Have a Local Business? You Need Schema.
If you have a local business, you are in luck. Optimizing local businesses for search is something marketers love to do because we are able to provide such amazing, seemingly instant results for our clients. The ability to drill down into extremely specific data parameters and demographics is using our tools to their fullest. Even still, optimizing local businesses can still be a challenge if the market is saturated in your area. While we have many SEO secrets for providing awesome search ranking results, one secret that we’ve had in our toolkit for years is using schema. It’s what’s given our client the advantage for years, and search engines are finally catching up. But, what is schema and how does it work? Keep on reading!
What is Schema’s Structured Data?
It’s important to understand what schema is in order to understand why it is important for you to have. Simply put: structured data is the language that search engines speak. If your website isn’t speaking the language, it will show up later in search results. It’s just that simple! Think of it this way: if you put a website on the internet without telling the internet how to perceive and use the data you have on your website, then it will fall to the bottom of the search engine’s priority list. This is because – even with how smart search engines are – they can’t interpret data like we do. That’s why it needs to be structured and optimized FOR them, so they can quickly give users the results they want.
Translating your website into schema takes schema markup codes. These come in the form of Microdata, JSON-LD, and RDFa. There are many tools you can use to help translate your website into schema, or you can hire an SEO professional to help you do it correctly.
Have a Local Business? You Need Schema.
Schema is All About Optimizing
Optimization is the act of giving search engines what they are looking for. If a user is searching for “florist open late in Brentwood”, your website’s optimization will help the search engine provide the user with what they want by grabbing your information. The ability to grab this information is done with schema. Schema is helping guide the search engine by saying, “this website is about a florist, it has business hours information, and it has location information”. The optimization helps the search engine pick it up in the right spots, and the information that’s been grabbed and is now being provided to the user is the data. Get your data right, your optimization right and your schema right and you’re in business.
Schema Helps Local Rankings
The way that schema helps search engines find what it wants makes it perfect for local rankings. You’re able to get pretty specific with this form of optimization, which is great for local businesses. It helps people find exactly what they are looking for and, most importantly, where they are looking for it.
In addition to being super helpful with local rankings, schema is also a dream for voice search, which you can learn more about here.
If you’re ready for highly detailed and sophisticated schemas based on your specific business type, let us know. We go beyond the standard website schema!
