Do I Need Schema.org?
When you are optimizing your WordPress blog content for SEO purposes, it is important to understand the different plugins that you will need in order to post product reviews to your site. One question that is sometimes asked is whether it is necessary to use the plugin Schema.org or if a third party plugin would do. The answer lies in the purpose of the plugin and who will be using it to post.
Although many Search Engine Optimizers find it hard to figure out how to use Schema.org, if you want to post reviews and other information to your own WordPress blog then it is important to learn how to do so in order to avoid having to hand code it all. Because Schema.org is now Google’s structured data standard, it makes sense that sites that use this plugin have a definite advantage in the search rankings over those who use (or misuse) other plugins or hand codes.
Google uses Schema markup to to create rich snippets of information that show up in searches. For example, this snippet:
is from a site that uses Schema.org to improve its ranking.
Schema.org can be used to get other listings more attention in the search rankings as well. There are schema specifically for events, jobs and even the news that help place relevant and timely search data about these subjects where they can be seen during the times that people are most interested in them. While using Schema.org might not necessarily mean a higher ranking for an item in the search, the rich snippet created will have the information needed to attract more clicks because the eye is more attracted to listings that look different from the others that area available. Images, asterisks and stars all attract attention in a search that typically returns plain blue lines of results.
In order to achieve the results that are shown for these snippets, Schema.org allows website creators to provide information that includes their business name and type, where they are located, product information like price range and brand, and more information to tell potential customers exactly what to expect when they click on the search result. This helps because a business’ s local ranking because without being able to input location data, a local business’s listing might get buried under search results for businesses that are less relevant to their local customer base.
Of course, a web designer does still have the option of using a third party plugin to input data. This might be necessary for the purpose of allowing others to post information to a site that still needs to rank in the search engine results. You can put your information into these other plugins and get the right codes to put on your page in order to create the snippets of text that you need for search results. However, not all of these plugins will allow you to plug in the same information or as much information as Schema.org. There may also be issues if you choose to mix more than one plugin on a page that results in codes that become jumbled or don’t make sense.
Schema.org is constantly making improvements to its plugin that make it easier to use and more important than ever in getting your site noticed by potential customers and readers. Most recently, it added several features including the ability to indicate whether your business has dynamic locations and introduced GeoCircle, which means you can let readers know how far your service is available using a certain postcode as a point of reference. The vocabulary for Schema is constantly growing to include descriptions of services relevant to different industries. The community is allowed to participate in Schema’s growth, which means that as its use expands, its vocabulary will expand to encompass the needs of industries as varied as real estate, finance and medicine.
There are other plugins out there that can help you with SEO, and Google does not discriminate against other data structures when it comes to rankings. However, if you want to maintain a high click through rate for your site (which Google does use for rankings), then it is important to make your listings stand out. The rich snippets created by Schema.org markups can do just that for your site and make it stand out among the competition.
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