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Structured Data

Structured Data It is a definition used in the semantic part of the Internet. It allows search engines to accurately position structured information on web pages and enrich it.

Defining structured data

To be able to work with structured data, web operators must use uniformly defined special profit margins and formats. The Resource Description Framework (RDF), various microformats, microdata, and data highlighters are suitable for this purpose. If the data on a website is structured accordingly, search engines like Google or Bing can specifically categorize it and supplement it with semantics. Google Webmaster Help explains how structured data works in this YouTube video..

Use of structured data

Structured data is used to create links between the information. In practice, structured data is usually used in rich snippets. It consists of more detailed information, which is displayed in the SERPs at the same time as the frequent search result. This can look like:

  • Find the "pancake recipe": Search results in recipe databases enriched with recipe examples including length of preparation and calorie count.
  • Search for "Tickets New York": companies will appear to buy tickets for upcoming events in New York.
  • Search for hotels or restaurants: Viewing customer reviews (that is, stars and reviews).
  • Search for a product: Enriching the search results with data from the price comparison engines and price ranges in which the product is enabled.
  • Search for a job: Supplement job search results with job vacancies in the region searched.

Google and structured data

Google has been developing structured data for some time. During 2012, the company introduced two new tools to facilitate the use of structured data and, in particular, of rich snippets. The structured data management dashboard in the Google Search Console helps web operators examine the effectiveness of their rich snippets.

The Google Data Highlighter, for its part, allows you to label the data fields of a web page with a click of the mouse.[1] The information obtained can then be prepared in an attractive way, for example with the additional display of search results or graphical representation in the Google Knowledge Graph search engine.

Relevance for SEO

Structured data is not a new phenomenon, but have been an integral part of search engine optimization for years. Even though it is not defined as a ranking factor by search engines, they use the additional information. Web operators also benefit from better click-through rates. The semantic web is going to be of great relevance in the future. Thus, search SEOs should start working with structured data from now on.

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