What Are Schema Markups? How Do They Help Improve SEO?

What are schema markups? Schema markups are a new type of markup language that can be added to web pages to tell search engines how certain information should be interpreted and displayed in search results.

Although schema markups have been around for some time now, they have recently become more widely known and used by webmasters who are looking to improve their search engine ranking.

In this guide, we'll discuss all what are schema markups. Why they are useful, and when you should implement them on your site.

Helping Search Engines Better Understand Your Site

Schema markup is code (semantic vocabulary) that you add to your website to help the search engines return more informative results for users.

This semantic vocabulary or microdata helps search engines better understand your content which means more relevant search results.

Schema markup (schema.org) allows search engines to see the meaning and relationships behind entities on your site.

It offers a set of widely agreed-upon definitions for microdata tags (a form of structured data that works with HTML5.)

For this reason, it has become a hot topic of SEO.

How Does Schema Markup Impact SEO?

So, as you have already understood, the whole point of structuring your data is to communicate better with search engines.

All items like rich snippets and the knowledge graph appear on SERPs after the search engine gathers information from structured data.

So, let's take a look at the benefits of schema markups to SEO

1. Rich Snippets

Rich snippets are a type of schema markup that you can add to your website to give search engines more information about your content.

According to a study, less than one-third of Google's search results include a rich snippet with Schema.org markup.

This can help improve your click-through rate and organic ranking.

The information in rich snippets is pulled from the structured data in your site's HTML.

When you add that structured data, Google will likely show rich snippets on the SERP when your webpage appears in search results.

They are more interesting than typical search results, so giving the search engine the data it needs to create rich snippets can help drive more traffic for your site.

And while there has yet to be evidence that microdata directly impacts organic search rankings, you could see more traffic from search, which is your goal, anyway.

2. Knowledge Graphs

By adding schema markup to your webpage, you can increase your chances of appearing in Google's Knowledge Graph.

These knowledge panels are a great way to get all the relevant information about your brand in front of searchers.

So, in a sense that structured data helps get more eyes on your website, content, and brand.

As more people click on your webpage, Google will notice that people who search for a query will choose to click on your site over others.

This tells Google that your page is a relevant result for that specific search, improving overall brand visibility.

3. Voice Search

A major change that has come about with the rise of digital assistants and voice-activated devices is an increased reliance on structured data to identify and retrieve information relevant to spoken queries.

This has made schema markups implementation a critical part of any technical SEO checklist or audit.

According to Google, 72% of people who have a voice-activated speaker use them as part of their daily routine.

The thing is that these voice-activated devices (like Alexa, Siri, Echo, Google Assistant, etc.) rely heavily on structured data to retrieve information relevant to spoken queries.

According to a Semrush voice search study, most answers served via voice search were marked up with some form of a schema.

4. Enhance Visibility for eCommerce Businesses

For eCommerce businesses, schema markups can be a valuable tool to help improve SEO.

By adding certain code to your website, you can help search engines better understand your content and display it in a more user-friendly way.

Implementing schema markups can be a bit technical, but there are many resources available to help.

You can utilize product schema to further enhance visibility with distinguishing factors of your product name, descriptions, brands, reviews, images, price, and availability.

Search Engines Prefer Serving Content That Gives Them a Higher Level of Understanding

In this article, you learned all about what are schema markups and how they can help with your SEO efforts.

Schema markups are a type of code that can be added to a website to help search engines understand the site's content.

They can be used to add Rich Snippets to search results, which can improve click-through rates.

Implementing schema markups can be a bit technical, so it's important to do a technical SEO audit before starting.

However, schema markups can be a valuable tool for improving your site's SEO.