Wow – I was excited to get back to blogging until I just read the headline of my own post. Is he for real? “Structure Your Data?” Really? That sounds horribly boring. Don’t judge just yet peeps. This may be the simplest SEO tip you get all year. Oh yeah, Happy New Year by the way.
Similar to the “all I want for Christmas is my Google Plus Local Page Verified,” get ready for the easiest breakaway lay-up tip. But before I get into the meat of this post, I have to get this beef off my chest…
There’s a plethora of noise in the SEO blog stratosphere. A lot of speculation and shock techniques with catchy headlines to make you believe in “trends.”
Ha.
It’s really simple. Google is the King/Queen. While they used to be the royalty behind the curtain, they’re now “the people’s royalty.” They have a help line for Google Analytics tips and AdWords optimization, where you can talk directly to and email with real experts – yes, who actually work at Google.
Not only that, but the best hidden gem is Google Webmasters. Webmasters will tell you exactly what you’re doing well, and what you’re doing incorrectly or lacking.
Well folks, the King/Queen has made a decree. It’s called Structured Data. For you non-geeks, don’t get intimidated. Yes, I’m going to use words like “code” and “mark-up.” And this just proves once and for all that Meta Data is still extremely relevant.
The decree is simple. Add various schema mark-up into your HTML code. Here are the steps. And if you don’t have Google Webmasters Installed, that’s another blog. 🙂
1. Log into Webmasters.
2. Under “Search Appearance” click “Structured Data.”
3. Find the Structured Data Testing Tool and Reference Schema.org for proper tagging best practices.
4. Click “Structured Data Testing Tool” for a Preview… Then go to the Structured Data Mark-up Helper…
This is the output tool that does all the work for you… observe…
Click “Start Tagging.” Highlight keywords on your site and assign the appropriate tag. Google Creates the HTML mark-up for you, when you click “Create HTML”
Here’s what the output looks like… Now what the heck do you do with it?
Take this beautiful new code and put it into a WP plug-in, or directly into your HTML code. WordPress plug-ins like RVAM- Organization Schema below will actually create code like this for you directly in your WP dashboard.
Or, Say Howdy and we’ll do it for you!
Paul Hickey is the managing director of Cabedge Design, LLC – an Atiba Company – and chief marketing geek for the Atiba Family. He specializes in strategic web design, organic and paid search, brand creation and helping clients and partners accomplish business goals. Paul loves writing and communicating, and helping drive relevant traffic to websites.
Tags: Google Analytics, Google HTML Mark-up Helper, Learn SEO Nashville, schema, Small Business SEO Bootcamp, Website Design Nashville
