No doubt you have seen the terms Schema Markup, Schema marking or structured data before. Although these terms sound familiar to many online marketers, they still raise questions for many bloggers – especially those just starting.

There is so much talk about Schema Markup because Schema can help you boost your SEO and even change how your website or web pages are shown in the search results.

This article will cover what Schema Markup is and how Schema can help you lock in more traffic to your website.

What is Schema Markup?

In short, Schema Markup is a programming language that helps various search engines better understand the content. By correctly implementing Schema Markup, your website can appear as Rich Snippets in search engines such as Google. This provides more information for the user and a better CTR (Click Through Rate).

In other words: Schema Markup will help a search engine like Google understand your webpage and the different elements of the webpage, such as ratings, recipes or even FAQs. When visitors visit a website, we only see the visual details such as text, images, tables, top 5 lists, listings and videos. Schema is only visible for search engines.

Why is Schema so important for us bloggers?

A search engine like Google aims to quickly show a user the best result after asking a specific question. To do this, Google continues to develop and implement new features. Compared to a few years ago, Google helps you find the answer you are looking for a lot faster – think, for instance, of the new answer cards at the top of the search results. Schema Markup plays a significant role in this. Schema Markup enables Google to know the content of a page better and, therefore, to show more relevant results.

In other words: Schema can not only help us climb the search results, but it can also make our website stand out in the search results and lead more visitors to your website.

• Thanks to Schema Markup, the user sees all relevant information at a glance – already on the search results page. As a result, people decide more quickly whether they click on your page or not.
• Schema Markup offers added value for Google. This positively affects SEO results, such as the CTR (Click Through Rate).

The different types of Schema Markup

You have already come across many different types of Schema Markups in Google without noticing. When looking for a recipe on Google, for instance. The Google search results when looking at recipes will not only show a box of Google’s favourite recipes, and the individual search results will often include a star rating and how long it takes to cook.

You can now imagine that there are countless Schema Markups. So many that the Schema.org website collaborates with the search engines Google, Bing and Yahoo. And that is quite special: cooperation with a website and such large search engines is, in fact, pretty unique!

An overview of all types of Schema Markups can be found on the Schema.org website on the “Full hierarchy” page. Ten standard Schema Markups are highlighted below.

1. Article markup

The article schema markup is a code that can be added to a website to improve the way the site appears in search results. The code provides information about the article, such as the author, date published, and keywords.

The article is a general category within markup. It contains all content that does not currently qualify for a schema tag. I would recommend implementing it across your entire blog.

2.HowTo markup

The HowTo schema markup is a type of structured data that can provide step-by-step instructions on how to do something. It can be used on websites, blog posts, and pages.

This markup is interesting as Google might pull information from your website to make a step-by-step guide in the search results. Sure, it will mean that people get the information from Google without visiting your website. This has been an object of contention over the past few years, but on the other hand, it does mean that your website is featured prominently and that people will click the link when they need more information.

3. FAQ markup

The fAQ schema markup can mark up frequently asked questions and answers on a web page. This schema type is a specific case of the Question schema type.

One of the ways Google will use this is by pulling your questions and answers to add to the search results. Have you probably seen the People Also Ask in the search result? The FAQ markup can help you show up in the answers!

4. Review markup

The review schema markup is a code that can be added to a website to provide additional information about a product or service. This information can include the name of the product or service, the price, the date the product or service was reviewed, and a link to the review itself.

5. Recipe markup

The recipe schema markup can include information such as the ingredients, the cooking time, and the nutrition information for a recipe.

How to add schema markup to your pages?

If you haven’t added the Schema markup to your pages yet, you will want to do this as soon as possible. Luckily it is straightforward to add Schema markup! Here are 3 plugins for your WordPress website that add schema markup for you!

Rank Math

Rank Math is my favourite SEO plugin. Apart from automating some SEO for you and allowing you to check whether or not your page is optimised, it ads schema markup automatically. You can also buy the PRO version of Rank Math for more types of schema markup, but most bloggers won’t need to.

Yoast

The YOAST SEO plugin also ads Schema. I am not a big fan of Yoast as an SEO plugin, but I rate their schema automation.

Schema plugin

You can also use the schema plugin if you do not want to use an SEO plugin. It is easy, and no coding is needed. You just follow the set-up, wizard!