Is SCHEMA Good for SEO?

Written by JJ Spelman.

Yes and no. First off, there has not been any definitive evidence presented that proves it can help your website in terms of organic ranking. But, yes, it can help drive traffic. While this does sound contradictory, there is a method to the madness. If there was an opportunity for you to include information on your website that may increase traffic you would probably want to include it, right? Continue reading to learn whether or not schema is good for SEO.

Table of Contents

What is SCHEMA Code?
How Do I Include SCHEMA Code On My Website?
So Is SCHEMA Good for SEO?
Schema Code Examples

What is SCHEMA Code?

SCHEMA code, or Structured Data, as it is also knows as, is a proprietary markup system that allows search engines to better understand website content and present it to those who are using the search engines. If the code is present on your website and is displayed in search results, it is presented in what is called a Rich Snippet. Rich Snippets are snippets, or bits, of information about your web page content that can be presented in many different formats. It may be presented in a carousel, a slide show, with user ratings, etc. This can provide valuable information to users searching for a particular subject. Especially if the information in question is on your website.

Why Should You Include SCHEMA Code?

Search results are based on users seeking information of some type or another. The major search engines are doing their best to provide exactly what the user is looking for in the shortest term possible. This can even result in not having to click a link to their solution at all by providing the answer in “position zero”. Essentially answering the question for the user at the top of the search results pages.

For example, if you were unsure as to how you can put your new tie on and typed “how to tie a tie” into Google, you may very well be presented with a Rich Snippet such as the one pictured in the gallery below.

The value of a user finding their solution in position zero speaks for itself. The value of a brand providing such a solution for a user is priceless! While adding schema code to your website will not guarantee you results, it certainly cannot and will not if you do not try.

What Types of SCHEMA Code Are There?

There are several very common and popular schema types that are available to include on your website. They include:

Article
Breadcrumb
Event
FAQ Page
How-to
Job Posting
Local Business
Organization
Person
Product
Recipe
Video
Website

But the list doesn’t really end there. You can include schema code for literally hundreds of subjects:

An offer
Business rating
Music playlist
Restaurant
Software applications
Book reviews
Movies
TV episodes and their ratings
and more

If your business or website provides any of the information listed, it is a good idea to include schema markup for that information. There is a caveat, of course. You need to be certain you include the code only on the relevant page or pages for the information you are presenting. A common mistake, and perhaps misconception, is providing organizational schema code on every page of your website. This scheme "itemType" is often reserved for either the home page or the about page.

An FAQ page, for example, is self explanatory. It wouldn't make sense to include schema code for FAQs on every page of your website. So be sure to include the code on only the pages relevant to the itemType, or particular schema information.

How Do I Include SCHEMA Code On My Website?

There are a three different formats to include this potentially valuable data on your website: JSON-LD, Microdata and RDFa. All of which can be generated by hand or using a schema code generator. In order to include the code manually, you or your local web designer should have a good grasp on the syntax for the language. The SCHEMA Code web page is a great resource to use as a learning tool or a reference library.

Using SCHEMA Code Generators

By far, the easiest way to create SCHEMA code for your website is to use one of the many free generators available on the internet. One of which is the Schema Markup Generator at technicalseo.com.

https://hallanalysis.com/json-ld-generator/
https://www.rankranger.com/schema-markup-generator
http://microdatagenerator.com/generator.html generates Microdata type schema code - which you can include in your html on the web page.

Each of these tools is extremely easy to use and very intuitive. The only question that remains once you generate your code is how will you include it on your website. Your web design company should be able to help you with that task.

Testing Chema Code

Before adding the code to your website it should be tested for proper syntax, errors or warnings. Google provides a free schema testing tool here. This is a very important step in the process. If there are any errors at all in the code, the rich snippet will not be displayed. You may also see "warnings" when testing. These warnings may not prevent the code from being displayed in search results but it is recommended that they be corrected whenever possible. Leave nothing to chance!

So Is SCHEMA Good for SEO?

As mentioned earlier in this post, adding schema code to your website, at the time of this writing, may not improve your organic search rankings. However it can improve site traffic in the event that your rich snippet is displayed. So is SCHEMA Good for SEO? Absolutely.

There is an old saying in hockey; “you can’t score if you don’t shoot”, (which is only partially true because the puck can deflect off of your body into the net, but you get the idea.) So in essence, not including schema code will guarantee that it doesn’t show up in search results. However, including it will at least put you on the ice with a chance to score.

Is it worth the time and effort, which ultimately means money, to include this information on your website? It is a business decision that should be considered for any organization serious about their search engine optimization.

Schema Code Examples

Below are a few examples of what can be displayed for sites that do include SCHEMA markup in their website code. Click on the images for a larger gallery view.