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The relationship between search engines and websites is constantly changing due to new technologies that allow them to communicate better. Back in the ‘early’ days of the internet, this relationship was pretty simple and straightforward. A website had content in it’s pages, Google read the content, the page title, the domain, and determined what the website was about. The website told Google what it was about. If you had a website about Los Angeles Insurance, by simply writing that phrase within content, you were informing Google the page is about Insurance in Los Angeles. With the introduction of spam, and abuse by webmasters trying to manipulate search engine results, Google’s algorithm got smarter, making the communication between them and websites more complicated. Hundreds of factors, in addition to on-page content, now play a vital role in successful SEO. However, this is where the semantic web can play a role.
Microformatting, a semantic markup used within the HTML web language, is an accepted form of communicating certain aspects of your business or website to search engines. In mid 2011, Google, Yahoo, and Bing, the top three major search engines, agreed on using schema.org, a certain kind of HTML markup, as a form of better retrieving information about business websites, such as physical location, address, production information, and customer reviews. In essence, Search Engines want businesses to input their information using this special code, so that they have a better idea about the specifics. For Local SEO, this is fantastic, and the majority of websites out there, have no idea this exists.
For example, if you were to search in Google for Auto Transport, you’ll notice that uShip.com has an additional line under their title with information about their star ratings. By using the schema.org Aggregate Reviews mark up on their website, they’re able to tell Google specific information about their customer reviews, which is being displayed on the Google search result page. The fact that these stars appear for uShip most certainly results in an increase in click-through-rate. Those yellow stars simply pop out on a text-filled search result page. Reviews are only one example of many tidbits of information Google uses to gather more information about a site.
Whether you sell products online, are a locally-based business, have customer reviews you’d like to feature, or are promoting an event or object, schema.org should definitely be on your list of things to implement soon.
