicates to web crawlers key details of the three recipes, including cook time, reviews, and ingredients.
[caption id="attachment_203695" align="alignnone" width="1168"]
Example of recipe rich results powered by schema[/caption]
Although search engines can figure out the content on a page without relying on schema markup, adding that markup makes it a lot easier for them. In turn, search engines use this information to provide previews of content on the search engine results page for users.
How does schema help your SEO?
Google and other search engines emphasize providing the most helpful results to their searchers.
In order to do so, Google displays specific information from a web page in its results in order for the searcher to make a better-informed decision about whether they want to click. These previews are known as rich results.
For example, if a potential customer is shopping for shoes using Google, previewing which pages have their size in stock along with the prices can help them decide which page to click through to.
[caption id="attachment_203696" align="alignnone" width="1100"]
Example of products schema[/caption]
Let’s say your site offers the shoes the searcher is hunting for, but you do not have schema markup that displays this data clearly on the search page. There’s a good chance (a) your SERP ranking will be lower since Google wants to display sites it knows have the right shoes; and (b) the searcher will click a result that previews their prices and availability.
Schema is your ticket to a rich snippet in Google search results. Google now has over 30 different types of rich results, meaning there is likely a schema that is a good fit for the content on your website. Not only do rich results look more enticing to users, but they also have significantly higher click-through rates than traditional blue link results.
This means adding schema can have a drastic impact on driving more organic traffic to your website.
What schemas should I add to my website?
Schema.org is a free resource that outlines all available schema markups. It was created by Google, Bing, Microsoft, and Yahoo as a way to encourage more website owners to implement schemas across their websites.
The schema vocabulary currently consists of 792 "types," but you only need to add those that make sense for your products, services, or content. Organization, reviews, and products schema are some of the most popular types for small- to mid-sized businesses.
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How to implement schema markup
Implementing schema markup has become very simple. There are countless schema generator tools available to site owners, but I suggest starting with Google's free Structured Data Markup Helper.
Using this tool is easy if you know which schema to include as a business. It creates your markup in JSON-LD, Google’s preferred markup syntax. There are other syntaxes that can be used, but JSON-LD is the simplest and easiest to implement.
Follow these steps to create your schema:
Step 1: Become familiar with Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper
To begin creating your schema, navigate to google.com/webmasters/markup-helper to create a markup for your homepage:
1. Select the type of schema you want to add.
2. Paste the webpage URL into the text field.
3. Select Start Tagging.
4. Next, highlight elements or text on your page and select the correct schema from the drop-down list.
Step 2: Select schema that best reflects your business type
When it comes to choosing schema, the more specific you can be, the better.
While there is schema to denote things as general as things, places, and events, these won’t help you in the SERPs. However, telling the search engine that you’re a business is a great start to helping Google narrow in on what your business offers.
To do so, use Organization Schema on your homepage or About page. You can choose from:
- Food Establishment/Restaurant
- NGO
- Automotive
- Childcare
- Dentist
- Financial Service
- Health and Beauty
- Construction
- Lodging
- Professional Service
- Real Estate Agents
- Shopping Center
- Stores
- Other
After your business-type schema is set up, move onto your:
- Phone Number
- Logo
- Social
Step 3: Help shoppers find your business
Next, create schema that indicates to Google if your business is a brick-and-mortar and how customers can find your physical location and when you’re open. To do so, use Address Schema on your about or homepage (e-commerce businesses can skip to the next step):
- Postal Address
- Postal Code
- Street Address
- Address Locality
- Geo-coordinates
Next, add your store’s hours of operation with:
- Opening hours
After you’ve marked up your entire page, select Create HTML. This will provide you with the markup. You can copy and paste into a document until you’re ready to add it to your CMS.
Step 4: Add your schema to your homepage
After you’ve saved your schema markup text in a document, you still need to add it to your HTML. To do so, you will need to use your CMS or ask your web developer to add it to your header section.
WordPress users can switch to text view after opening the page where they want to add schema. Then locate the header, and paste the text before the </header>. Then update the page to save the changes.
If you’re not comfortable doing schema implementation without the help of tools, consider adding a WordPress plugin that specializes in schema. Two of my favorites include Schema Pro and Schema App.
Step 5: Test your schema markup
After you’ve added your schema, it’s always a good idea to verify that it is working properly. To do so:
1. Copy the URL you want to test.
2. Navigate to validator.schema.org
3. Paste the URL into the URL field, then select RUN TEST.
[caption id="attachment_203701" align="alignnone" width="1999"]
Test your schema markup using schema validator[/caption]
Step 6: Add additional schema to remaining pages
Once you’ve added schema to your homepage, you should add relevant schema markup to your product pages, menu page, and events pages, depending on your web page content.
If your business sells physical items, include:
- Price Range
- Availability
- Images
- Color
- Brand
- Reviews
- Sizes
- Description
Food and beverage businesses should implement:
- Menu
- Price Range
- Events
For service-based businesses, your Service Schema can include key information like:
- Description of service
- Areas served
- Offers (if any)
- Potential Action, like "request a quote," or "make an appointment"
Again, these are some of the more useful schemas for small business. But if the schemas mentioned here aren't the best fit your web content, reference a schema markup guide to find the right schema for you.
Give your small business an SEO competitive edge with schema
While adding schema markup to your web pages does take some research, it’s a worthwhile investment. Getting more comfortable working on the backend of your website is great for entrepreneurs, and a straightforward optimization like schema is a great place to start.
The rewards are improved click-through rates, brand visibility, and more organic visitors browsing your website for the products or services your business offers.
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