Schema.org has created a way for search engines to identify and categorise relevant and important information about websites. It isn’t a markup language as such, more a compilation of data elements which are described on the official site. However, can schema markup improve local search visibility?
It offers the search crawlers within search engines who can interpret markup data in an easy to understand, structured way.
It has support from the major search engines, Bing, Yandex, Yahoo! and, of course, Google. Indeed, Google champions Schema Markup and encourages websites to utilise its structuring method for content, which, in turn, creates rich snippets of data in search results.
Local Businesses
At present, many local businesses simply aren’t adopting these web design practices, in fact statistics show that even in the USA, only 25 per cent of local businesses actually have a website. As a leading marketing agency in Southampton, we recognise the importance of Schema Markup and encourage local businesses to better utilise the Internet to gain more customers. And we are here to help.
Schema Markup Is Working Hard For Local Businesses
Schema Markup enables search engines to display important information about the business directly on the search results pages. A menu style structure is useful to organise websites content in a more accessible way.
Reviews from valuable customers are ideal to include with their testimonials. Contact information, telephone numbers, email addresses and opening hours can also be shown on the search page. Customers now have that information quickly and easily.
Localised information, addresses and even directions are useful to incorporate to boost your website’s local ranking in local search. Details of an open day; a sale; an indeed any kind of event relating to your business can also be incorporated in Schema Markup, making your website rich in content in the eyes of the search engines and users alike.
We are familiar with helping our clients to exploit this extremely powerful element of search.
How It Works
Since we’re discussing the advantages of Schema Markup for local businesses, an example of Geographic Markup seems appropriate. This will just scratch the surface of what can be achieved. Our digital marketing agency team can help you to fully integrate Schema into your website.
Schema.org has a dedicated Local Business section including a wide selection of categories.
Schema Markup is stored using div tags, which is “information only” data used by the search engines and is not displayed on the website itself. The tags tell the search crawler in which category to store the contained information. The following example provides basic business and location information:
<div itemscope itemtype=”http://schema.org/ TravelAgency”>
<span itemprop=”name”>Fly Away Travel</span>
<div itemprop=”address” itemscope itemtype=”http://schema.org/PostalAddress”>
<span itemprop=”streetAddress”>111 The Street</span>
<span itemprop=”addressLocality”>Hampshire</span>,
<span itemprop=”addressRegion”>Southampton</span>
<span itemprop=”postalCode”>SO7 1DB</span>
</div>
Phone: <span itemprop=”telephone”>02380 11123221</span>
<time itemprop=”openingHours” datetime=”Mo-Sa 9:00-20:00″>Monday to Saturday 9am-8pm</time>.
<a href=”http://googlemapsurl.com” itemprop=”maps”>Insert URL of Map here</a>
</div>
To find out more how your business can benefit from Schema Markup, and to benefit from a wider range of services from a leading digital marketing agency, why not get in touch with our friendly team today?