What is the optimum schema for a Website and how important is it really is for SEO?
-
Hey everyone,
As you all probably has seen Google has changed their structure testing tool and alongside that has also changed what is considered as valid and not valid.I have been struggling with this question for quite a while now where opinions are really split.
**1. How important is Schema for SEO? **
2. How far should you go Schema'ing your website pages?From the one hand i can see how it can be easier for a BOT to read a code that has proper "road signs" (our schemas markups), on the other hands, Google is already extremely clever is working out what is the header, sidebar or footer as well as review and or a blog posts (especially for those of us who use Wordpress.
Would love to know if someone has seen a "Like to Like" show case with schemas and/or have some factual information regarding what should or shouldn't be done when it comes ot Schema.
Dan.
-
So your footer links, top nav bar, are only visible in code? But can you see them on the page?
To elaborate on my answer, I feel that schema markups for links in the footer, sidebar and top nav are irrelevant and not worth exhausting the effort. What benefit does the markup have to the user? The markups should highlight the most important parts of your site for the benefit of the searcher, not the search engine. Therefore my answer is really that same, put yourself in the shoes of the searcher. Is there something in those links worth highlighting that could possibly increase your CTR? My guess is that there probably isn't. Without seeing your site, I couldn't really assume otherwise.
The benefit is not to the engine as these markups are for user experience alone. Highlighting the data won't help you rank better if it is irrelevant to the searcher.
-
Hi Monica,
Although i appricate your comment and although it was Staff Endorsed here on Moz i think it was a very general answer that doesn't touch the core of my question.and i will explain, whilst i agree with you 100% regarding the fact that one should add Schema markups to the things that are important on your site it didn't answer the dipper question of combining the front end and back end when it comes to Schema. In other words, by defining schema for sidebards, top menus, footer etc. (all of which which are only visible to search engines bots on a code level) are we helping our SEO efforts? is Google going to award us for taking the time and specifying schema throughout elements that are not your usual suspects (Review, Ratings, Products etc.)?
I hope i get my point/question across, as we both share the same principles it is not clear from your comment what level of technical code level schema should be implemented.
Dan.
-
I believe the Schema markups are better for user experience, which is why they are important to SEO. What is the point of having a completely optimized site and great content if you can't get anyone to click on your SERP? This is especially true for ECommerce stores. Those markups give the customers the first glimpse of a price and the quality of a product, and, can often drastically increase CTR.
You should add Schema markups to the things that are important on your site, prices, brands, reviews; the things that are more important to the searcher. What is good for the searcher is good for the search engine. Highlight the things that you have over your competition. Highlight the things you want to be recognized for, like promotions or guarantees. The benefit of the markups should be thought of as what is good for the searcher, not the bots.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Big SEO Changes
Firstly, this is quite extensive so thank you to anyone who answers some or all of the below! So this is quite a lengthy ordeal, and I'm going to start by saying that I'm no SEO expert (yet). I've paid for SEO for years and only on the odd occasion has it made any real difference. It has come to the point now where I've spent so much money on SEO over the years with practically no benefit that I can't afford to do it anymore, so I am teaching myself. So, back in July my website was hacked for a total sum of three weeks. My SEO/Hosting company at the time didn't do anything about it, let the hack sit there and didn't even take the site offline. It just so happened that at the time I was changing over to a new site at the time anyway, so I launched the new site (completely different in structure to the old one), did all of the relevant 301 redirects, and my traffic hasn't recovered since. I have gone from around 100-150 daily visits to 0-10. The descriptions, keywords, alt image tags, h1 & 2, meta data, etc. is all much better (a lot of it was empty on the previous site) on the new site than it was on the previous site so I was assuming it would be better, but it isn't. Anyone got any suggestions as to why this might be? Here are some specific questions: Canonical Problem? My site is ecommerce and lists some products in several categories, that has resulted in a high duplicate content rate. Is it expected/accepted by google that this would be the case for an ecommerce website or do I need to sort out some serious canonical urls to fix the issue? The site structure of my website could also be a problem, but I'm not qualified enough to know for sure. If you view a product/sub-category, then remove the category section of that link, the product will still appear. I don't know if this structure is good or not? i.e. if you click both links below, the link will appear all the same. http://thespacecollective.com/space-clothing/nasa-and-space-t-shirts http://thespacecollective.com/nasa-and-space-t-shirts Is this a problem for SEO? Duplicate Product Tag Problem? I have many duplicate product tags appearing on many products, should these be blocked in the robots.txt? i.e. http://thespacecollective.com/space-memorabilia/space-flown/apollo-11-flown-cm-meteorite-acrylic http://thespacecollective.com/space-memorabilia/space-flown/apollo-11-flown Site Code Structure When choosing the template I would use for my website I did not stop to consider if the code was SEO friendly, this on my part was due to my ignorance on the subject. Is the site structure SEO-friendly or is it hindering my efforts? Website: http://thespacecollective.com Again, thank you to anyone who takes the time to read/care about the issues facing a newbie. My only option now is to learn SEO myself (which is well overdue), so any advice/answers are appreciated!
Technical SEO | | moon-boots0 -
Suite Numbers and Schema
A potentially stupid question. Is the suite number included within the tag, or should it sit outside of it? The reason I ask is because (a) I've seen it where the suite number sits outside that tag and (b) Google My Business best practices, I've been told (by Google support), is to include the suite in the second address line. I'm wondering if that translates in some way to the local schema on your site. On the other hand, it makes sense to include your suite number within the streetAddress span tag, but sometimes what makes sense doesn't really make sense when you know more, so I'm just covering my bases. Thank you!
Technical SEO | | nowmedia11 -
Anyone a Bing SEO Expert?
I have a website that is getting great long tail search positions in Google for a website.The site is not getting any Bing or Yahoo positions for these long tail terms. I'm trying to find someone has experience or can give advice on Bing rankings. Is their anything specific I should watch out for when trying to rank in Bing?
Technical SEO | | EngNet0 -
One-Pager and SEO
We're building a page that is going to feature over 31 people as difference makers in their field. We're unveiling one a day for an entire month. The very early mockup of the page has name, pic, some bio info, and a link to open up a new window with the full bio. I would love to have all of the bio content for all of the people on the page (and indexable), but I'm not sure how to do that while still being able to hide the full bios until they are expanded. Anybody have any tips that are SEO-friendly and/or examples of a page that is built like this and ranks well. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | spackle0 -
Redesiging website and how to prevent a SEO disaster?
Hey guys, I'm in the process of re designing my company website. This website runs in Kentico CMS and now I'm moving to drupal CMS. The main reason for the move is that I need a more flexible design with responsiveness and integrate better social aspects. Currently I'm having to deal with a developer whom can't be bothered to update the site. I also find kentico extremely difficult to deal with. The site has good Google rankings and I was thinking about setting up some 301 redirects when the move is completed. Now the question is this site is been live for over 2 years and I have tons of blog posts sitting in here. How can I get these moved? When this is done will they lose their 'age' ? What if I re create the blog posts as it is and then setup 301 re-directs on this? I have G+ authorship and will they be affected by this? Last question is having a responsive site will affect my SEO rankings once moved? I heard the 301 is not considered as a 'safe' thing with Google so what are my options? If anyone can share a link(s) to site upgrades/moving to new design tutorials/best practices articles based on SEO ill be grateful. Thank you very much.
Technical SEO | | Suganthan0 -
Mobile header and Schema Tags
We have recently made a website I work on responsive. This involved taking their original desktop site and then making it work on mobiles/tablets. Due to the nature of their existing header we are serving a different version to mobiles/tablets. Do the schema tags which are on the desktop header need to be added to the mobile version or are they just needed on the desktop code?
Technical SEO | | edwardlewis0 -
Removing indexed website
I had a .in TLD version of my .com website floated for about 15 days, which was a duplicate copy of .com website. I did not wish to use the .in further for SEO duplication reasons and had let the .in domain expire on 26th April. But still now when I search from my website the .in version also shows up in results and even in google webmaster it shows the the website with maximum (190) number of links to my .com website. I am sure this is hurting the ranking of my .com website. How can the .in website be removed from googles indexing and search results. Given that is has expired also. thanks
Technical SEO | | geekwik0 -
How to start more deep seo.
Okay, lets say that I already fixed all my technical seo stuff. All my crawl errors and warnings are gone. Now I really want to start seo so I have a few questions. 1. I know I should work based on a page and not on a domain, so it means I should choose which keyword to optimize each page for? only one keyword per page? or it might be more? 2. Some keywords are very competitive for me, example for my site www.theprinterdepo.com, the best keyword to rank would be printers, but it would take years a beginner to do that, what should I do? 3. If highly competitive keywords are not an option, which keywords shuold I use? the ones that have more global monthly searches? Thanks
Technical SEO | | levalencia10