In our first post on semantic search, we spoke about Google making the shift from “keyword driven search” to a more intuitive “intent driven search” based around content and what users are looking for.
Today, we’d like to take a look at Structured Data and how it can make your website more attractive to Google.
Structured data is “standardized code that is recognized by Google and can be used to present site specific information.” If you browse the database of schema.org, you will see a wide variety of items that can be marked up and presented. For instance, if you are a location-based business, one of the easiest things to introduce to your website is your address. If you are strictly e-commerce, you should consider using information about your products or consumer reviews.
One benefit of using structured data, other than presenting clean data to Google, is that you also improve the way that your data appears in the Search Engine Results Page. This can be seen shown below…
Without Structured Data
With Structured Data
As you can see, when information about your product is presented in structured data, your website will appear differently than a “standard” Google listing. There are still studies currently taking place to gauge the effects of structured data, but there are some very positive signals, including a click through rate that could be increased by upwards of 30%.
The key to semantic search is being as widespread with your website data as you can. Incorporating structured data is just one of several steps in the process of making your website more consistent with Google.
To help you with this process, NetElixir is currently offering a one-of-a-kind Semantic Search analysis. Click here to receive your free semantic search analysis now.
Also be sure to attend our next Webinar “Semantic Search: The New King of Search Marketing.” You can register here.
We hope to see you there. Until then, Happy Searching!
