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If you never heard of Schema or structured data, let’s start with a couple questions…

Have you ever searched for a new recipe and found that some of them had ratings–those five stars filled with varying levels of yellow? 

Notice that some search results have a date at the beginning of the snippet? 

This isn’t done by accident. In fact, some simple code inserted into your webpage can do this (and MORE) when people view your page’s search results. Structured data helps search engines better understand your content and makes it appear more appealing for those searching. 

How does structured data attract people to your business, events, creative works, or products? 

Let’s take a closer look.

What is Structured Data?

Search engines want to know what’s on your page so they can provide the best results for their users. You want to give the search engine “crawlers” every opportunity to find the information they need so it can be processed.

Structured data is a universal code language organized in a specific format.

This uniform code helps search engines get detailed information about your page or website. As a result, your search result snippets have more valuable information that gets the attention of those actively searching for your product or service. This is known as rich results or rich snippets.

Structured data allows all types of code languages–HTML, CSS, PHP, PYTHON, etc–to read it. So search engines, social media, and event platforms can all understand it.  

What is Schema.org?

Schema.org (Schema for short) started in 2011 as a collaboration with search engines like Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Yandex. This project creates code helping your page get rich results. 

You don’t have to learn to code. Schema allows you to copy a piece of code (markup) and paste it on your page. Fill in the code’s values with your specific information and you get a rich result. 

Still with us? Eyes glazing over yet?

Think of it this way…the search engine crawlers view a regular page without this code and get some pretty good information. Using Schema gives the crawlers information on how to exactly display relevant content to someone searching for it..

Schema markups help the following STAND OUT in rankings:

• Local Businesses 
• Events
• Products
• Organizations
• People
• Reviews
• Creative Works
• Videos
• And much more…

Let’s take an example. Say you are a local business looking to optimize your site for local SEO–a major ranking factor. There is a local business schema markup code you can add to your website. It helps the search engines know what type of business you are and what you do. In fact, there are lots of properties you can fill in for the local business schema so search engines easily know what you’re all about. 

This includes your:

• Business name
• Type of business
• Brand image
• Telephone number
• Hours of operation
• Description of your business
• Contact information
• And more!

Thanks to structured data, locals looking for products and services you provide can have quick access to your business information via search results. 

This is just one example of how Schema can help you get rich results. Let’s take a quick look at one more…

Does your Business Host Events?

Schema has a specific code for events (event schema) that does more than just make attention grabbing search results. The event schema allows all the event platforms or websites that track events to easily read and track your upcoming event. 

Search engines LOVE posting events. They want the most reliable source of information for these events. Structured data clearly relays the most critical information about your event to the search engines.

Say you type a query like “family friendly events near me” into Google. The first few results (at least) show a list of appropriate events. Again, this doesn’t happen by accident. Yes….you guessed it–structured data.

And when your events get featured in these results…people NOTICE.  

Made Changes to Your Business Due to COVID-19?

In late August, Google announced a new set of rich results–home activities. As of now, these rich results are focused on fitness related businesses like personal training, dance, yoga, and exercise classes. Also, these rich results are only available on mobile devices right now.

As we all know, health and fitness businesses have taken a big hit this year. Most of the country has imposed limits on how these businesses operate to help stop the spread of COVID-19. For these types of business to stay afloat, they had to adapt–mainly by providing their services on Zoom or other online platforms. 

Google is making it easier for these businesses to reach consumers desperately seeking a positive physical outlet for everything they are dealing with these days. How? With rich results of course. Adding the “at home activities” Schema to your website will help get the attention of those quarantined or choosing to stay at home for their own personal safety.  

Of course, you need to make sure you enter your structured data correctly to get these rich results. A couple unintended mistakes may hurt your already struggling fitness business.

Does Working With Code Make You Nervous?

Most business owners and entrepreneurs don’t have much experience using and modifying code. After all, you have plenty of things to worry about. Do you really have the extra time to make sure you are inserting, modifying, and using code correctly.

If you do, great…You’re ahead of the curve. If you’re confused, don’t worry… Afflatus Media will help. 

Our team makes sure your search results are RICH RESULTS based on your specific type of business 

And, of course, we do MUCH MORE for your business.

We know these are hard times. You don’t have the extra cash to blindly throw at Google or Facebook ads. Why not increase your organic (FREE!) traffic. 

People are actively searching for businesses just like yours everyday. They use search engines to do it. Let us optimize your site so it ranks high. After all, who really scrolls through 72 pages of search results before choosing something to click?

Afflatus Media helps your business thrive (not just survive) during these challenging times. Start amplifying your message today!