Local SEO: Schema markup is one of the powerful local SEO techniques that showcase your brand on the local SERPs. It bridges the gap between your webpage content and search engines. If search engines could not identify your content, then appearing on better rankings would be a daunting task.
To narrow down this difficulty, schema markup and local SEO came into force. Both go hand in hand, applying local SEO techniques without schema or applying schema without local SEO will not drive positive results.
Here, we will walk you through the role of schema markup and local SEO in the online small business world. Our previous experience and knowledge in this area helped us to write a blog post on this topic.
By the end of the blog, all your doubts regarding schema markup and local SEO will be gone and you will embrace this effective technique for your online small business operations.
Let’s dive in.
What is Schema Markup?
Generally, search engines aim to understand the queries prompted by the searchers and provide quality results that exactly match the queries. For understanding the exact context and intention of the searcher, major search engine giants like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex launched schema markup in 2011.
Schema is a structured data markup code which, when added to the HTML code of your webpage, it will help search engines to better understand the exact context behind your website content. Moreover, webpages with schema markup will easily be identified by search engines and are displayed in the form of rich snippets.
Types of Schema
Business details like name, address, phone number, and others have to be included on your website. To help search engines understand all your business-related content, utilizing schema, would be an ideal option. There are three different data formats of schema including Microdata, JSON-LD, RDFa.
1. Microdata
Microdata is a set of tags that uses supporting vocabulary within HTML code to help search engines, crawlers, and browsers better understand the content present on your webpage
2. JSON-LD
JSON-LD stands for JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data (JSON-LD) that uses JavaScript code to apply schema markup code to your webpage content making it understandable to search engines. It is one of the popular schema types which is used by more than 33.7% of websites.
3. RDFa
RDFa can be elaborated as Resource Description Framework in Attributes is a type of data format for specifying your web content using metadata in HTML, XHTML, and various XML dialects
What is the Importance of Using Schema on your Local Business Website?
When schema markup is implemented in the right way, there will be many local SEO opportunities to accomplish your small business objectives. As a small business owner, you will have to maintain an impressive profile on various platforms including Google My Business (GMB) listing, local directories, social media platforms, and others.
Schema markup will help you convey the differences in all these content to search engines. This is a basic reason why schema should be used on your website. Further, there are few other reasons listed below that depict the importance of schema on a small business website.
1. Provides Extensive Rich Snippets
As rich snippets display extra information on the SERP than a normal snippet, it’s crucial that you optimize schema for specifying your webpage content. Studies show that having a rich snippet can drive 20-40% more traffic than product links without them.
2. Drives Organic Click-through-rate(CTR)
Rich snippets can increase click-through rate (CTR) by 677%. Another important reason is that extensive rich snippets are powerful in capturing the attention of target users.
3. Boosts your Website Local SEO
As search engines can understand your webpage content clearly with the presence of structured schema data, you will be able to get quality rankings for your niche-based queries.
Kickstart Your Small Business Journey with the Successful Implementation of Schema Markup and Local SEO
Hopefully, now you would have got a better understanding of schema markup and local SEO. Implementing schema markup for your webpage content is a powerful local SEO practice that enables you to gain quality rankings on the SERP. Structuring your webpage content with schema markup will help you enjoy the perks of local SEO.
Without schema, benefiting from local SEO would be highly challenging. If you find it challenging to apply schema markup for your small business website, then feel free to take assistance from our team.
At Netleaf Software, we have skilled SEO specialists who will take care of your small business activities.
If you have any doubts regarding the schema implementation process, then let us in the comments box below. We are ready to answer your queries.