What exactly is Schema Pro, and why is it so important that your MSP website contains this type of information? Structured data has been around for many years, but brands are just starting to truly see the value in presenting their websites in a way that machines can interpret what is happening. Search engines are always on the lookout for ways to more effectively rank your information in terms of value. Taking the time to implement the right tools on your website shows not only helps the search engines quantify the value of your data but also shows that your team understands structured data and how to use it. Learn more about Schema Pro and why this plugin is essential for SEO and discoverability on your MSP website.
Download the Schema Pro plugin for your MSP website.
What is Schema?
Schema is a late 18th-century Greek word that could be directly translated as "form, figure" -- which makes a lot of sense once you understand how it is used today. You might have heard schema in relation to XML or other targeted markup languages, but it can be applied to pages within your website as well. Schema markup is the structured metadata that allows computers to more accurately interpret the information on your website. These lines of code can help drive engaged audiences to your site by ensuring that search engines are correctly understanding the context of details such as videos, images and other content pieces. While these details are generally created by programmers, business and marketing professionals may be the ones pushing to have this type of metadata added to your website. Rich snippets are particularly valuable, as they can help boost your search engine results page (SERP) rankings. Schema is something that may have been skipped by web developers in the past due to the tedium of having to create structure information for all pages on a site. The WordPress Schema Pro plugin allows you to automate many of these tasks, effectively applying a highly structured schema to your site in minutes.
What Are Rich Snippets?
When you're searching for something online, Google and other search engines do their best to provide you enough information about what they deem to be a highly relevant result. That way, searchers can have a clear expectation of what they will find when clicking through the link. Google's goal is to answer your questions on your first click, and that means being able to adequately present the information from an entire website or page in an extremely compressed space -- often in only a few lines of text. Rich snippets are defined by site administrators who have added specific schema markups to their pages that show a relevant result. While adding rich snippets to your site doesn't guarantee that you'll get the coveted position zero on your Google SERP, having them there raises the possibility that your site will be selected for a feature.
How Does Schema Affect SEO?
The site SEO-hacker.com describes schema as "the future of on-site SEO", and that statement probably isn't far from the truth. While search engines have been looking for more structure within sites as far back as 2011, Google is now getting serious about offering benefits to site owners that take the time to implement these standards. Schema tells search engines how data is structured within the site, which then allows search engines to confidently present that information to searchers. There are a variety of uses for this type of markup:
- Clearly identifying ingredients, measures and directions within a recipe
- Providing event details such as date and location
- Deep links into a site with descriptions of the content on the pages
- Highly structured eBooks for online reading
- Customer reviews that will help drive engagement and awareness of your brand
- Local business schema markup helps define the details that search engines are looking for
Search engines are now rewarding sites that feature rich implementation of schema, as they present information in a way that is faster and easier for search engines to digest.
Why Schema Pro is the Best Option
WordPress is an extremely popular platform for business owners, as it offers a great deal of power and flexibility for your business. The Schema Pro plugin allows you to quickly and easily implement a highly structured markup for your site through a direct click and select interface. Once you've defined your markup configurations, they can easily be applied to selected pages and posts throughout your site. While Google offers a simplified schema creation tool, it is still relatively manual to apply this type of configuration across all of the pages on your site. Once your fields are mapped, the schema is immediately available to help your website pages seem more relevant and actionable for Google and Bing search tools.
Schema continues to be an integral part not only of your site's technical infrastructure but also of your marketing strategy. Implementing Schema Pro to your MSP website is one of the best ways to ensure that your site has the structure that it needs for the future. Ready to see how your website ranks against your competitors? Contact Stuart Crawford at Ulistic today for a free website grading and initial consultation. You can always contact the MSP marketing professionals at Ulistic at {phone}.
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