Structured Data refers to the information added to a website’s HTML to help search engines better understand the content on the page. This data is often written in a standardized format like JSON-LD, Microdata, or RDFa, which makes it easier for search engines to parse and index the information.
By implementing structured data, websites can increase their chances of being featured in rich snippets, knowledge panels, and other advanced search features, which can improve their visibility and click-through rates.
JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) is the most recommended format for structured data. Here’s an example of structured data using JSON-LD for a simple article:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Understanding Structured Data",
"image": "https://example.com/article-image.jpg",
"author": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "John Doe"
},
"publisher": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Example Website",
"logo": {
"@type": "ImageObject",
"url": "https://example.com/logo.jpg"
}
},
"datePublished": "2023-05-01",
"dateModified": "2023-05-02"
}
</script>In this example, the structured data provides information about the article, its author, and the publisher. The “@context” and “@type” properties indicate that the schema.org vocabulary is being used.
To learn more about structured data and the various schema types you can implement, visit the Schema.org website (https://schema.org/). For a comprehensive guide on how to add structured data to your website, refer to Google’s Structured Data guide (https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/intro-structured-data).
Additionally, to test and validate your structured data, you can use Google’s Rich Results Test (https://search.google.com/test/rich-results).