Can you help me get started?

Sure! Welcome to our quick getting started guide.

We have step by step videos to walk you through the different types of markup here.  If you are creating schema markup for a local business this is a great guide. 

One of best ways to get started is to book a 30-minute onboarding call with our customer success team. Check your emails for how to book a time with our schema expert team members. We can get you started on the right foot, and point you to the best resources for what you want to do. 

If you are interested in hiring a consultant to assist in your schema projects, contact us with project details and we either one of our Account Managers will setup a conversation or we'll direct you one of our trusted partner agencies.

Email us [email protected] to get started. 

A Step by Step Guide for Optimizing your Website for Organic Search

Google recommends using Schema.org markup to optimize your website for organic search. But Schema.org is complicated and it is hard to figure out what structured data you should use on what page to get the best results. That is why we have developed this guide.

Our goal is to help you learn how to optimize a website using Schema.org, and automating the processes by using Schema App, or another JSON-LD generator. And don’t worry, you won’t have to write any code to get this right.

Includes Best Practices for

• Integrations (WordPress Plugin, Google Tag Manager)
• Home Pages (Organization or Local Business)
• Contact Us pages
• About Us pages
• Services pages
• Location pages

Step 0: Which Pages Should you Automate on a Website?

A: In order to get the best organic results from doing structured data on your website, the first step is to understand what “things” are important to the business and to searchers. Most Google searches are not for words, but for people, places and things – also known as ‘entities’. If you think of the “things” that are important and then ask yourself the question, “what about these things are searchers looking for” you will have a sense for what you need to markup.

B: Let’s get more specific. In our 3+ years doing structured data strategies for companies, there are five things that people want to know about a business:

1. What is the Business?
   Type, Location, Founder, Phone Number, Email, Reviews, Testimonials, Area it Serves.
2. What pages get the most traffic?
   Use Google Analytics to figure out which pages people are already looking at.
3. What pages outline strategic focus areas for your business?
   Do you have multiple services, products or locations. Which of these are a strategic focus for growing your business?  Is there a specific part of your business that is very unique? Optimize it!
4. In addition to these pages, you will want to optimize your core pages: your homepage, contact page, location page.

C: Now you have a list of the pages to optimize.

Step 1: Register for Schema App

Start by registering for Schema App. You can try Schema App for 14 days.

Step 2: Install WordPress Plugin or Google Tag Manager

A: Now that you know what you want to promote in organic traffic, it’s time to get your tools in place.

B: Start by installing Schema App's free WordPress Plugin. This will do some automatic optimization on your pages and blog posts, and automate adding the code to your website once you are using the Schema App Tool. Watch this video!

C: If you are using Google Tag Manager, you’ll need to API Key from Schema App. Once you have your API key, you can setup Google Tag Manager by following these video instructions.

Step 3: Optimize Your Home Page

A: Your website is connected with Schema App and you know the pages you need to optimize with schema.org. So let’s get started with your homepage. You need to define it as an organization in schema.org.

B: Let’s start by opening https://app.schemaapp.com and logging in.

C: On the main page of the app, click on Organization. Watch this video on how to optimize the organization and what content to use!

Step 4: Optimize your Contact Page

A: For each website you work on you will want to optimize the contact page. Ask yourself, what is the page about? It’s about the ways to get in contact with a person. Schema.org has a web page type of Contact Page, and this page is about Contact Points.

B: Before you start, list out the different contact points for the business.  Often the contact points are different departments (sales, customer service, support, technical support, manufacturing, etc) or different numbers you have listed on your website (toll-free, sales, support, etc). The schema.org markup you create in Schema App should represent what is listed on the page.

C: Using Schema App as an example, we have a contact page here: https://www.schemaapp.com/contact/ and on that page we have one contact point, which includes our toll-free number and our [email protected] email.   For Schema App the contact is our general mailbox (which actually ends up with cofounder, Martha van Berkel).

D: Follow the instructions on the video to optimize your contact page with the appropriate contact points.  After you are done, ask yourself these questions:

• Have I listed all the contact ways for the business in the markup? If not, add another contact point under About.  Use #department to differentiate between the different contact points. For example, sales for Schema App would have the URI and URL of http://www.schemaapp.com/contact/#sales
• Have you connected the contact page to your business? If not, add the property Publisher and connect with the organization you created in step 1.

Watch a video walkthrough here!

Step 5: Optimize your strategic content

This stage differs from business to business. Here are some tutorials to guide you on how to mark up those pages:

A; About Page: Watch "How to optimize a page about a person"

B: Product/Service Pages: Watch "How to optimize a page about a product"

C: Products: If using Shopify, use our Shopify plugin. If using BigCommerce, use our BigCommerce plugin. 

D: Event Page: Watch "How to optimize your event page with event information"

Are you ready to get started? Start our 14-day free trial and start reaching your online business goals with structured data!