How to Use Schema Markup to Boost Your SEO

Updated: May 6, 2021

Schema markup is one of the latest ways SEO experts are boosting website traffic. And it’s easier than you might think.

Rather than needing technical coding experience, you can utilize schema markup to improve how Google reads your website.

In this guide, we share exactly what schema markup is and how you can use it to soar past your competitors in search engine result pages (SERPS).

Schema markup helps search engines, such as Google, to understand your website better. A short form of microdata acts as a detailed description of your site, often known as a rich snippet.

This information improves the meta data shown in search results, giving the user all the information they might need from pricing to product features. For example, an events page will show times and dates, or a review will show a starred rating.

Schema markup helps Google to index your website correctly, telling it exactly what the content means and therefore improving search engine results. This is extremely helpful for more ambiguous information such as names and titles.

There are hundreds of data markup types from articles and FAQ pages to local businesses and book reviews. So no matter the subject of your website, there will be an item scope or item type to match.

While there’s no tangible evidence that they directly impact search ranking, the information required from a schema markup definitely boosts a website’s chances of reaching Google’s top results.

The first page of results typically has rich snippets. And with schema markup’s even clearer data providing more context for the user, they also achieve higher click-through rates.

Less than one-third of Google’s search results currently include a rich snippet or schema markup. This means millions of websites are missing out on SEO potential.

The good news is that schema markups are relatively easy to implement.

You can include a schema markup for each website page from your homepage to your about story.

You can find a markup for any type of information on Schema.org. But at Rising Ranks, we use free schema markup generators which offer easy to use templates for almost any style of content.

Search for ‘free schema markup generator’ to find a suitable platform such as RankRanger or Merkle.

There are many options to choose from when it comes to categorizing your web page. For example:

Article
Organization (suitable for a home page or contact page)
Local business
Person (suitable for authors or an about page)

NOTE: Whilst it is possible to add more than one schema markup to one web page (e.g. video and recipe or multiple authors), this is a bit more advanced. If you’re a beginner or unsure, pick the category that mainly relates to your content.

Once you have chosen the correct category, fill out all the required fields with as much detail as possible.

NOTE: all information in the schema markup must be visible on the web page. For example, if you include your name in an article category, it must appear on the article page. Failing to do so flags your content as spam.

The schema markup generator will provide a list of coding once all fields are complete. Copy this code and paste it into the relevant section on your web page.

NOTE: If the generator provides an option for the type of code, ensure it is JSON-LD. This should be the default option.

If you have the Yoast plugin installed on your Wordpress website, paste the code into the schema markup tab. Older versions of Yoast do not have this tab so you will need to download a separate plugin to do so.

In your Squarespace website, select the page and head to ‘page settings’. Paste the code into ‘page header code injection’ in the advanced settings.

Go to the chosen page and click settings. Paste the code into ‘advanced SEO’.

Head to the settings on the right-hand side of the page and paste the code at the bottom of ‘update custom head html’ under advanced settings.

Once you have updated your page, it’s time to test it’s worked!

Go to Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to begin. Enter the URL of the page and click ‘Run Test’. This will tell you if the schema markup has been imputed successfully.

For more SEO boosting tips download my FREE SEO CHECKLIST and get a clear list of action steps to increase your rankings.

Schema markups are the new must for boosting a website’s SEO potential.

Whilst it might seem a little fiddly at first, adding a schema markup really is a simple copy and paste process - and it only needs to be done once!

Make sure to add a schema markup to each page on your website including individual blogs and articles. In Schema.org’s own words ‘the more content you mark up, the better’.

Prefer to watch? Here is an exclusive training from my Profit-Amping SEO Course!