From Nada to Armada: 3 reasons why structured data and schema markup can make your website rock!

Schema markup is significant for anyone that wants to contribute to today’s web.

Many think of structured data as the future. Yet it is the present. Many big players understood the importance of structured data a few years ago already. Now small players have the chance to take advantage of those technologies to win the SEO game.

When you go to schema.org you’ll see the initiative was launched and founded by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Yandex. It is not a case those big players contributed to the foundation of the Semantic Web. It was the most logical step in the evolution of search engines.

Facebook, Google, and Amazon spent the last years building their knowledge graphs. You might think that is irrelevant for a small player. Yet it’s not. In a world where big players control the web, it is crucial to guarantee that each of us can contribute to the development of the internet. Structured data and Knowledge graphs are the tools that allow anyone to build today’s web.

Now those technologies are available to anyone with tools like WordLift.

Why is Schema markup crucial? Three reasons!

1. Findability can make or break a business

Structured data on the web is what schema.org is all about. The goal of the activity is to encourage the publishing of data on the web that is understandable for search engines.

Teodora Petkova, philologist and professional semantic writer on SEO, Linked Data and Your Fridge Browsing the Web

It doesn’t matter how well-written is your content. If machines can’t read it, humans can’t find it. If people can’t find it, your content will get buried in the organic search. Thus, no one will know you ever wrote it.

Using Schema markup is like translating that content for search engines. Eventually, they’ll be able to find it more easily. Also, through Schema markup search engines will be able to read better and interpret the user’s question to locate the content he/she is looking for. That is how your content goes from nada to armada in a few clicks.

In this way, rather than having your piece of content buried in the organic search, you’ll make it easier to find and more prone to be suggested to a user.

2. Who finds the right related article finds a treasure

Slow content doesn’t ride news waves, but it can ride the longer, smoother industry waves to create stellar, valuable content that is quoted and cited for years to come.

Cameron Conaway, Content Marketing Manager at Klipfolio, on Slow Content

One huge issue that any website or online magazine faces is the lack of essential interconnectedness between one piece of content with the other. Often you land on a cool website. Read an interesting article, just to find at the end of it a “related article” widget. That widget too often points toward a plethora of junk items (from how to get tanned, to which razor to use when shaving!). For dismal ad earnings, many websites and magazines are losing their opportunity to build quality traffic that will make them successful in the long-run.

With Schema markup you can connect each piece of content to the next semantically, meaningfully and consciously. Therefore making it easier to navigate to the user.

3. Let me hang out with your website

If you want your prospects and customers to think of your brand as exceptional, you have to deliver exceptional experiences with content. Every time. At every touch point. Period.

Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler Talking Content Marketing

We often think of a website as a static place. The user clicks in, scrolls a bit, then clicks out. Our perspective is quickly changing. With the rise of voice search, websites become interactive. More and more people will want to hang out with a website. Rather than just click, tap and scroll; users want to ask, argue and talk. In this scenario Schema markup, and Knowledge Graphs are the tools that allow machines to read, and manipulate enough connected information to extrapolate knowledge that can answer the reader’s questions.

For instance, when I meet new people. They often ask me “what’s your job?” and I say “I’m BizDev at WordLift.” Next thing they ask is “what is WordLift?”

What if your website could interact at the same way with a user? It turns out it can, and our website already does!

Wrapping up and Conclusions

Structured data is what can bring your business to the next level. In fact, through that you can achieve several goals:

1. Make your content machine-friendly. Therefore, easier to find for your tribe
2. Let users navigate within the website by finding meaningful content. Thus, allowing them to create a long-term relationship with your website
3. Have your website ready to talk. In this way, it won’t be a static page but a place your tribe would love to hang out

In conclusion, people in the future won’t ask how many clicks your website is getting but rather if that is a place people would love to hang out. Is your website that place?

If you want to know more about these topics…

Join our webinar on machine-friendly content with Scott Abel ?

September 14th at 5:00 pm Central European Time (8:00 am PT / 11:00 am ET)