Supurna Sinha

Mar 01, 2023

Structured Data: Inside advice from Gary Illyes at Google

This year, data is Google's new big thing. The most crucial component of your website's content is structured data. Google said at the beginning of this year that they are taking data more seriously. Google successfully updates its search algorithm from time to time.

Structured Data

Structured data is information that has been sorted and created with a predetermined schema in mind. It gives you a set of guidelines to arrange your material in a way that search engines will find useful.

The properties listed by Schema.org are contained in that collection of patterns. Every sort of material that you plan to arrange has its specific schema. The content could be plain text from you, an article, a video, a post, a page, a product, or your website.

Google Structured Data

Three different languages can be understood by computer programs, in this case, Google.

These three dialects/methods are

Microdata: It's a way to structure the elements by providing each one with more information.

Microformats: Using characteristics that give you more metadata. You may give your HTML/XHTML markup elements semantic meaning.

RDFa: This gives your structure a set of attribute-level extensions.

Google is quite appreciative. And knowledgeable about the pattern of attributes provided by Schema.org. The most widely used structured data standard is Schema.org (Search Engine). Additionally, Schema.org will be the home of structured data in the future.

The importance of structured data for your websites

Because Google ranks websites based on their structure data, they use it to display rich snippets of information in search results and Google advertisements. Structure data is crucial for your websites ( where it needs to be).

According to John Mueller, if you include a header with the description - Google will emphasize it as well.

Adding structured data to your websites has more advantages, including:

• Content comprehension

• Understanding the content for Google is now useful.

• Highlighting your Data

• Google will emphasize and rank your site higher in search results.

• Potential for Higher CTR

Your material is very structured and arranged. So, it is best to comprehend the main description of any link that consumers are looking for on search engines. Useful for developers and programmers

If your data is organized, the code will be simple to understand. Now that the code is neatly organized and structured, any other developer may grasp it.

Add personalization for PPC searches

It will truly assist you in tailoring PPC search adverts.

Automated advertising

Your structured data's keywords will assist you in the generation of appropriate adverts for your website. For instance, you can add keywords to your ad settings. As a result, it will show you the adverts that are relevant to your keywords.

With the link that is connected to that advertisement. It will be helpful for both you and the other party. Google will ultimately rate your keywords rather than the search terms. You must examine your code for errors using the Live Google Structured Data Testing Tool. It helps you to identify the actual errors and warnings.

What Has Changed in 2017 for Structured Data?

In a pertinent conversation about ranking and search quality, Gary Illyes was quoted. They were increasingly focused on machine learning in 2017. They also mentioned AMP Pages and structured data as further points.

What is AMP about?

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) will be extremely popular in 2019. It is a method for accelerating and automating mobile web pages. Your site's performance will improve, and it will rank.

Log into your Google Webmaster Console and select the AMP option to enable it for your website. You do this by including the files in your code. You may learn how to use it in HTML, JavaScript, or AMP CDN by clicking the provided link.

According to recent AMP developments, your AMP Pages will no longer have structured data to function. It will no longer be the barrier that would raise its search ranking if your website's structured data is disorganized. But you included AMP in your code.

Data Structures and Rankings

Impact of structured data on rankings?

All that the schema markup does is make it easier for Google crawlers to understand the pages. It has no direct impact on rankings. Structured data can cause traffic to increase without having any effect on the searches the page ranks for. Structured data can activate some search elements that are often seen at the very top of the SERP. These include featured snippets, a carousel, an instant response, and so on. The material from the initial organic page result may wind up in a higher position as a result of rich results. Further allowing consumers to see it sooner. You may select a result from the search result page if you notice that there are several recipes listed there. That is how it can assist you in advancing your career," says Gary Illyes.

Can schema markup have a detrimental impact on click-through rates and traffic volume?

Users may be discouraged from visiting the website itself if all the information is displayed inside the rich results. Get inventive. Change how the content is displayed inside the search features to fix this problem. Users may click and visit the page if certain structured data content is omitted. The key to success, in this case, is experimentation. By taking things slowly, try using schema markup on one page and track how it performs.

How does the addition of structured data lengthen user engagement?

Because Google can display the most pertinent pages in response to user queries, schema markup indicators assist draw in more niche users. This can assist websites in getting more focused traffic. And people who will not potentially leave the page. This helps to know what can help them boost their time on the page without changing any of the content.

We understood the sites better. And could show those pages in a certain way that helped represent what they were looking for. So people seeking specific recipes received better results, Gary Illyes.

Which feature had a greater impact—AMP or structured data—in the Rakuten case?

While AMP aims to swiftly provide the information to the user, schema markup helps Google better understand the content of the page. And that, in turn, helps drive more relevant traffic.

When Rakuten added structured data to the recipe pages, they were already utilizing AMP. Schema markups are more likely to influence niche websites like Rakuten Recipe.

Since they bring in more targeted consumers, starting with AMP for new sites would be a better tactic. It is because consumers can rapidly get the information they need before being treated to popups.

Structured Data: A Basic Guide from Google

Has Google's ability to index the site's content been affected by structured data?

Structured data aids indexing without interfering with Google's ability to determine the topic of the page. When a page has a certain entity and is annotated with structured data, Google can triangulate this data. And then, it validates the content of the page and gains a deeper understanding of the page's topic.

Does structured data impact indexing depth or crawling frequency?

The frequency of crawling is in no way affected by the schema markup since it is used for indexing and launching search functionality.

Addressing Structured Data Errors

Is there a Google penalty if structured data is incorrect?

Any misuse or error in the use of structured data does not result in a Google penalty or have an impact on the results. If the Google bot discovers an issue in the page's schema markup, it will not use it. The sole effect will be a reduction in all targeted traffic and rich outcomes. 

What happens if the page's structured data is removed?

Removing the schema markup won't harm the site in any way. All that will happen is that the page will stop appearing in search results. The only suggestion is to perform a quick clean rollback. Because page edit mode is enabled, keep it tidy by making one change at a time as if structured data were an experiment. This will ensure that conclusions about what influences traffic and presence in search results are true.

Voice Search Results from Structured Data

Will Google use any structured data types for voice search, and if so, which ones?

There is no need to establish more voice-search-specific schema markups. The voice-activated assistants already use the existing types of structured data. With voice search, Google still provides the most pertinent search results. Yet, entire sentences are used in place of keywords.

Gary Illyes said, I firmly believe that you are already optimized for voice search if you are following our webmaster standards. And paying attention to genuinely writing for your users instead of machines. 

Google's Future Structured Data Plans

Structured data will be crucial shortly to enhance the functionality of search engines. It also enhances the relevance of the content people see. The way things are going, search engines will be able to interpret the content of the pages. This can be done without the need for structured data. Although, it won't happen in a year or two. But the direction is obvious as language comprehension advances. We might eventually adopt the position that structured data does not matter as we can interpret the pages nonetheless. 

To sum up

Even though hundreds of billions of pages and 40–50% of domains now use structured data. The schema markup is frequently misunderstood.Gary Illyes has clarified some of the most asked questions about schema markup:Schema markup does not directly affect search engine results pages. The increase in targeted users and enhanced visibility from rich results may result in greater traffic.Without changing the content, the page's session duration increases as a result of structured data. And then, Google will direct more relevant traffic to the page.Site owners can prevent potential CTR declines by being inventive with the way material is presented in the search tools.Schema markups are being used by voice-activated assistants to launch voice search results.