Improve SEO with Semantic Markup

Google has made serious strides this year when it comes to learning as much as they can about websites and providing more relevant results to users.
Their latest Hummingbird update is a prime example of how Google is making an effort to better understand user intent by looking beyond just the keywords on a page when delivering search results.
However, Google can’t do this on their own. They need the help of website owners to provide them with as much information as possible.
There is a way to use the Hummingbird update to your advantage by marking up your site in a way that gives Google detailed information beyond just the on-page content.
With semantic markup you can increase the relevancy of your site and help Google deliver your site’s content to more targeted users.

What Is Semantic Markup

In the SEO world, semantic markup is often referred to as Schema markup, or structured data markup.
You may be surprised to learn it’s not new either, but with the Hummingbird update it’s more worthy of your attention than ever.
Semantic markup helps you organize data on your site in a way that allows it to be easily understood by search engines.
It was launched in 2011 as a joint effort by Google, Bing and Yahoo to develop a universal set of structured data.

What Semantic Markup Can Do For Your Site

I would love to tell you that semantic markup gives you immediate results in search rankings, but it’s impossible to predict anything will have that kind of effect.
One thing that it will almost assuredly do is to improve search traffic and conversions, even if you don’t rank number one for your desired search term.
Semantic markup will improve search traffic by drastically improving the user experience of your website. You have probably seen semantic markup in action without even knowing it, and chances are you click on the search results with structured data more often than not.
Let me give you an example.

What Semantic Markup Looks Like In Action

Since we’re in the holiday season, Christmas is on my mind a lot lately. One thing I’ve always wanted to learn how to make for Christmas dinner is candied yams with marshmallows.
Let’s see what happens when I Google: “candied yams with marshmallows recipe.”
Here is the first result:

Pretty boring right? Doesn’t give me a whole lot of info or incentive to click on it.
Let’s look a little further down the results:

Yes, that’s more like it! In that little snippet I get a picture, a star rating, the time it takes to complete the recipe and how many calories are in it.
That’s the power of semantic markup. It wasn’t the first result, not even the second or third either.
It showed up as the fifth result! However, it provides a lot more of the information I’m looking for compared to anything else on the first page.
Semantic markup is incredibly versatile and can be used to markup almost anything on your site, no matter what niche you’re in.

How To Use Semantic Markup

Don’t worry if you feel intimidated by the idea of semantic markup.
I’m far from being a web developer so I get easily intimidated by the idea of any kind of coding, but I’ve used semantic markup on many client sites with great success. If I can do it, so can you!
Here are some great resources to help you learn more about how to do it. These are the exact resources I used when learning how to do it. These resources come directly from Google, and who better to explain it than them:

• Structured Data Markup Helper: This tool helps you determine what kind of semantic markup needs to be added to a page. Simply select a data type and enter the corresponding URL for the page you would like to markup.
• Structured Data Testing Tool: This tool allows you to test your semantic markup after it has been implemented. Simple enter a URL and immediately find out if the code has been entered correctly, or what you may need to do to fix it.

Additionally, Schema.org has plenty of information to help you learn more about semantic markup.
For WordPress site owners there’s a way to make this even easier. If you’re familiar with the All In One SEO plugin, you’ll be happy to know they’ve also developed an All In One Schema.org plugin that you can download here. All you have to do is fill in the appropriate fields and the plugin does all the coding for you.

Semantic Markup And Hummingbird Is A Perfect Match

With the Hummingbird update, we know that the old format of displaying search results is on its way out. Google has advanced beyond providing search results as a list of sites according to how well they match the terms entered in the search box.
Google now takes into account a variety of factors like intent, sentiment, freshness, personalization, localization, and many more. Semantic markup helps Google provide more relevant results to users based on the overall meaning behind their search.
Through using semantic markup you can help Google and other search engines understand how the content on your site is a solution, or a complete answer, to what the user is looking for.

Finishing Up

My hope after reading this post is that you will strongly consider adopting semantic markup as part of your SEO strategy for 2014, if you’re not doing so already.
I would be happy to help if you need more information or clarification on anything related to semantic markup. Please let me know in the comments section if you have any questions and I will do my best to respond to everyone.