What Is Schema Markup? What Purpose Does It Serve? And Is It Mandatory For Every Website?

A critical aspect of every search engine optimization campaign is helping the search engines easily identify who you are and what you do. What purpose does your website serve? Who is your target audience? And what problems do you help them solve?

In this article, we’re going to focus on Schema Markup. What is it, what purpose does it serve, and does every website have to utilize it? Read on, and let’s find out!

What is Schema?

Scheme Markup refers to a structured data vocabulary that aids search engines like Google in better understanding all of the information present on your website.

When the likes of Google are better able to recognize the meaning behind the content on your website, it enables them to serve ‘rich results’ or ‘rich snippets.’

For example, structured data can be used to add additional details to a recipe in the SERPs (search engine results pages), such as user ratings and total cook time, etc.

In this article, we’ll get into the various types of Schema and why it is important for SEO.

What Purpose Does Schema Serve?

Schema Markup is primarily designed to help Google better recognize what it is that you do. By adding structured data, you increase the likelihood of Google including your website and the information included within the ‘rich snippets.’

These rich snippets ultimately serve your prospective customers; the more ‘rich information’ provided, the more likely they will be to click on your website and (hopefully) convert into customers.

What Are the Different Types of Schema?

According to Google, there are 32 different types of Schema that they understand:

● Article

● Book

● Breadcrumb

● Carousel

● Course

● Dataset

● Employer Aggregate Rating

● Event

● Fact check

● FAQ

● Home Activities

● How-to

● Image license

● Job posting

● Learning video

● Math Solvers

● Movie

● Education Q&A

● Estimated salary

● Podcast

● Practice problems

● Q&A

● Recipe

● Software app (Beta)

● Speakable

● Subscription and pay-walled content

● Video

Is it Mandatory for Every Website?

Schema Markup is not mandatory; however, if you want to tick every box and increase your likelihood of ranking well with rich information present, then it is highly recommended that you utilize it.

Why is Schema Important for SEO?

While Schema does not necessarily help to improve your rankings, it can improve the quality of your listings in a SERP (and your click-through rate).

Without Schema, your link in the SERPs will be limited to the meta title and meta description. However, with properly structured data your listings will be far more likely to appear as:

● Rich cards,

● Rich snippets,

● The Knowledge Panel.

Conclusion: Provide Further Value with Schema Markup

Again, while Schema Markup is not mandatory, it can help you provide a superior service to your prospective customers – all the while helping Google to better understand the information on your page and thus present a more comprehensive listing in the SERPs.

If you are interested in utilizing Schema Markup, be aware that there are three different languages of code you can add to your HTML to let Google know exactly what is on your website: JSON-LD, microdata, and RDFa.

Of course, if you have no idea where to begin (which is understandable if web development and coding aren’t your area), then we recommend hiring a digital marketing agency to accommodate your needs.