What is Schema Markup?
In short, schema is a little bit of code that’s visible to search engine crawlers (like Google) and AI bots (think tools like ChatGPT and Gemini as well as AI overviews and AI snippets that frequently appear above organic search results). The code allows you – the website manager – to to control and give the crawlers information about the content on the website.
Schema is also commonly called “structured data”, “rich snippets”, or “microdata”. We’ll stick with the term “schema” for our blog.
Each page has information attached that’s easily collected and categorized for search engine and generative AI results. It’s almost like providing a cheat sheet to crawlers and bots of what your website, brand and pages are about so that information can easily be accessed and then shared in search results.
On the human side, schema shows up as short answers (those big, bold, first-result entries on SERPS), product previews, local maps, and organization information, among other representations (like ratings and reviews for new movie releases). The information is pulled directly from data placed there within the CMS to indicate what the site, or more specifically, what specific content on the site is about.
Why is Website Schema Important?
Because every website is built differently, schema was created to give crawlers information directly—like a shortcut to buried treasure for any web search query. When a website is created, the developer “tells” the search engine the exact info that should be displayed for specific search queries in the results for the business. It’s vital to have schema on your website to ensure that your business is represented correctly (and in full) when your customer base is searching for you. This has been true for SEO for quite some time and it is proving to work for GEO (generative search optimization) as well.
If you are finding competitor information and not your own show in AI overviews, local search maps or on ChatGPT, it might be partly due to schema and what is missng from your own website.
What are the Most Important Types of Schema for Your Website?
There are many different kinds of schema markup; the top three schema types that are most used are organization, local, and article schema.
Organization schema:
This is arguably the most important schema of all, as it pertains to a business site. It shows your business’s founding year, phone number, services, name and anything else you’ve chosen to tag. It allows you to control your own narrative and show up for exactly what you do for your primary audience.
Local schema:
Local business schema markup gives search engines the information to correctly display your location, your service types (and departments), and your hours of operation for easy, at-a-glance results. Along with this, you can include reviews for your services within this category.
Article and author bio schema:
This commonly used schema markup data is ideal for blogs, articles, and similar long-form web content. You can even indicate the featured image along with the title (should Google choose to show it) and then your article should appear similarly to how you’d like it to show up.
By creating schema to better identify your authors, you provide proof that your content is legitimate and valuable. Including items such as the topics of expertise for your blog authors can help identify your brand as a go-to resource.
Beyond these three common schemas, there are numerous schemas that can be used, depending on your website goals.
If you’re an e-commerce website, product schema will help portray the items you have for sale, with the appropriate image, price, availability (whether it’s in stock) and where it can be purchased. If you’ve ever searched for a specific product, you’ve likely seen an image result that shows each of these details, built from different companies’ website product schema.
If you have a position opening, career schema will come in handy for posting job information. Career opportunities available can appear in search results (as short answers) showing the jobs available for anyone who is searching for an “IT Developer position” or something similar.
Another important schema type is one used for FAQs and is one of several reasons we often recommend FAQ pages. Indicating questions and answers on your website through schema gives the search engine crawlers a quick heads up that when a searcher is asking a question in the search query, you are a great fit as you have that question and a quick answer the search engine can show in the search results. As more and more people search using questions (rather than a phrase), this has become more important for those vying for ever-crowded space in the SERP.
How Do I Apply Schema?
For the most part, the most common ways to apply schema are through plugins for Wordpress such as SEOpress. These can allow you to dynamically apply a set of schema to a group of pages. (Keep in mind that having the free version of these plugins may not include schema as part of the package). Using these plugins, a web designer can set up the “formula”: create categories (like articles, products, and contact pages), and apply schema for a specific category. Then, each time you create a page within that category, the schema will be automatically applied. Even if you create a schema after creating multiple pages within a specific category, that schema will be retroactively applied. You pick the categories and rules, and the schema follows suit. For example, organization schema will go on the home page, and article schema will go on your blog pages.
Schema can also be added manually. While it isn’t terribly common (it takes more work, and isn’t automated) it may be helpful in particular instances. Schema can be added manually by using JSON (JavaScript Object Notation).
This method is helpful if you have a fully customized site that doesn’t allow plugins or automation and you can only edit the code manually. It’s also useful when you have a single page that doesn’t fit into your ready-made categories, but you’d like to optimize it for search with schema markup.
In order to find a code generator for your purposes, you can google the type of schema you want to apply + code generator. Once you find the right generator for you, just type in what you’re looking for and copy and paste the bit of code that you need. For example, search “career schema JSON generator”. Schema.org also provides info on how to create the code yourself, but plugging in the data for a code generator will take considerably less time, and may help you avoid errors along the way.
Did I Apply Schema Markup Correctly?
Is your information consistent? Did you set up your categories the right way? Are your search results showing your business the way you wanted? In order to know that your schema is applied correctly, use a schema test tool (free from Google). We prefer the rich test results, which is more user-friendly, as it gives a list of green checkboxes, warning signs, or red exclamation points, depending on whether you have something missing (or if it’s completely wrong), so you can fix it piece-by-piece.
Schema markup can be a huge benefit for your website visibility. It offers users an easy way to view correct data pulled from your site, and it boosts your SEO and AEO in a major way. Using schema can help your organic and AI search results, add color (in a sea of black and blue) and answers to your entry on the results page, and help you physically take up a larger amount of space in the SERPS than your competitors. Bottom line? Schema’s good digital business strategy.
