Tag Archives: Data Formats

Schema.org examples showing search result snippets in Google

Schema has been big news for SEO for quite a while now, yet very few people are using it. Whatever the project I’m involved in, I make sure schema forms part of the basic on-site recommendations. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of improved snippets, especially when all that is required are simple html decorations.

 

This post shows a few examples of the impact of using schema for improvements in search result snippets in Google.

Example MusicRecording Schema

Music Tracks in search results
Music Tracks in search results

The MusicRecording schema has been used to enable the rich snippet above. The code for the MusicRecording schema was as follows:

MusicRecording Schema
MusicRecording Schema

 

Example Recipe Schema

hrecipe is currently the most popular mark-up method, however the schema.org recipe can help dominate the SERPs.

This is how the common hrecipe microformat appears in SERPs:

Using hrecipe and appearance in SERPs
Using hrecipe and appearance in SERPs

In contrast, using the recipe schema can help occupy more space, the more ingredients you add…

SchemaRecipe helps dominate SERPs
SchemaRecipe helps dominate SERPs

The code used to achieve the result above is as follows:

Code for SchemaRecipe with several ingredients
Code for SchemaRecipe with several ingredients

It’s easy to see how schema could be used for tactical snippets.

Example Movie Schema

Movie Schema in SERPs
Movie Schema in SERPs

The code to create a snippet for movies as above is as follows:

Code example for the Movie Schema
Code example for the Movie Schema

The movie SERPs show the beginnings of how decorated data can be used to create readable text. ‘Directed by xxx, starring xxxx’ is the first step towards producing content created entirely automatically from an enriched data source.

Example of TV Series Schema

The TV Series schema offers ratings information:

TV Series in SERPs
TV Series in SERPs

To create the TV snippet above the following code was used:

TV Series Schema code
TV Series Schema code

If they’d included the optional TVSeries schema information above, then the snippet could have been better still.

 Example Event Schema

Events and news get special treatment in Google (fresh content), so if you want to get ahead in SERPs, then add a properly marked-up events page to your site.

Using vevent, the search results will look like this:

Using vevent in serps
Using vevent in serps

The code for vevent to create the snippet above:

The vevent html code
The vevent html code

Very few sites currently use the schema Event markup, here’s an example from the SES site:

Schema Event in SERPs
Schema Event in SERPs

and the code used to create the snippet above is the result of a minimal implementation. Schema.org offers many types of richer event markup, so this entry could have included much more information.

Code to create Event Schema
Code to create Event Schema

 

Sites are still not using schema.org to its full potential, despite the major search engines announcing that they support this format as the standard. There is substantial scope for all sites to incorporate pages with schema in order to improve appearance in SERPs and encourage the click.

Why is this taking so long to catch on?

 

 

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