Home Digital Marketing Why Is Structured Data Important for Digital Marketing? 

Why Is Structured Data Important for Digital Marketing? 

You can do a lot with structured data to boost your digital marketing outcomes. Also known as schema markups, structured data refers to data that is organized consistently for both humans and computer programs to understand. It allows search engines to contextualize and match website content to search queries. 

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As the language of search engines, you can utilize structured data on your website to attain your digital marketing goals. Read on to understand the importance of structured data in digital marketing. 

The Importance of Structured Data 

  1. Differentiates Digital Content

Structured data tells Google and other search engines what your website is about. It, therefore, provides context to your web content, which helps match it to the specific topics that internet users are searching for. Setting your website content as unique, structured data can help narrow your target audience for better results. 

For example, you can differentiate an employment lawyer’s website from lawyers in other fields by adding structured data. Structured data will classify the business specifically as dealing with employment law issues. 

  1. Creates Connections between Entities

When you have defined data, structured data makes it easy to build relationships between different entities. It eliminates the need for having on-page links to show Google the relationships between two or more things. Search engines can easily connect entities like product reviews, product service areas, product categories, company founders, and product inventors. 

For example, you may realize that your website traffic comes from your “About “page because potential buyers base their purchasing decisions on the company’s founders. With this in mind, structured data can link company founders to your products or services for search engines to show their information during searches. 

  1. Increases Click-Through Rates

When you use structured data, rich results about your products and services will show in searches. This draws attention to what your business or brand offers, leading to more click-through rates that bring traffic to your website. You can easily convert when you have the right audience on your website, which adds value to your marketing outcomes. The more people see what you offer, the higher their chances of buying. You will enjoy increased click-through rates with structured data, especially when you have excellent product reviews. 

  1. Promotes Better User Experience

A positive user experience makes people who interact with your website or content want to stay for longer and saves them time. Since no one wants to spend time looking for a specific product or service, structured data can help your website create a good user experience by s giving users a valuable preview of your page. For example, rating snippets can cultivate trust in your products and services, thus motivating searchers to visit your website and make a purchase. 

  1. Provides Valuable Business Intelligence

Adding structured data to your website can help you gain insights into what your business is about through Semantics Analytics. While it is relatively new, Semantic Analytics takes the information you put on your structured data and adds it to your analytics. With this in mind, you don’t have to check factors like bounce rates and traffic for a URL as the data changes from being about pages to the entire business. 

For example, if you have numerous posts on your blog, Semantic Analytics can show you the author or blog category that brings in more traffic. You can then use the information for your content marketing strategy by having the best team or author write for a high-performing group. 

How to Add and Test Structured Data on Your Website 

To ensure you enjoy the maximum benefits of structured data, you should understand how to include it on your website. Usually, structured data relies on Schema.org vocabulary, and you can embed it on your website by adding code directly or using tools like Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper. 

If you use WordPress, the best way to mark up your website content using schema.org is through WordLift, a WordPress plugin. The plugin uses natural language processing, meaning you don’t need technical skills as it will implement it automatically. 

Various formats exist that you can use to add structured data to your website to implement schema.org vocabulary, depending on your content management system and website. These include JSON-LD, Microdata, and RDFa. If you don’t fancy the idea of coding, a web developer can do the work for you. 

  • JSON-LD:  Google recommends JSON-LD as the best way to add structured data to your website. The search engine can easily read JSON-LD when you include it in a page’s content. It also makes expressing data items easier. 
  • Microdata: It is ideal for nesting structured data into HTML content. Microdata uses attributes of HTML tags to identify characteristics you want to show as structured data. You can use it at the head of the page, although it is appropriate for the page body. 
  • RDFa: This format is usually ideal for head and body sections of a webpage. It is an extension of HTML5 supporting linked data by introducing HTML tag attributes that match user-visible content you want to communicate to search engines. 

After adding your structured data, you can validate and preview it using Google Rich Results Test. This way, you get to see whether your mark up implementation is successful or not, and the search results include additional information based on the web page’s structured data. If you use the Chrome browser, you can use Google’s Structured Data testing tool as an alternative to Google Rich Results Tests. 

You can also use Bing Markup Validator if your goal is to boost your ranking on Bing. Similarly, SEO Site Check Up can help you check your website’s structure data and SEO health. Besides structured data, the SEO Site Check Up looks at critical aspects of SEO, including the page’s load speeds, broken links, URL redirects, and mobile responsiveness.  

Conclusion 

Structured data can differentiate your business and add more value to your customers. By utilizing structured data, you can enhance your digital marketing outcomes and grow your business in the long term.