We talked earlier about Google’s changes and the Structured Data Markup where the famous search engine had already started giving tickets to some unethical entrepreneurs.I did not proceed with an analysis at that time because I was waiting for a Webinar.
Yesterday I had the chance to watch Jay Neill’s webinar inside the Wealthy Affiliate University , where he decomposed all the important aspects of this subject.So today I am delivering you some very crucial information that you may wish to implement on your websites.
We Will Be Analysing The Knowledge Graph Of Google , Defining What Structured Data Markup Is And How The SERP’s Are Being Modernized With The New Enhanced Visualisation
The knowledge graph introduced by Google in 2012 and it is a mechanism that the engine is using in order to understand and present data about organisations , people , places , companies , countries in the SERPs (search engine page results).This way Google can show up relevant information about popular searches from an extended catalogue of categories.For example some of these categories are
♦ Countries and cities or areas , mountains , rivers , lakes , waterfalls.
♦ Artists , music albums , painters , designers , photographers.
♦ Actors , directors , celebrities , presidents , doctors etc etc….
♦ Companies and organisations , like Coca Cola , Nike , Amazon
When you search for a term (keyword) in google’s line then the search engine , according to your keyword search , may provide some information if it is relevant.That information will appear at the right side of the page , next to the organic search results.
Along with a brief description other data will be displayed , for example when I searched for the term “Amazon” I got results concerning this company.Customer service phone number , Stock price , location of headquarters , CEO , founder …and lastly social profiles.
When I searched for the term “Mountain Olympus” I got information about the tallest mountain in Greece and its elevation , prominence , first ascent and ascenders, range.
Where Google Is Deriving That Knowledge
♦ Basic information to offer a short description from Wikipedia
♦ Reviews from Google
♦ Images from Google Plus
♦ Social Media Profiles and accounts
♦ Related Searches
♦ Websites like yours and of your competition
With the Structured Data Markup websites can provide crucial information for the search engines in order to help them understand how specific words are relating.Some examples are address and phone numbers for local businesses , star rating system for review websites and other.
The Schema.org is a common vocabulary that explains these structured data.Google defines structured data markup as a way for annotating the content of websites.That can help the engines index it and present it faster and better.This mechanism can help your content get presented in a more enhanced way in the results and appear in the Knowledge Graph.
Tools To Help You Implement These Data To Your Website
Google is offering information about the knowledge graph here.It says “companies and entities can customize their own data in the knowledge graph using structured data markup onto their websites”.These types of data can be customized :
♦ Logo – In order to customize your logo add schema.org organization markup to your official website.Then Google is providing the according code.Markups with this code is a STRONG SIGNAL to Google’s algorithms to display that image in the knowledge graph.
♦ Company’s contact numbers and other data
♦ Links of social media profiles and accounts
Additionally Google is offering a testing tool so that you can preview if everything is OK.
The Structured Data Markup Helper
This tool is designed by Google and it is a very helpful one to guide you through all this process and tag all the necessary data for a page on your website.Unfortunately you have to repeat the process for every page or post.If your website is old and has a lot of published material I would suggest that you markup 1-2 pages per day or time.
Eventually you will finish this task.Jay Neill believes that in the future this process may be automated by Google with some new code or algorithm but you don’t want to take that risk.As soon as you complete this process the better.
For example I proceeded with the markup of a page on my website.I chose the “Articles” main category in the tool and added a URL.Then I got redirected to a new page in the google’s tool (The Tag Data).There are a lot of tags that you can fill.
♦ Name ♦ Author ♦ Date Published ♦ Image ♦ Article section ♦ Article body ♦ URL ♦ publisher ♦ Aggregate rating
When you fill the data you push the button to “Create HTML”.Next there is the option to choose “Microdata” or “JSON-LD”.I use the second one which has a shorter code.That code can be added to the top of a page or post in the “Text” version of WordPress Editor , not in the “Visual”…All the coding goes into the “Text” tab.
Furthermore you will have to re-submit your sitemap in Google’s Webmaster Tools (now Search Console).
The Structured Data Testing Tool
The next step is to test if your tagging was correct.With the testing tool of Google you import the specific URL , then “Fetch It” and hit the “Validate” button.The tool will analyse the data and will display the results.We are looking for a “All Is Good” green sign.If not everything is OK the tool will display the missing tags or incorrect data.
It is not a very simple process , but once you get familiar you will gain speed to help you finish earlier.Right now , I am in the process of learning all of these new things.I will keep this post updated with my progress along the way.
Is It Important To Implement These Techniques For Your Website?
♦ It is a chance for your website to be represented in a modern and visually appealing way.Technology marches on and so are the search engines and internet.You should follow the latest trends to stay current , updated and appealing.
♦ If you do not provide these data then your website might be pushed down in the results from it’s current position.Because other websites that are competing with yours in a specific niche might provide these data.It would be like losing rankings.
♦ Google’s first page is getting limited as Google places ads in the beginning of the left area of the results and then shows the organic results.
♦ In order to understand how crucial that information is I have prepared some screenshots.I searched for the keyword “luxury hotels in zurich” and I got those results.
♦ Your website may appear above the fold (what you see in the results page before you scroll down).Today’s online visitors seem a little lazy or in a hurry and they do not want to scroll until they find the information they are looking for.
I do not agree with that habit , as I always not only scrolling deep down but I click on the 2nd and the 3rd and the 4th and the 5th … and the 20th page to get what I am looking for , but it is the way the vast majority of visitors follow.You want to be able to reach these visitors.
♦ With this method you could outrank your competition and reach higher levels of online traffic for your website through the modern SERPs.
♦ Helps you build your own brand name.Your logo and some of the details of your company can be indentified easier form people.Now you are not just a website , you are THE Website with a specific logo and contact details.Moreover the appearance of your main social media accounts can add to your authority and online visitors will tend to trust easier companies and websites with these data compared to those that do not offer such information.
A Case Study By Jay Neill
Jay proceeded with a case study in order to understand if this process had any value for his website.He structured a specific page of his website , he re-submitted the sitemap in Google’s Webmasters and shared the article with some of his network’s friends and partners.In the upcoming days he watched inside the Webmasters tool that he got rankings for some “new keywords” on this article , and those keywords were not in place before this process.
Although his rankings for the new keywords were not so fabulous , it was very early though , only a 4 days period , these keywords alone is a very good sign that Google is looking for that information.No one can guarantee that you will be rewarded but by providing these data you push the chances in getting found and ranked higher.Google already rewarded the article with new keywords and in the coming days he is predicting to get better rankings.
Final Opinion – Conclusion
It is always important to stay updated and grab every opportunity in your way to improve your website’s appearance.This is how serious entrepreneurs act and this is a very important factor for the search engines to understand your data better and eventually you might be rewarded for these efforts and get some good rankings.
If you do not proceed now you may find yourself struggling at a later time.I would strongly suggest that you tag your websites pages and posts , your logo , your social media accounts and other crucial details.I am already working in that direction and as I said earlier I will keep you updated with my progress.
Everything moves on so fast , internet is changing rapidly with new technologies introduced quite often.We have to take the time to improve our websites.The final reward will come.
Thank you for your time , I would like to ask for your feedback and thoughts in my comment section , as always.Have you any experience with the Knowledge graph or the structured data markup process?…If not are you willing to dedicate some time to implement these data for your website?
Your Online Partner
SEO for WordPress Sites
Hi Tasos, you’ve provided comprehensive and very detailed information on Google’s knowledge graph. I think anyone who wants to learn about this matter needs to look no further but read this post.
However, speaking from my own experience, things could be simpler. I have designed a website for a friend’s clinic which naturally has a logo, contact number and address. Since I knew nothing about the Knowledge Graph, I did not implement any technique you recommended (and never resubmit the sitemap) but all those logo, map, address and phone number are shown on the right side of the website, automatically.
I’m a follower of the faith that is called “less is more”. That means when I can do less I prefer not to do more ;). Maybe Google actually will do everything for us, so we don’t really have to worry about knowledge graph. Or maybe I am wrong?
Hello Fisher , I wish that you are right and that we do not have to get involved with this new coding system , because it is not an easy task and additionally it is very time consuming.But you are saying that the details for the website you designed appear on the right side of the website.Did you mean “on the right side of Google’s search results”?..
Just 3 weeks ago I have been participating in a discussion inside a marketing forum.There was a marketer who was responsible for a company’s campaigns.This Local Company has many local stores throughout the USA.So the marketer had to provide details for all the stores , to give different phone numbers , different operating hours and all of those details.However , Google had messed with the details and the results showing up online were in a lot of cases wrong.The marketer contacted Google , talked with other partners and eventually he decided to re-code from the beginning all the structured data in order to solve the problem.
I am also fan of “less is more” but only whenever this is possible.You can make your tests and watch what will happen in the SERPs of Google.However , my website’s details are not showing up when I search in Google for my website’s name.I know a lot of marketers that already started evaluating this process and there was a video of Matt Cutts from Google explaining that we should implement the structure of these data.I have embedded this video on my previous post about this subject.
I wanna thank you for your visit and for stating your experience here.Furthermore I wanna wish you good luck with your future marketing efforts.