A framework for SEO success with structured data

NEW YORK – Simply implementing structured data is not enough to guarantee success on the search results page. Brands must have a process in place to ensure that they’re identifying the biggest opportunities, implementing Schema correctly and monitoring how search results change so that they can stay ahead of competitors, said Aleyda Solis, international SEO consultant for Orainti, during her session at SMX East on Thursday.

In addition to having a robust implementation process, brands have to get creative about which structured data types they’re using to mark up their content, said Architectural SEO Manager for Go Fish Digital Chris Long, who took to the stage after Solis to share his insights.

Long-term success with Schema

To ensure that her structured data efforts yielded the largest benefit and to cut down on introducing errors that could result in a manual action, Solis created the process below.

Identify rich results opportunities. “A good place to start is to check the SERP features that are shown within our sectors,” Solis said. SEOs should familiarize themselves with the types of rich results that can surface for target queries.

Tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush and SISTRIX can also be used to get a better idea of the occurrence of various rich results for a given keyword as well as identify other structured data opportunities, Solis said.

Solis uses the decision tree below to focus her efforts and prioritize adding structured data to the content that is most likely to increase ROI.

Schema implementation resources. Solis recommended the following resources to help publishers implement their structured data.

• Google CodeLabs’ structured data guide
• Merkle’s Schema Markup Generator
• RankRanger’s Schema Markup Generator
• Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper

However, those using Google Tag Manager to implement their structured data should add the JSON-LD programmatically instead of directly as a