Schema.org is a shared markup vocabulary recognized by search engines, to provide a shared collection of schemas that webmasters can use to create On-page markup, which enables search engines to understand the information on web pages and provide richer search results in order to make it easier for users to find relevant information on the web.

Google Recommending New Video Schema.org Markup

Feb 22, 2012 at 10:13am ET by Barry Schwartz

Google announced on the Google Webmaster Central blog that they are now adding video support for schema.org. They are doing this in combination with Microsoft Bing and Yahoo Search as a "joint effort." Google says using the schema.org video markup is the "recommended way to describe videos on the web." Google added that they still recommend you continue with your other video XML formats, such as Video Sitemaps and mRSS feeds, if you use them. The new schema.org video markup won't impact the Video Sitemaps and mRSS feeds. The technical details on video markup can be found on schema.org an [...]

How To Get A 30% Increase In CTR With Structured Markup

Dec 29, 2011 at 10:37am ET by Paul Bruemmer

As documented by case studies in the U.S. and abroad, retail firms can get up to a 30 percent increase in organic traffic by using structured markup like Schema Microdata, GoodRelations and Google Rich Snippets, etc. This begs the question: why aren’t more retailers using structured markup? Implementing structured data requires the skill of adding a few extra lines to the HTML code of your site. Once implemented, you will immediately feed Google and hundreds of mobile and recommender applications with all the information consumers are looking for when they shop for your products. Your det [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Schema.org | Search & Retail

Google Authorship Rich Snippets – Is Google Promoting Authors Or Google+?

Dec 15, 2011 at 3:16pm ET by Sean Carlos

More and more, Google has been showing pictures of article authors next to search results. But what began ostensibly as simple adoption of industry standard Web markup seems to have become an exercise in promoting the Google+ social network. In June 2011 Google began to pilot a way for content authors to associate a photo and an author byline to the display of their articles in Google search results. Google extended the pilot to Google News searches in November 2011. The addition of author information in search results continues Google’s support of microformat html markup to enrich a s [...]

Improved Snippets, Rank Boost For “Official” Pages Among 10 New Google Algorithm Changes

Nov 14, 2011 at 12:11pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Google just posted about ten new algorithm changes it has made to how it shows and ranks search results. These include showing rich snippets more often, improving the quality of snippets, a better way of showing page titles for times when Google ignores the HTML title tag itself and a ranking boost for "official pages," which Google says it can detect better now. Snippets & Page Titles Below are changes related to snippets -- the descriptions that Google shows for web pages -- and page titles. I've quoted from the Google blog post, where that's appropriate and paraphrased in other cases [...]

How To Use Rich Snippets, Structured Markup For High Powered SEO

Nov 7, 2011 at 11:49am ET by Eric Enge

I recently received a question from a reader asking about the way search engines were using microformats and other forms of structured markup. Today, I am going to address that topic from the perspective of its impact on SEO. What is particularly interesting about this topic is that structured markup provides publishers a way to provide the search engines information about their website(s). One of the original ways of doing that was with metatags. Unfortunately, these were so badly abused by spammers that Google stopped using it as a ranking signal. Google finally stated this publicly in [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Enterprise SEO | Google: Rich Snippets | Schema.org

How To Leverage Structured Markup To Create E-Commerce Web Portals

Nov 3, 2011 at 9:03am ET by Barbara Starr

I'm sure most of you are familiar with the definition of a Web portal. Wikipedia defines it as a point of access to the Web with information from diverse sources represented in a unified way. Standard Web portals are those we are all familiar with, such as Google, Bing or Yahoo; however, there are also portals geared for specific verticals such as e-commerce. The semantic Web is a specific example of how Google is leveraging structured product markup to create Google Product Search, a shopping or "e-commerce Web portal." The same is true of Bing Shopping and many others. Product dat [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Rich Snippets | Schema.org | Search & Retail

Employing Microformats & Structured Data For Enhanced Search Engine Visibility

Sep 29, 2011 at 11:25am ET by Aaron Bradley

With the introduction of the schema.org vocabulary, much attention has been focused on the benefits of employing structured data for improved visibility in the search engines. The mostly widely cited and easily verifiable of these benefits is the generation of rich snippets: a specially formatted search result block that includes information specific to the type of resource being referenced. Might there be other SEO benefits to using structured data? On one hand, Google has insisted that the advantage of employing structured data (in the form of structured markup) is limited to the [...]

Related Topics: All Things SEO | Channel: SEO | Google: Rich Snippets | Schema.org

Google Adds Rich Snippets For Application Reviews: iTunes Apps, Android & More

Sep 15, 2011 at 8:08am ET by Barry Schwartz

Google announced there is yet another new rich snippet in town, this one is for application reviews. Specifically for the iTunes and Android marketplace and even CNET application reviews. Here is an example of one of my iPhone apps with the special markup: If you have applications on your web site, and they contain pricing information, reviews, descriptions and more, you may want to use this rich snippet to enhance your Google listings. To do so, please read Google's help document. Related Stories: A New Google Rich Snippet For Real Estate, Other Business Listings Google’ [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Rich Snippets | Schema.org

How Retailers Can Improve Product Visibility Using Structured Markup

Aug 4, 2011 at 9:22am ET by Paul Bruemmer

How many times have you heard this before? "If you sell products online, you can have the best-designed ecommerce site on the planet, but you won’t break any sales records if your customers can’t find you in the SERPs." While it’s an age-old saw that you need to make your content findable, a huge percentage of retailers don't know how to maximize product findability. SEOs have been optimizing websites for over a decade; yet, product findability is still a significant challenge for merchants and consumers alike in today’s crowded SERPs. How can retailers stand out from the cr [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Rich Snippets | Schema.org | Search & Retail

How To Maximise SERP CTRs With Google Sitemaps & Schemas

Jul 19, 2011 at 9:07am ET by Chris Liversidge

Resolving indexing or duplication issues are usually top of the list when working with a new domain, but how can you achieve the same level of performance once the obvious SEO wins are in place?

Schema.org: Google, Bing & Yahoo Unite To Make Search Listings Richer Through Structured Data

Jun 2, 2011 at 1:08pm ET by Vanessa Fox

Today, "in the spirit of sitemaps.org", Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo have announced the joint alliance of schema.org. This alliance provides a common foundation of support for a set of microdata types -- some that previously existed and some that have been created as part of this initiative. Microdata is a type of structured mark up that can be used to provide semantic meaning to content on web pages. The microdata types currently supported are documented at schema.og. You can also take a look at the announcements from each search engine on their blogs: Google: Introducing schema.org: S [...]

Get Our News, Everywhere!

Follow @sengineland

Got a tip? Tell us here!

Most Likes
Most Tweets
Comments

Our Stories Being Liked on Facebook

Search Engine Land Sponsors

Advertise With Us

Free Daily Search News Recap!

SearchCap is a once-per-day newsletter update - sign up below and get the news delivered to you!

Click to watch SMX conference video

Join us at an upcoming SMX event:

North America

SMX East - Oct. 1-3, 2013
SMX Social Media Marketing - Nov. 20-21, 2013
SMX West - March 11-13, 2014
SMX Advanced - June 2014

EMEA

SMX Stockholm - Oct. 14-15, 2013
SMX Milan - Nov. 7-8, 2013
SMX Israel - Jan. 2014
SMX Munich - March 25-26, 2014
SMX London - May 2014
SMX Paris - June 2014

APAC

SMX Sydney - April 2014

Search Engine Land produces SMX, the Search Marketing Expo conference series. SMX events deliver the most comprehensive educational and networking experiences - whether you're just starting in search marketing or you're a seasoned expert.