Structured Data

What is structured data?

Structured data are small data markups that can be added to the source code of your website. In these data markups, you can provide extra information about the content of the given page, in a format that search engines can easily understand.

If you're lucky, search engines will then display this information directly in the SERP, which can lead to an increased CTR, and thereby indirectly give your website a boost in terms of SEO and overall traffic.

For example, for product pages on webshops it is possible to mark up additional information about the products, including:

• Price
• Brand
• Product image URL
• Stock status
• Star rating

In addition to the above, there are also options to mark up structured data for a wide range of other elements on product pages. Another example worth mentioning is the breadcrumb trail on category pages.

By marking up structured data for these, there is a possibility that Google will display the path to the given page directly in the SERP:

We recommend using the schema.org dataset when marking up structured data, as this is also the data schema Google recommends.

For a complete list of all the elements for which it is possible to mark up structured data, see https://schema.org/docs/schemas.html.

How do you create structured data?

So how do you create these structured data markups? You have a few different options here.

If you want to code it directly into the source code of your pages, it requires you to go into your template files and make adjustments. We generally recommend using JSON-LD for marking up structured data.

Example of structured data markups for the breadcrumb trail on category pages using JSON-LD:

1. <script type="application/ld+json">>
2. {
3. "@context": "http://schema.org",
4. "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
5. "itemListElement":
6. [
7. {
8. "@type": "ListItem",
9. "position": 1,
10. "item":
11. {
12. "@id": "https://example.com/dresses",
13. "name": "Dresses"
14. }
15. },
16. {
17. "@type": "ListItem",
18. "position": 2,
19. "item":
20. {
21. "@id": "https://example.com/dresses/real",
22. "name": "Real Dresses"
23. }
24. }
25. ]
26. }
27. </script>

However, it is also possible to create structured data markups using "microdata" and "RDFa".

The equivalent markup to the above in these formats looks like this:

Microdata

1. <ol itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BreadcrumbList">>
2. <li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope
3. itemtype="http://schema.org/ListItem">>
4. <a itemprop="item" href="https://example.com/dresses">>
5. <span itemprop="name">>Dresses</span></a>
6. <meta itemprop="position" content="1" / >
7. </li>
8. <li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope
9. itemtype="http://schema.org/ListItem">>
10. <a itemprop="item" href="https://example.com/dresses/real">>
11. <span itemprop="name">>Real Dresses</span></a>
12. <meta itemprop="position" content="2" />
13. </li>
14. </ol>

RDFa

1. <ol vocab="http://schema.org/" typeof="BreadcrumbList">>
2. <li property="itemListElement" typeof="ListItem">>
3. <a property="item" typeof="WebPage" href="https://example.com/dresses">>
4. <span property="name">>Dresses</span></a>
5. <meta property="position" content="1">>
6. </li>
7. <li property="itemListElement" typeof="ListItem">>
8. <a property="item" typeof="WebPage" href="https://example.com/dresses/real">>
9. <span property="name">>Real Dresses</span></a>
10. <meta property="position" content="2">>
11. </li>
12. </ol>

In certain CMS systems, such as WordPress, there are plugins and modules available that can simplify the process of marking up structured data on your website.

Are you ready to implement structured data on your website to improve your visibility in search results? Fill in the form below, or call us on 30 12 42 72 for a no-obligation chat about how we can help you optimise your content with structured data.

Read more about how we work with SEO at Searchmind here