On a national level, this may not be as important overall because of all the other SEO tasks you have ahead of yourself. However, on a local level the pecking order should essentially be:
- Google My Business optimization
- then website audit
- SEO 101 implementation (title tags, meta tags, page speed, etc.)
- and then schema code.
By prioritizing structured data in the top five objectives to tackle when working on your website, you’ll end up increasing the rankings or at the bare minimum provide your customers with more information.
The Basics of Structured Data Code for Your Website
Structured data code may feel difficult to grasp for anyone who isn’t a coder and it’s easy to feel that way, but there are sections of schema markup that are important. When you’ve made the decision to use structured data to help boost your SEO, remember to check that the parent declaration of the structured data type is active. Check to make sure the tags for the structured data cost are opened, nested and closed properly or they won’t work.
After setting up or attempting your first snippet of structured data, it’s important to check to make sure it comes through. For that, we recommend the Google Structured Data Testing Tool just to verify the code snippet.
Examples of structured data code can look similar to:
|
This is the structured data code write up for a WebPage and there is even more schema for them under LegalService. This tells google exactly what we want them to hear from our site and what information is important for them to have.
Local Structured Data – Google My Business
When it comes down to local structured data and your Google My Business page, the information you provide should be matching the public information of your company. If your PostalAddress structured data is on your site, that code should match the information on your listing to help with the search results. The same can be said for companies with multiple locations which may even include elevation and latitude for GeoCoordinates structured data.
One of the more important schema write ups for local businesses is the review structured data which may look like:
<div itemscope itemtype=”https://schema.org/Reviews”>
<span itemprop=”itemReviewed”>Criminal Defense Attorney Law Service</span>
<span itemprop=”reviewAspect”>This Review or Rating is relevant to this part or facet of the itemReviewed.</span>
<span itemprop=”reviewBody”>”I’ve never seen an attorney care so much about my case before. They are amazingly good people that genuinely want the best for you.”</span>
<span itemprop=”reviewRating”>5</span>
</div>
Learn More About Structured Data from the Team At Market My Market
For more information on how to write schema and see what variations are important to you, we recommend visiting Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper or giving us a call to help you out. To learn the most effective ways to use schema to advance your own digital marketing goals, reach out to Market My Market, where our specialized content marketing team conceptualizes blog and page ideas based on proven research methods to ensure content drives traffic and in turn, contributes to the growth of your business. We have many ways of stretching your content — and your marketing budget — to help you reach new heights. Request a free marketing consultation here.
