Independent Website SEO: Using Structured Markup
Table of Contents
Note: This article is intended for users with a basic understanding of HTML (at least familiar with what HTML source code is). If you have never encountered HTML source code, it is recommended to skip this article.
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When discussing optimization details with SEO professionals, you will often hear terms like “structured markup optimization.”
It sounds like a highly technical industry term, but what exactly is it, what purpose does it serve, and how can you implement it on your website?
What is Structured Markup?
A set of standardized structured data tags provided by Schema.org.
These structured markup tags are predefined by Schema.org, and Google’s search engine follows these naming conventions and definitions. The search engine uses them to better identify the sections and content on a webpage.
So, structured markup is:
A set of tags defined by Schema.org.
Additional information provided to help programs interpret web pages.
Invisible to most regular users (because it resides within the HTML source code).
Since it is designed for web crawlers to understand the webpage, what does it look like? Here’s a small example on the next page:
This method of directly adding tags within the HTML markup is called Microdata.
Why Add Structured Markup?
ChatGPT 说：
Here are examples of structured markup displays when searching for keywords related to cake recipes and laptops:
The examples above represent only a portion of the real-world effect of structured markup, but they clearly demonstrate how the display of enhanced content can significantly improve click-through rates (CTR).
Google-supported Structured Markup Formats
According to Google’s official documentation, Google currently supports three forms of structured markup: JSON-LD, Microdata, and RDFa.
The methods for adding Microdata and RDFa structured markup are quite similar, both involving embedding structured data directly within HTML tags. On the other hand, the JSON-LD format is implemented by adding a piece of JavaScript code within the <head> section of the webpage. This method is the most recommended by Google and is also the one adopted by most mainstream plugins.
The descriptions of the three different formats are shown in the diagram below (from Google’s official documentation).
How to Configure Structured Markup for a Webpage
There are three main ways to implement structured markup on a website:
1) Have the website developer add the structured markup to the webpage source code as required.
2) Use third-party plugins to automatically add structured markup (provided you’re using a CMS like WordPress. Popular SEO plugins such as Yoast, Rank Math, and All-in-One SEO will automatically add the relevant structured markup to your pages).
2）After entering the URL, click the “Start Tagging” button, and you will be directed to a page that displays the website layout, as shown in the image below. The page will resemble the actual website layout. Next, click on the corresponding area on the page, and a list of relevant structured data attributes will appear, as shown in the red box in the image. Select the tags you want to add and continue adding them one by one.
3) After adding all the desired structured markup, the defined structured data will be displayed in the right-hand area, as shown in the red box in the image below.
4）Click the “CREATE HTML” button, and the tool will generate the corresponding HTML with the structured markup you’ve defined. The generated HTML will include the structured markup and supports two formats: Microdata and JSON-LD. Then, click the “Download” button to download the generated HTML, and replace the previous page HTML with the new one. This will complete the process of adding structured markup to the page.
How to Test the Structured Markup You’ve Configured
How to Test the Structured Markup You’ve Configured
Google provides a dedicated tool for testing structured markup. The Rich Results Test tool can be accessed at: https://search.google.com/test/rich-results?hl=zh-cn. It allows you to test the structured markup display effects based on either the URL or HTML source code. Interested users can try testing it themselves.
Important Considerations When Using Structured Markup
1) Avoid Deceptive Practices: Do not add structured markup that is inconsistent with the content of the webpage just to achieve a better display in search results. Google is capable of recognizing such manipulative actions and may penalize your site for using misleading or irrelevant structured data.
2)Not all of the markup types listed on Schema.org are supported for use with Google’s structured data. To find out which structured data types are available for use and the attributes they can recognize, refer to the official documentation provided by Google: Google Structured Data Search Gallery
This article is an original work by Binomialtree SEO. Please credit the source when reprinting.
Hi, I am Andy, the founder of Binomialtree SEO.
With over 12 years of hands-on SEO experience, I have been responsible for driving organic traffic growth for several medium to large-scale websites in China. Since 2020, I have focused on Google Search Engine Optimization, helping multiple B2B companies achieve their organic traffic growth goals within a year. If you need professional SEO optimization, feel free to contact us.
