What is Structured Data and Why Does it Matter for SEO?

Ever see a big block of content and not sure what it is about without reading it? Ever write content for a web page and wish the user could understand what it is about at just a glance? Well, this is the problem Google faces every day attempting to scan trillions of lines of new content and make sense of it, so why not help them?

Why You Need Structured Data

As more and more websites enter the web, structured data is becoming increasingly important for all businesses. Search bots only have a certain number of milliseconds to crawl your site so making it easier for them to quickly learn and identify content gives your web pages a better possibility of being shown in search results.

How Structured Data Works

Structured Data allows you to help Google identify content on your page such as your store opening hours to products that are for sale and in stock. These also allow Google to quickly crawl the page, pick up and identify what the page is actually about and then display your page in a more relevant manner in search results.

In technical terms, structured data works by wrapping a piece of identified code around certain pieces of content or information on a web page. This code tells the search bots what this content is in a manner they can quickly identify and understand.

What Can You Use Structured Data For?

With the complexity of how people use search engines growing Structured Data can help Google quickly identify content such as:

• eCommerce Products
• Product Reviews and Ratings
• Business Contact Information
• Blog/Article Author
• Recipe Ingredients, Method and Reviews
• Opening Hours
• Professional Services
• and more

Structured Data Examples

Once Google knows what your site or page is about they will be able to show some of this information directly in search results. Some examples of Recipes Structured Data and Local Business Structured Data are shown below.

In Summary

With the number of sites and business increasing their digital presence on a daily basis, Structured Data is essential to give your business the best chance of success for:

• ranking as high as possible for important keywords
• ranking for as many keywords as possible
• displaying the right data to the right user at the right time
• giving Google every reason to rank your site as high as possible

Want to know if you already have structured data setup? Use Google’s structured Data Validation Tool to check. Feel free to submit this page to see what it should look like. Alternatively, contact us for a chat about what structured data is relevant for your website and how to get started.