In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing and search engine optimization, structured data has become a crucial tool for enhancing online visibility and improving user experience. If you’re new to structured data, think of it as the backbone of your website’s content, guiding search engines to understand exactly what your pages are about.
The magic happens through schema, a universal language crafted and maintained by the powerhouses of the web—Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Yandex—at schema.org. This collaboration ensures your content is presented in the most accurate and compelling way possible, helping you stand out in the crowded digital landscape.
In this article, we’ll explore three essential types of structured data that every website should have: Corporation Schema, Breadcrumb Schema, and Video Schema. These examples not only improve how your content is understood by search engines but also significantly enhance the way users interact with your site.
Structured Data Examples
These structured data examples will touch on a couple of benefits. For instance, breadcrumb schema improves navigation, video schema showcases video content, and organization schema highlights your company’s key details, all leading to more accurate and engaging search result displays.
Let’s jump in.
1. Corporation Schema
Example:
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "XYZ Corporation",
"url": "https://www.xyzcorporation.com",
"logo": "https://www.xyzcorporation.com/logo.png",
"contactPoint": {
"@type": "ContactPoint",
"telephone": "+1-800-555-5555",
"contactType": "Customer Service",
"areaServed": "US",
"availableLanguage": ["English", "Spanish"]
},
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/xyzcorporation",
"https://www.twitter.com/xyzcorporation",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/xyzcorporation"
]
}
Impact on User Experience:
- Enhanced Visibility: Corporation schema helps search engines understand key details about a business, such as its name, contact information, and social media profiles. This can enhance how the company appears in search results, providing potential customers with immediate access to crucial information.
- Improved Trust: Displaying accurate contact information directly in search results can build trust with users, as they can easily find ways to contact the company.
- Increased Click-Through Rates: Users are more likely to click on search results that provide comprehensive and trustworthy information directly in the search snippets.
2. Breadcrumb Schema
Example:
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "BreadcrumbList",
"itemListElement": [
{
"@type": "ListItem",
"position": 1,
"name": "Home",
"item": "https://www.example.com/"
},
{
"@type": "ListItem",
"position": 2,
"name": "Products",
"item": "https://www.example.com/products"
},
{
"@type": "ListItem",
"position": 3,
"name": "Laptops",
"item": "https://www.example.com/products/laptops"
}
]
}
Impact on User Experience:
- Improved Navigation: Breadcrumb schema helps users understand their location within a website, offering a clear path to navigate back to previous pages. This reduces frustration and enhances the overall user experience, especially on large sites with deep hierarchies.
- Better Search Result Snippets: Search engines may display breadcrumbs in search results, providing users with a quick overview of the page’s context within the site structure. This can improve click-through rates as users can identify relevant content more easily.
Benefit: Better visibility on the SERP and helps search engines understand site hierarchy.
In image 1, CNET is higher on the SERP, has valid breadcrumb schema, and is displaying that hierarchy in Proper Case.
With Best Buy, they have breadcrumb schema, but when I test the URL, it has invalid item critical errors. The result is, path is displayed, based on URL nomenclature, not proper case, contains hyphens and trails off with an ellipsis.
Likely breadcrumb schema is what pushed CNET up one position above Best Buy on the SERP.
3. Video Schema
Example:
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "VideoObject",
"name": "How to Use XYZ Product",
"description": "This video shows how to use XYZ Product effectively.",
"thumbnailUrl": "https://www.example.com/thumbnail.jpg",
"uploadDate": "2024-08-27T08:00:00Z",
"contentUrl": "https://www.example.com/videos/xyz-product.mp4",
"embedUrl": "https://www.example.com/embed/xyz-product",
"duration": "PT2M30S",
"interactionCount": "12345",
"publisher": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "XYZ Corporation",
"logo": {
"@type": "ImageObject",
"url": "https://www.example.com/logo.png"
}
}
}
Impact on User Experience:
- Rich Video Snippets: Video schema allows search engines to display video-rich snippets in search results, including the video thumbnail, title, and description. This visual representation can attract more clicks, particularly for users seeking video content.
- Increased Engagement: By providing detailed metadata, video schema can enhance the chances of videos appearing in video search results or in a prominent position on the search engine results page (SERP). This can lead to higher engagement rates as users are more likely to interact with video content.
- Better SEO: Video schema helps search engines understand the content of a video, which can improve its ranking in search results, making it easier for users to find relevant video content.
Image 3 shows how a video can be featured in search results when the video is embedded on the page and the page is indexed. While most videos that appear on the SERP are direct links from YouTube, video schema helps your embedded videos appear in search results, increasing their visibility and potential impact.
Benefit: Populating video tiles directly to the SERP, which helps with CTR
In Summary
Of course, these structured data examples are just three of a handful of structured data that will benefit SEO. What type of schema you implement, will be best determined by your site content. See our article on Product and Article Schema, for two more powerful types of schema.
Incorporating Corporation, Breadcrumb, and Video Schema into your website’s structured data strategy is a powerful way to elevate both your SEO performance and user experience. These schemas help search engines better understand and display your content, leading to higher visibility, increased click-through rates, and more satisfied users. By prioritizing these three structured data examples, you can ensure that your website stands out in search results, providing clear, accessible information to your audience while driving more meaningful engagement. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to leverage these tools for your website’s success.