Question about schema.org

[odmsoft]

Hi guys,

I have a website that has many local based pages. In other words we're featuring local businesses in many many cities. So my question is, will it help if i add schema markup to each page while each markup will be appropriate to the city each page belongs to? Will it help with ranking those local pages?

Thanks

[odmsoft]

Hi Miriam, thank you for helping! Yes, this is what i wanted to know if there is a way to somehow to mark local page with numbers of vendors on it (not individual pages with only one vendor).

Thanks

[MiriamEllis]

Wow, great discussion going on here, everybody!

Marina, you would use local business Schema markup on the individual listings. So, markup for plumber A and markup for plumber B ... but not local business markup for the page itself.

...At least, I'm pretty sure that's what you're asking

[odmsoft]

Thank you all for helping me to figure it out!

Richard, i'm trying to assign structured data to identify the whole page itself as a list of plumbing businesses from specific area. I just want to add a location markup and potentially type of vendor (i.e. plumber, roofer..). Is that possible?

Andy, can you elaborate what you mean by "you can add schema to the listings on the page though?"

Thanks!

[TimHolmes]

As per the confusion I too was thinking it would be individual pages for each business in a location. As for the markups I suppose it depends on the different businesses being used.

If however they are all on one page then as per Andy I am not sure you can feature all the schema at the same time without causing some issues.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi Marina,

Im afraid you cant do this. There is no page level markup for a page like this. You can add schema to the listings on the page though.

-Andy

[GO2Tech]

Marina,

This is an excellent question. Thank you for clarifying. Just to be clear, Are you trying to assign structured data to identify each of the businesses in this listing as plumbers from that area, or simply trying to identify the page itself as a list of plumbing businesses from that area?

Sorry for any confusion. Thanks again for clearing that up. Sorry to keep asking question, just want to be absolutely sure I know your intent. Thanks!

[odmsoft]

Thank you for answering!

So yes, i see i haven't articulated my question clearly enough. Andy is right, i have local pages where there are several local businesses are featured on the same local page. For example, 5 plumbers in Atlanta, GA. So all of these local businesses are located in Atlanta, GA but they don't have any relation to each other.

My initial question was if i can mark such local pages (with number of local businesses from the same city on every page) with schema.org so search engines will only see that this page is about a local business (let's say plumbers) and its location (let;s say Atlanta GA).

THank you again!

[Andy.Drinkwater]

No need to apologise Richard - We need Marina to confirm the structure

-Andy

[GO2Tech]

If that is the case, then by all means I apologize. From what I gathered, she said she has local business in many cities. I'm assuming that each of the "local pages" she is referring to, is a page optimized for that business in a specific city, with different pages for each city.

If I am wrong I stand corrected and apologize for any confusion.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

And this is absolutely correct for a business, but from what I understand, it is the page that all of these businesses sit on that Marina was referring to.

If I have this wrong and Marina is only looking to markup each business on a page, then this is what you would do and there is absolutely no issues with that.

-Andy

[GO2Tech]

She said she has a website that has many local based pages. You can easily markup different pages for different locations.

[GO2Tech]

Marina, here is an example of how you can do this for your business.

Your Business Name

Your Street Address

You City/Town,
Your State
Your Zip Code

United States

Your Phone Number
Cash
Credit Card
Check
Mon-Sat 9am - 5:30pm

[Andy.Drinkwater]

From what I understand Richard, Marina is wishing to Markup a page that relates to multiple different businesses that are not related. I'm not even sure what Markup you would use in this instance.

Local Markup relates to businesses, not pages that are more like a directory.

If I have misunderstood the page concept, then I could have this wrong, but I don't think I have.

-Andy

[GO2Tech]

I completely understand what you are saying Andy. I just don't see much risk with location markup so long as the correct location is used and the markup is valid. It will certainly help Marina to add structured data to improve location association for a page already optimized for Local SEO for that city. If Marina is simply adding this markup for a business location, I can't see how a penalty would arise so long as the correct information was used.

If Marina was using structured data to associate a location to a business page that the business wasn't actually located at, then I'd be worried. I agree with what you are saying, but I think the risk is minimal in this instance so long as your markup is correct and your location data is correct.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi Marina,

The trouble is, Markup isn't meant to be used in this manner. It is for a single item or single entity. If you had a page dedicated just to one business or chain, then it's a little different. Someone might be able to suggest a way around this but I am not aware of a way to Markup a page in the manner you are looking for.

Have a read of these examples over at Google.

-Andy

[odmsoft]

Hi guys. Thank you so much for insights! I really appreciate so rapid responses!

Tim Holmes, can you please advise what markups i should add to better determine the locality of the pages? You also said "just make sure you implement it correctly so you don't conflict with each entry." Can you please give me more details on how to implement it correctly so i don't make conflict with each entry?

Andy Drinkwater, yes i read these guidance and i totally understand them. However, as i understand this applies to rating and reviews only. What i want to do is just to mark each local page with local markups. Please let me know if i'm missing something.

Thank you in advance!

[Andy.Drinkwater]

It's not so much the writing of spammy markup Richard - it's the incorrect use of it. You wouldn't use Markup to help classify a page full of businesses in a specific location in this manner. This goes against the uses that are suggested as they are not specific items.

It's a little difficult to imagine the exact setup of the site and pages without seeing them, but I would be hard pushed to say this would be a recommended technique as it goes against the uses that Google suggests.

-Andy

[GO2Tech]

As far as what Andy is saying, you should have no worries if your website is being monitored in Google Search Console. If you have Structured Data on your website, Google will notify you if there are any issues with the markup of your structured data. However, you can easily prevent the possibility of writing bad structured data markup.

Google provides a Structured Data Testing Tool, as well as an on page data highlighting tool directly in Google Search Console to test structured markup with. In Google Search Console, there is a tab called Search Appearance in the side navigation. Under this tab, you can find Structured Data. If you have structured data on your website, you can also use this tab to validate that Google is aware of your structured data, and that there are no errors.

While Andy is correct that Google is now penalizing websites for spammy structured data markup, you can easily avoid these penalties with tools that they provide you, as well as receive notifications directly from Google if you website is in violation of these rules. Just make sure your website is added to your Google Search Console account, and that you are receiving notifications. Hope this helps!

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi Marina,

Approach this with caution. Google is penalising sites that abuse / over optimise their schema markups. What you are suggesting sounds like you could cause your site harm:

Review and rating markup should be used to provide review and/or rating information about a specific item, not about a category or a list of items. For example, "hotels in Madrid", "summer dresses", or "cake recipes" are not specific items. See also our structured data policies for multiple entities on the same page. Read more here

Tread very carefully and I would advise testing with a small control group first of all if you want to do this. Remember that Google is targeting spammy use of markup, so just don't fall into this category. You are wanting to markup other locations that are not directly related to yourself.

My gut feeling is don't do this if you think what you have planned falls into this e.g "business in LA" or "restaurants in London".

-Andy

[TimHolmes]

As per the previous two posts, I would imagine that it will help Google determine the locality of the pages and that of the featured businesses a little easier, just make sure you implement it correctly so you don't conflict with each entry.

More details on local schema markup can be found below.

https://schema.org/LocalBusiness

https://developers.google.com/webmasters/business-location-pages/schema.org-examples

Brett provided the great testing tool above too

Cheers

Tim

[Brett-Harland]

Hello Marina,

I would certainly recommend it, you will also future proof the sites structure as schema.org seems to be the only thing the 3 top engines can agree on to mark it up Google has a free tool https://developers.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/ with some tutorials. Hope this helps

[Martijn_Scheijbeler]

Hi Marina,

Good question, it most certainly will have an impact on how Google sees the page as you have spend some time making sure the pages are marked up in the right way. I would never put it as a first priority but would make sure that your pages have some some elements of the markup.