The Schema markup term corresponds to a code used by search engines to understand the content of different websites and display them better in search results.
An example of this is when you see content in the form of rich snippets. Additionally, this Schema markup can boost your brand’s SEO strategy in a number of ways, which is why in this article we will discuss its importance, how you can plan, implement and monitor it.
Importance of Schema Markup
This Schema markup is concerned with boosting rich snippets that typically have higher click-through rates than regular search results, which can translate into increased website traffic and serve as a Google ranking factor by improving user engagement and search visibility.
However, this is not its main function, as Schema markup is designed to help search engines better understand the content of web pages.
It is so important that one of the primary sources of data managed by Google’s Knowledge Graph, a knowledge base of entities and the relationships between them, is Schema markup, and the schema.org community behind the markup was created just one year before the appearance of Google’s knowledge base.
All edges connecting the nodes above represent actual properties of the Schema markup.
Thanks to Schema markup, Google is able to understand information much better, making it easier to read than plain text, connecting dots about you, your company, products and content, benefiting everyone involved because users get more relevant search results and website owners get rich snippets and can become an entity in the Knowledge Graph which could provide you with great branding opportunities in the SERPs .
By using Schema markup you can get a Knowledge Panel when people search for your brand or your brand could appear as a relevant solution for some queries that don’t have a brand name.
Furthermore, if that weren’t enough, Schema markup is a fundamental part of the structured data that actually makes the web and semantic search possible, as well as allowing URLs to convey the real meaning of their content to machines such as Googlebot.
How to set up Schema markup?
If you’re already well into SEO, your pages and content are candidates for rich results, and you have a strong brand presence that can help establish your entity in the Knowledge Graph, then you may want to consider Schema markup. Just follow the steps below to learn how to get started with your Schema markup project.
schema.org
This is your starting point, even though it can be confusing and overwhelming at first, so we’ll tell you how it works so you can move forward easily.
The first thing you need to know is that Schema is based on a two-level hierarchical system, where the top level has types and each of these has a set of defined properties.
These types are intended to categorize the block of content you are marking up, and the properties of the content describe the content.
Based on this you must take into account two important points in the code, the first is that you can declare several types at the same time, and that many properties can be used for multiple types, so several things are connected.
Go to the schema.org website .
Choose the markup that has the most impact
As mentioned, rich snippets markup has the biggest impact in the shortest amount of time, but this only happens if the content is already ranking on the first page. Additionally, you should know that only a few types of Schemas and properties can really help you earn rich snippets.
For this purpose, Google is responsible for listing them and providing the necessary documentation, although it is possible that you are not actually looking for any of them.
Common rich snippet content types include: how-to markup, product type markup, review markup, software markup, and FAQ markup.
On the other hand, if you are interested in long-term branding for your website, then you should focus on being a Knowledge Graph entity.
Based on this, you have to give an organizational approach to the Schema, this is a bit long, but you should still pay attention to two things: one is the most important property that helps build connections in the Knowledge Graph, which is the “sameAs” and refers to URLs that contain the same entity.
It is advisable to link social and business profiles, since Google obtains information from Wikipedia, Wikidata, as well as from the Knowledge Graph of LinkedIn and Crunchbase, and additionally, if the company is public, it is a good idea to include links that connect to profiles on Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, and other similar prominent websites.
The second thing is to make sure that you have consistent and unified information about your entity on the web. This way, you will avoid Google storing incorrect information about your entity, which would make it difficult to include it in the Knowledge Graph.
Implementing Schema Markup
Because of the amount of code involved in Schema markup, many SEO Experts find it daunting, however, it’s really nothing to be afraid of as it’s relatively easy to understand once you get the basics down.
For this we are going to analyze how to implement Schema markup on your website:
Generates the markup
You can write the markup in three ways, one is on your own, one is by using WordPress plugins, or you can also turn to the countless markup generators, but keep in mind that they only cover basic markup, if you want to go beyond that you will have to tweak the code yourself.
The format that Google recommends for codes is JSON-LD, this is easier to understand and implement.
However, it is often found in another format called Microdata, which is often used by CMS and their plugins.
Another format that is acceptable is RDFa as an extension of HTML5.
Test your code first
Before you put your code to work, you should always test it, unless you’re using a CMS or plugin where you interact with a user interface. To help you with this, Google has developed two testing tools that are easy to use.
There is one that allows testing data in a structured and general way, it is currently usable, but it is expected to be obsolete in the future.
The best and most standard is the testing tool that returns rich results, leaving out much of the schema.org vocabulary, this means that when testing a code snippet or a page without markup that triggers rich snippets, it will not show you the Schema Tree (tree diagram) which the first tool does.
Additionally, this tool also does not show errors if Schema types or properties are being misused.
For all the reasons mentioned above, it is more advisable that you verify your code using both tools if it is within your possibilities.
Deploy the code to your website
As stated above, in these steps we are basing ourselves on the recommended schema format, which is JSON-LD, but it is important to note that this step 3 will depend on your website and your tagging system.
Here we are going to review three methods of implementing the code on your website:
Direct to HTML
Since we are being guided by the JSON-LD schema, you should know that it is formatted as a script that is placed in the <head> or <body> of your HTML, if this doesn’t sound familiar to you, then it means that you are not the webmaster, therefore, you will have to talk to your developers and agree on how to assign this task to them, which may possibly include assigning the URLs or, failing that, their categories to different Schemas, highlighting the static and dynamic values, here you should think about the relationship between the brand and the price for the product Schema.
Using Google Tag Manager
Recently, Google added GTM implementation as one of the officially supported options, which puts an end to the archaic thinking that it was not a good option to implement Schema markup via GTM because Googlebot needed to render JavaScript in order to access it.
This is particularly useful for marketers who are more comfortable with GTM, and is also a good option for companies that spend time implementing SEO changes through their development team.
If you already use GTM to manage your marketing databases, this is the recommended method for you, you will simply need to paste the created Schema as a custom HTML tag and configure the trigger based on a page view to one or more specific pages.
Using a CMS and plugins
If you are a beginner, this is the most user-friendly and common option that is usually applied, however, because it has different CMS and plugins, it can also be considered the most confusing to implement Schema markup. Now, it is important to remember that no CMS or plugin will do all the work for you, if you want more advanced Schema markup, you will actually have to combine the available options, which implies adjusting your themes and templates, or injecting the code into a page directly or through GTM.
How to implement some types of Schemas using the most popular WordPress SEO plugins?
You should be careful, because you can only use one SEO plugin like Yoast, RankMath or The SEO Framework, because if you use two or more it could cause you problems. If what happens is that the plugin does not adapt to all the needs of your Schema, then you can use a dedicated Schema plugin in conjunction with these ones we show below:
Organizational Chart with Yoast
You must go to the Search Appearance settings in the General tab, and then complete the data requested in the information tab, then in the next social configuration tab you must provide links to your social and company profiles, once this is done, your organization will appear as the publisher of your articles or as another property depending on the type of page.
Product Schema with Rank Math
This option offers you a large number of Schemas with all known SEO plugins, allowing you to configure basic Schema markup such as Organization and Person within the Plugin configuration, and you can also add Schema to specific pages.
To do this, simply go to a page or post, click on the plugin button, choose the Schema type and fill in the information.
VideoObject Schema with Schema and Structured Data for WP and AMP
It’s a specific Schema plugin, works for some Schema types, and allows you to automatically fetch data from your page by filling in some boxes. It even has an option to paste a custom JSON-LD Schema into the page.
How to monitor Schema markup?
If you go to Google Search Console, it will show you all the types of data markup detected in the “Improvements” tab. You need to click on a specific Schema type and you will be able to see the report.
If you performed the markup validation step prior to implementation you should not have any issues, however, there are properties required by some Schema types that if missing can cause errors, which are insignificant so it is not much to worry about, just prioritize the corrections.
As you can see, Schema markup is not as terrible as it is made out to be; in general, almost all websites allow you to mark up their content quickly and easily.
Additionally, Schema data markup on your page helps both SERPs with rich snippets, as well as making sure your site is actually linked.
As a result, your brand will be included in the Knowledge Graph and this will bring you many other benefits that are positive for your business.
Saad Raza is an SEO specialist with 7+ years of experience in driving organic growth and improving search rankings. Skilled in data-driven strategies, keyword research, content optimization, and technical SEO, he helps businesses boost online visibility and achieve sustainable results. Passionate about staying ahead of industry trends, Saad delivers measurable success for his clients.
