Chapter 1: How to Properly Structure a Small Business Website
Okay, this is a scary term for those who are unfamiliar with it. But, it’s really not complicated. Schema markup is a type of microdata that allows you to structure the information on your website in a way that's more easily understood by search engines.
It's a form of semantic vocabulary that can be added to your website's HTML code to provide additional information about the content on your page. This structured data can help search engines display more informative and visually appealing results for your website, known as rich snippets. To include schema markup in your website, follow these steps:
Identify the type of content on your page. Determine the primary content on your page, such as articles, products, events, or recipes. You can find a full list of available schema types on the Schema.org website.
Choose the appropriate schema type. Select the most appropriate schema type for your content. For example, if you're adding schema markup to a blog post, you might use the "Article" schema type.
Create the schema markup. You can use a schema markup generator tool to create the code for your specific schema type. Some popular tools include Google's Structured Data Markup Helper and the Schema Markup Generator by Merkle.
Add the schema markup to your website. Once you have generated the schema markup code, you need to add it to your website's HTML. You can do this by either directly adding the code to your page's HTML or using a plugin if your website is built on a content management system like WordPress.
Test your schema markup. After adding the schema markup to your website, it's a good idea to test it to make sure it's working correctly. You can use Google's Rich Results Test to check your schema markup and see how it will appear in search results.
By including schema markup on your website, you can help search engines better understand your content, which can lead to improved visibility and click-through rates in search results.
Remember, content is the cornerstone of your site and its search optimization. This means it’s very important that every page and blog post is properly formatted, is informative, and contains the right keywords and geo-tagging.