In this episode of Actionable Marketing In Minutes we talk about the Google expanded listing and how you can use microdata to tip the scales in your favor!

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Problem:

You hear the term search engine optimization – or SEO – mentioned, discussed and even debated with great regularity. By now you understand the importance of making sure you’re doing your best to ensure your website pages show up in the higher placements on the search engine results pages.

The reason for this is so that when potential clients or customers look online for the service or product you offer and type in a related word or term into their browser, you want your company to show up organically on the SERP – or Search Engine Results Page, which is just under the paid-for ads. Optimally, you will be one of the first companies listed.

To take all necessary steps to ensure this happens, you either have someone within your company working on methods to increase your ranking. Or, you’ve hired a digital marketing company who has the expertise to do the work for you.

No matter how you’re working to get this done, because search engine algorithms are in a continuous state of flux and because technology and browser functioning changes all the time, it can be a little challenging to stay ahead of your SEO curve.

Today, I want to tell you how you can further hone your HTML code to increase your SEO visibility and increase your bottom line.

Solution:

You can help your prospects find you online with more ease by including “schema or structured data markup” in your HTML code. I want to give you an illustration of how the addition of schema within your code can accomplish this task. The first example that comes to mind is a little odd but I think it will do the trick.

Let’s say you sell pancake makeup for actors. Of course, in your H1 heading, you will include the word ‘pancake,’ which the search engine crawlers will find. Unfortunately, if there is no further clarifying information in the code, the search engines could have a hard time logically displaying appropriate content to the user. They may very well list you with breakfast sites.

This is where structured data markup can be a huge help to you.

First of all, let me explain what schema is. As my example alluded to, it is one type of a structured data markup format added to your HTML code that helps search engines parse and interpret your site’s content more accurately, which will serve more relevant results to those searching on that search engine, which makes everyone happier, both the search engines and the visitors.

Right now, Google maintains that schema is not used as a ranking signal within their algorithms. But, we all know that those algorithms change frequently, even daily.

We also know that microdata – such as schema – helps define and display rich snippets on the SERP, which makes you more prominent on the page. You actually have more real estate on the page. This will absolutely increase the chance of getting clicked by your prospects, which will result in higher click-through rates. Remember: rich snippets are a type of on-page markup; the little blurb located under a site’s blue hyperlinks on the SERP. We’ve included a picture of what this looks like in the transcript of this podcast.

There is a downside to including schema on your site. It has to be included manually on each and every page. If you have a large site, you might consider that to be problematic, if you didn’t value the benefit over the cost. But, if your site is small or if you’re in the planning stages, it would definitely be smart to include it.

And, though you don’t have to include microdata on every page, the more the merrier. You see, Google can’t create a valuable rich snippet from your microdata unless they have a clear idea of exactly what it is you do.

Benefits:

To recap: not only does schema help search engine crawlers interpret your content more efficiently, it helps Google create rich snippets for your site on the SERP. Both actions will increase your visibility and your online visitors.

We have so much more to tell you about the benefits of using schema microdata in your website, but we also are committed to not to take too much of your time.

So we will conclude with this thought: The benefits of including schema microdata within your HTML code is definitely something you might consider investigating further. You can much of want to know at schema.org.

We hope you’ve found this information helpful. Please connect with us on Twitter @DirectiveGroup or on LinkedIn. Let us know what you think and what you’d like to hear about next. And if you like our podcasts, please share with your networks using hashtag #actionablemarketing. Join us next time as we discuss 5 Ways to Turn Content Into Sales.