Rich Snippets & Schema Markup for Wordpress

About Jake Aull •  Jake Aull, Principal of Zen Fires Digital Marketing since 2010, has 22 years

marketing, branding and digital experience. He takes a strategic digital marketing and usability approach to web analysis and search marketing. He has a Masters of Science degree in Marketing from Georgia State University where he did a thesis research project on social media marketing.

•  Jake has written WordPress SEO Success for Pearson Prentice-Hall - their first book of its kind (http://bit.ly/1fxIQzu). He has also been GSU’s first Social Media Marketing and SEO course writer and instructor since 2010, directing students to create new social channels driving measurable traffic to major brands. He was a reviewer of, and wrote the instructor’s manual for, Pearson-Prentice Hall’s first social media marketing text book.

•  •  He has been Chairs of the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association Social Media

special interest group and Search Marketing SIG, directing educational sell-out events. And co-founder of The Change Challenge, monthly digital marketing workshops for non-profits. Jake also holds a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from Savannah College of Art and Design and is currently the president of the Atlanta Alumni Chapter where he builds and promotes educational and networking events.

•  •  He was a speaker at the 2014 WordCamp Atlanta, 2015 Digital Marketing for

Business Conference Raleigh, among other search marketing and social media speaking engagements.


Topic Description Overview •  What are rich snippets? •  SERP growth beyond past simple text listings & ancient

‘GooglePlaces’ (GoogleMaps) results

•  Rich Content Traditional Factors •  What’s the Value of Rich Snippets? •  Where to see this on the SERP •  What does schema.org have to do with it? •  Guidelines & instructions on markup •  How/where to do schematic markup in code •  Rich snippets plugins

•  MY FOREWARNINGS •  MY TESTS & FAVES •  WPSUPERSTARS.NET’s “6 BEST RICH SNIPPETS SCHEMA PLUGINS FOR WORDPRESS”

•  Choose your category (schema.org has good reference for categories) •  After your schematic markup (with code, plugin - whichever), Google has a testing

tool: Google “Structured Data Testing Tool.”


What are rich snippets? • SERP growth beyond past simple text listings & ancient


•  synonyms: •  schema.org •  schema markup •  rich content •  microdata •  structured data


Rich Content Traditional Elements: • GoogleMyBusiness/GoogleMaps/GoogleReviews • Sitelinks • YouTube videos • Effects on sitelinks • Effects on ratings & reviews in SERP •  Images •  The transformation from the old text listings in Google to

the richer display of varied content seen in the SERP today


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What’s the Value of Rich Snippets? • Modern approach to SEO gets away from keyword

ranking results, • & into coverage, qualitative results, social media results

such as “Follows” or “Likes” or “Shares.” • & growth in (quality) traffic. • Emphasizing more real estate on the SERP; • Heatmaps show eyes gravitate toward ‘dazzle/pizzaz’ on

the SERP (not just 3-pack or text listings) •  This is what rich snippets give you; & can achieve a 30%

increase in CTR! •  (source: http://searchengineland.com/how-to-get-a-30-increase-in-

ctr-with-structured-markup-105830)


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The desktop SERP has been said to have migrated from the “golden triangle,” to the “F” – & these days heatmaps are all over the place – a problem for search predictability. Isn’t this because rich content listings, wherever their place on the SERP, are grabbing attention? What’s more: Isn’t Google’s design to keep you interested in the entire SERP? (Including the ads at bottom?)

Source: Machdigital.com

Where to see this on the SERP: • Google KnowledgeGraph (sidebar)

• Google Answer Box

•  Third-party or non-Google site listings don’t count

(e.g., ratings on Yelp or Facebook or Wikipedia results)


Answer Box • 


•  LACK OF RICH SNIPPETS IN BRANDNAME RESULTS FOR WEBSITE:

•  Brand name Google search •  GoogleMyBusiness results in KnowledgeGraph •  Yelp results with ratings rich snippets •  Website brand name results don’t show rich snippets


Where to see this on the SERP: • What does schema.org have to do with it?

•  Guidelines & instructions on markup •  Category assignments

• How/where to do schematic markup in code •  Doing the hand coding in the WP should work better than the

plugins


Rich snippets plugins: • MY FOREWARNINGS:

•  Note the free versions don’t deliver much

•  Many of the plugins only offer a couple of the categories (or only achieve results for a couple of the categories)

•  Beware of plugins that want to “show themselves” (&/or ads) on your web pages


Rich snippets plugins: • MY TESTS & FAVES:

•  All in One schema.org/rich snippets plugin (no it’s not All in One SEO; limited categories; doesn’t work well)

•  All in One SEO’s rich snippets settings (didn’t see solid results)

•  Yoast Premium (limited categories; don’t work well)

•  WP Rich Snippets worked best for us


Rich snippets plugins: • WPSUPERSTARS.NET’s “6 BEST RICH SNIPPETS

SCHEMA PLUGINS FOR WORDPRESS:” 1.  WP Review Pro 2.  WP Product Review 3.  All in One Schema.org Rich Snippets 4.  Rich Snippets Wordpress Plugin 5.  Rich Reviews 6.  Schema App Structured Data 7.  (source: http://www.wpsuperstars.net/rich-snippets-schema-

plugins-for-wordpress/)


Choose your category (schema.org has good reference for categories) •  The death of rel = author & GoogleAuthor & Google+ •  Product – Information about a product, including price, availability,

and review ratings. •  Recipe – Recipes that can be displayed in web searches and Recipe

View. •  Review – A review of an item such as a restaurant, movie, or store. •  Event – An organized event, such as musical concerts or art festivals,

that people may attend at a particular time and place. •  SoftwareApplication – Information about a software app, including its

URL, review ratings, and price. •  Video – An online video, including a description and thumbnail. •  News article – A news article, including headline, images, and

publisher info (note ties to old “GoogleAuthor” strategies & coding). •  Science datasets


“News” category rich snippets results

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Test after publishing

• After your schematic markup (with code, plugin - whichever), Google has a testing tool: Google “Structured Data Testing Tool.” •  https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool •  Be aware of rich results you would have gotten anyway; i.e.,

sitelinks, GoogleMyBusiness/GoogleMaps/GoogleReviews (in other words watch for results in the category you tried for).

•  & of course you can search Google Incognito for the brand name (3rd-party & non-Google listings don’t count).

•  Don’t do anything black-hat (attempt to do schematic markup of invisible content, or pick categories irrelevant to the page); you can be penalized by Google.

•  Example: WooCommerce platform for a product catalog site with everything except prices = “no sale.”


•  LACK OF RICH SNIPPETS IN BRANDNAME RESULTS FOR WEBSITE:

•  Brand name Google search •  GoogleMyBusiness results in KnowledgeGraph •  Yelp results with ratings rich snippets •  Website brand name results don’t show rich snippets


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Source:SearchEngineWatch.com

Topic Description Overview •  What are rich snippets? •  SERP growth beyond past simple text listings & ancient


•  Rich Content Traditional Factors •  What’s the Value of Rich Snippets? •  Where to see this on the SERP •  What does schema.org have to do with it? •  Guidelines & instructions on markup •  How/where to do schematic markup in code •  Rich snippets plugins

•  MY FOREWARNINGS •  MY TESTS & FAVES •  WPSUPERSTARS.NET’s “6 BEST RICH SNIPPETS SCHEMA PLUGINS FOR WORDPRESS”

•  Choose your category (schema.org has good reference for categories) •  After your schematic markup (with code, plugin - whichever), Google has a testing

tool: Google “Structured Data Testing Tool.”


Rich Snippets & Schema Markup for Wordpress

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