Web Design & Development

Optimize Your Website with Structured Data LoyicaBlog

 

You can actually make your customers’ lives better when you learn to optimize and organize your website using structured

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Author
Loyica Team
Feb 18 2020
Optimize Your Website with Structured Data

 

You can actually make your customers’ lives better when you learn to optimize and organize your website using structured data (or schema markup).

There are many ways to optimize your website’s discoverability— but one surefire way to get it up on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) is to structure your data and learn the art of proper schema markup.

Have you ever wondered how Google chooses among the hundreds of restaurants in your area when you put in vague keywords like “best restaurant nearby” or “fried chicken store?” For sure no one knows but Google. Its algorithm remains a complete mystery to everyone— including digital marketing professionals and SEO experts.

But with structured data, companies are given a boost— appearing first over the others who fail to implement a proper schema markup. That’s why it is important to have your website optimized with structured data. This helps you extend your reach to potential customers and drive up your sales.

Guide Points:

  1. What is Structured Data?
  2. Structured Data and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  3. Examples of Structured Data

What is Structured Data?

Structured Data refers to any data set arranged and structured to optimize a website. To get search engines to recognize your website and boost its visibility, SEO experts carefully plan and write groups of texts to help search engines to send back accurate results.

According to case studies, websites that are optimized with structured data have an increased click-through rate (CTR) by up to 30%. This means that when people type in keywords in the search engine and your website appears, your website’s link is more likely to get clicked on and visited.

As a result, potential customers will be exposed to the products and services that your business offers. When they are aware of what you can offer and are convinced that what you offer has value in it, then they are more likely to make purchases. In short, a website with structured data will help boost your sales and can give you better profitability than a website with no structured data.

Structured Data and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of increasing your website or webpage’s visibility among search engine users.

To give you context, the amount of information that is added to the internet every day is getting higher and higher. And with loads of information surrounding your target audience increasing, your challenge is to make sure that when people need something, whether it is a product or a service, they will get it from you and not your competitors. And one of the ways you can do this is by appearing on top of the list when they enter a keyword on a search engine.

If you visit Google’s SERP a decade ago, you will see the massive difference in terms of search accuracy, significance of results, and even the interface itself. Google’s SERP now is much more informative and more intelligent— enhancing the experience of every Google user.

More features are also added now. Google Maps, for example, may appear in every search guiding each user to possible locations that may be relevant to the search. If you type in “pasta,” you won’t just be directed to websites related to pasta but you will also be directed to multiple restaurants that offer pasta— with ratings, reviews, address, and snippets. Some sponsored content may also appear in the search page.

Thanks to structured data, finding answers to your questions is exponentially better today than it was in the yesteryears. Sometimes, words like “*insert word* meaning” will direct you to websites that show on the spot the meaning of the word you have just typed in, reducing the need to click on each link and look for the meaning of the word.

In short, structured data not only makes it easy for businesses to be discovered, but it enhances the experience of the users and the searchers to be connected to relevant data and organizations these users need.

Examples of Structured Data

There are two primary examples of structured data— content features and enriched search features. Let us focus on content features as this is the most common SERP feature that you may have encountered more than a dozen times.

Content features include image carousels, videos, featured snippets, and knowledge panels. Image carousels display an array of pictures related to your search with informative captions each picture. For example, if you type in “comb for salon” a list of pictures related to your search will pop up, often from different sources.

As for videos, imagine image carousels but with videos. So if you are looking for a specific video, the search engine will show a list of videos related to your search. For example, if you type in “how to make pie,” a list of videos will appear under the carousel for recipes. You can choose among these videos (the search engine will also show the thumbnail) and browse through them by clicking on the left and right arrows that are placed on each side of the carousel.

Featured snippets is perhaps one of the more useful search engine features here. Here, search engines will automatically display information relevant to your query. They summarize the answers based on the structured data that your website is optimized with and they may link your website to this feature. Oftentimes, featured snippets will appear at the top and separate from the SERP.

Knowledge panels or knowledge graph cards are also as equally informative as featured snippets. They display in full detail information related to your search— including images, dates, address, links to other websites, and other information relevant to the search. This often appears when you search for a celebrity, a sports star, a film, or a famous person, among other things.

Why is this important for your business?

Engaging potential and existing customers online can be an expensive task for any business. That is why it is important to make sure that you are doing it right. Businesses need to know how to target the right audience because for businesses to be successful in the long run, they need to have an in-depth understanding of their target customers, their nature, and individual preferences.

Structured data will also improve your discoverability. This is necessary for your organic growth— meaning more people will stumble upon your site without paying search engines to feature it.

Structured data will also boost the credibility of your website. If your website appears first in SERPs when users look for answers, they will click on your link to know the answer. If the answer is satisfactory, it creates brand awareness among users and will establish trust and loyalty so that when they type in another question again, they will look for your website. The trust and loyalty that you will have developed here will help you effectively engage with these potential customers and will help make the sales conversion cycle go smoother.

Conclusion

Structured data or schema markup is one sure way to boost your sales and generate more leads for your business. A lot of businesses have optimized their website through this method and have improved their online engagement with potential customers over the Internet. This gave so much room of opportunity for businesses to advertise themselves and leave a lasting first impression to their leads and prospects. 

Structured data can be done manually but it takes a lot of experience to do this smoothly. If you are looking for experts, contact Loyica.

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