Advanced Schema Markup As Told By Super Saiyans

What is Schema?

• The purpose of using structured data markup is to help search engines better understand your business.

• It’s important that you select the schema type that best describes your business to make it that much easier for search engines to understand your business.

Example

<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/LocalBusiness"><span itemprop="name">Dynamic Web Solutions</span><link itemprop="url" href="http://www.dynamicwebsolutions.com/"><a itemprop="telephone" href="tel:8043032883”</a></div>

<div itemprop="address" itemscopeitemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress"><span itemprop="streetAddress">1813 E. Broad St./span><span itemprop="addressLocality">Richmond</span><span itemprop="addressRegion">VA</span><span itemprop="postalCode">23221</span></div>

But let’s take it to the next level.

The additionalType Property

• What if you can’t find an accurate schema that best describes your business? Or, what if you’re afraid you don’t think your type of schema is specific enough?

• Use an additional ontology called Productontology. It allows you to specify products and even services, bit it also be used to help extend other schemas to get more specific.

The additionalType Property

• We want to find the matching entity of your product or service on Wikipedia and create a URI with Productontology. Then use the additionalType property to create an association between the general schema type and the more specific description.

• For example, Cheryl owns a deli. But there isn’t an exact schema type for deli so she has to settle for the schema type, Food Establishment. But she wants to get more specific than just Food Establishment.

The additionalType Property

• First, find the Wikipedia page related to your specific service or product. – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delicatessen

• Then, using the Productonology URI we take the last part of the Wiki URL and add it to the ProductontologyURL– http://www.productontology.org/id/– http://www.productontology.org/id/Delicatessen

• Then use the additionalType property to mark it up and create the association.

The additionalType Property

<div itemscope itemtype=“http://schema.org/FoodEstablishment”><link itemprop=”additionalType” href=“http://www.productontology.org/id/Delicatessen” /><span itemprop=”name”>Cheryl’s Dank Deli</span><div itemprop=”address” itemscopeitemtype=“http://schema.org/PostalAddress”><span itemprop=”streetAddress”>100 Main St.</span><span itemprop=”addressLocality”>Richmond</span>,<span itemprop=”addressRegion”>VA</span><span itemprop=”postalCode”>23221</span></div><span itemprop=”telephone”>(804) 123-4567</span></div>

We just took it to a whole new level…

…but let’s see if we can take it even further.

The sameAsProperty

• When you create citations it become a waiting game as you wait for Google to find your new citations and make the connections between those listings, your business and your websites.

• The SameAs property can help make this process quicker and easier. You can tell search engines that the business you’ve marked up is the same one found at a certain citation URL.

The sameAs Property Example

<div itemscope itemtype=http://schema.org/LocalBusiness>

<span itemprop="name">Dynamic Web Solutions</span>

<link itemprop="url" href=http://www.dynamicwebsolutions.com/>

<link itemprop="sameAs" href=https://plus.google.com/+DynamicWebSolutions>

</div>

The geo and hasMap Properties

• One of the most important things for Local SEO is making it absolutely clear to search engines where your business is located. Using the geo and hasMap properties is sure to make things crystal clear.

The geo and hasMap Properties

<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/LocalBusiness"><span itemprop="name">Dynamic Web Solutions</span><link itemprop="url" href="http://www.dynamicwebsolutions.com/"><link itemprop="sameAs" href="https://plus.google.com/+DynamicWebSolutions”><link itemprop="hasMap" href="https://goo.gl/maps/x6Lf8"><a itemprop="telephone" href="tel:18043032883”</a>

<div itemprop="address" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress"><span itemprop="streetAddress">1813 E. Broad St./span><span itemprop="addressLocality">Richmond</span><span itemprop="addressRegion">VA</span><span itemprop="postalCode">23221</span></div>

<span itemprop="geo" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/GeoCoordinates"><meta itemprop="latitude" content="37.538912" /><meta itemprop="longitude" content="-77.424745" /></span></div>

The Knowledge Graph and Your Logo

• Clients often come to us with the questions, “why isn’t my logo showing up, can you fix this?”

• Google recommends marking up your logo because, as stated on their Webmaster Central blog, “markup like this is a strong signal to our algorithms to show this image in preference over others, for example when we show Knowledge Graph on the right hand side based on users’ queries.”

The Knowledge Graph and Your Logo & Telephone Example

<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/LocalBusiness"><span itemprop="name">Dynamic Web Solutions</span><link itemprop="url" href="http://www.dynamicwebsolutions.com/"><img itemprop="logo" src="https://www.dynamicwebsolutions.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/DWS-Logo.jpg" /><link itemprop="sameAs" href="https://plus.google.com/+DynamicWebSolutions”><link itemprop="hasMap" href="https://goo.gl/maps/x6Lf8"><a itemprop="telephone" href="tel:+18043032883>(804)303-2883”</a>

Schema that was so weak and powerless

<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/LocalBusiness"><span itemprop="name">Dynamic Web Solutions</span><link itemprop="url" href="http://www.dynamicwebsolutions.com/"><a itemprop="telephone" href="tel:+"tel:18043032883”</a></div>

<div itemprop="address" itemscopeitemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress"><span itemprop="streetAddress">1813 E. Broad St./span><span itemprop="addressLocality">Richmond</span><span itemprop="addressRegion">VA</span><span itemprop="postalCode">23221</span></div>

Has now become…

The strongest in the universe

<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/LocalBusiness"><span itemprop="name">Dynamic Web Solutions</span><link itemprop="url" href="http://www.dynamicwebsolutions.com/"><img itemprop="logo" src="https://www.dynamicwebsolutions.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/DWS-Logo.jpg" /><link itemprop="sameAs" href="https://plus.google.com/+DynamicWebSolutions”><link itemprop="hasMap" href="https://goo.gl/maps/x6Lf8"><a itemprop="telephone" href="tel:+"tel:+18043032883>(804)303-2883”</a>

<div itemprop="address" itemscopeitemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress"><span itemprop="streetAddress">1813 E. Broad St./span><span itemprop="addressLocality">Richmond</span><span itemprop="addressRegion">VA</span><span itemprop="postalCode">23221</span></div>

<span itemprop="geo" itemscopeitemtype="http://schema.org/GeoCoordinates"><meta itemprop="latitude" content="37.538912" /><meta itemprop="longitude" content="-77.424745" /></span></div>