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The Emergence of Web 3.0 Leveraging Structured Data

in a New World of SEO & Search

@PersuasiveData

Aaron AbbottSEO and Analytics ManagerProminent Placement@PersuasiveData@ProminentPlcmnt

Wyn PartingtonVP of MarketingNexTraq@WPinAtlanta

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Web 3.0 — The Semantic Web

@PersuasiveData

This is the era of the Internet where programmed computer applications can understand what content is, both contextually & subjectively; and what it does for the person searching, accessing, or sharing this content.

The semantic meaning, the purpose/intent behind a piece of content can be indexed and served.

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The Need for Hummingbird

@PersuasiveData

Google changed their engine’s transmission…allowing the right content to rank higher!

Rolled out at the same time as 100% (not provided).

Let’s call this the algorithm update that focuses on processing the human language (synonyms).

Leverages the increasing voice-based and image-based searches on mobile devices.

Getting out of the Caffeine sandbox and away from content that was optimized for single keywords.

Looking for the content that contained these longer search phrases and solves the need of the inferred search intent.

Not necessarily dependent on Structured Data; but everything helps!

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Structured Data in Human Terms

@PersuasiveData

Structured data is the unified foundation that gives website owners and content developers the ability to tell computers (search engines, social networks, mobile applications, and future technologies not yet conceived)…

What the content is, in relation to its physical purpose. A video is a video that can be watched.

What the content means to the end user. I need to watch a video to learn something.

The labeling properties used with Structured Data allow search engines to essentially distribute parts of the whole to the end user — a mechanism for their evolution into a knowledge based experience that responds to your anticipated needs, determined by learned behaviors.

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Unstructured Data: The Internet’s Dirty Laundry

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Laundry is not just rinse and wash. It’s also fold and put away.

Don’t just build your site and your content. Fold it and put it away for the Web.

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What are Rich Snippets?

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An invaluable & free improvement to your search results, just for using Structured Data.

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Google’s Knowledge Graph & Bing’s Snapshot

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Giving you all the information you need, so you don’t have to keep looking…

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Freebase & Knowledge Graph (…like Bing’s Satori)

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“Allows us to move from an information engine, into a knowledge engine…” Johanna Wright, Knowledge Graph’s Product Management Director

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Update Your Freebase Entities

@PersuasiveData

It’s simple to sign up; just use your Google Account. This pulls from all over the Web, then you get to refine most of it...

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#SESATL10

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Structured Data Connects the Big Data Dots…

@PersuasiveData

Website Owners & Digital Marketing Solutions

Health, Sciences, Research & Government

Future Technologies, Products, Applications & Services

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The Fat Boys Conundrum — Think ‘Google now’

@PersuasiveData

“Did you mean BBQ or Music?”

“When I have Structured Data, I can predict your anticipated need and find you the solution! If you are sitting at home and it’s 1:30 AM on Friday, I can assume you want some music. If you are driving around at 5:30 PM and you’re just three miles away from Fat Boys BBQ, I can fetch the address and the launch your navigation from a single voice-based search for Fat Boys.”

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Structured Data for Fat Boys BBQ (Restaurants)

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Ratings

Restaurant

Location

Phone Number

Hours

Type of Food Served

Prices

Name

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Structured Data for The Fat Boys (Music Groups)

@PersuasiveData

Music Video

Music Group

Music Video Description

Song by the Group

Song Name

The Album

Name of Group

Link to Song

Duration of Song

Total Plays

Link to Purchase

Link to Play Song

Name of Video

Thumbnail Image

Video Length

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Structured Data Code Explained

@PersuasiveData

Structured Data is born from microdata, a set of tags introduced with HTML5.

Itemscope specifies that the HTML content contained in this section (<div>, <span>, <p>,<a>, <meta /> etc.) is about a particular item and everything in this section relates to the Itemtype.

Itemtype then specifies the type. This is why it follows the Itemscope immediately.Itemprop represents a label for a particular attribute of the type of content.

Itemref can help pull attribution from another HTML section by referencing the CSS ID.

<Meta /> can always be utilized to add additional required Itemprop labels.

Think Nesting! The same Itemprops can live in different Itemtypes.For example, the logo Itemprop can live within Brand and Organization Itemtypes.

The example above identifies the preferred logo for the NexTraq organization. This will help ensure that the right logo is accessed, indexed, and shared.

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Determining Structured Data Types

@PersuasiveData

You can start with the recommendations of the Structured Data Markup Helper and then move into the full list of data types at http://schema.org/docs/documents.html.

IMPORTANT: YOU CAN DEFINE NEW DATA WITH THE EXTENSION MECHANISM!

These are of great value for each and every B2B and B2C business:Organization Information

Brand Identity

Logos

Web Page Elements

Blog Posts

Videos

Case Studies

Whitepapers

Original Reviews

sameAs

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And Don’t Forget Your Emails!

@PersuasiveData

Adding Structured Data to your emails helps your email client create an interactive email experience, based on your immediate needs. Is this a peak into Web 4.0, a Behavioral Web?

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A Structured Data Integration Workflow

@PersuasiveData

— gets you started with —

< Manually Structuring Your Data />The Structured Data Markup helper will help you master the art of marking up your content.

The Helper is limited by available ‘Types’ and ‘Labels’ — use it as a starting point!

You can use the schema.org vocabulary along with the Microdata, RDFa, or JSON-LD formats to add information to your HTML content.

http://schema.org/docs/gs.html

Start by choosing the Itemtype.

Then add the URL or use your HTML.

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Setting the Labels for your Content

@PersuasiveData

Select Content Choose Appropriate Label Information Gets Added Here

Click Here When Done

If you don’t have all the information you need to markup an Itemtype, scroll “My Data Items” down to “Add missing tags”…

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Preview Your Code & Download the HTML

@PersuasiveData

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Add the Markup to Your Page & Test

@PersuasiveData

You can test with a URL, on a staging server or a live version. You may also paste in your HTML by switching to HTML.

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Passing the Test…

@PersuasiveData

* Red error messages will display when something is incorrect.

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NexTraq’s Need for Page 1 Rankings — “Fleet Tracking”

@PersuasiveData

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Leveraging Case Studies on Fleet Tracking Page

@PersuasiveData

Added Fleet Tracking case study to the page.

Created jQuery-based show/hide function that contains on-page version of the Case Study for immediate access.

Created an image thumbnail for the case study.

Added Structured Data to each of these new page elements.

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We Leveraged Our Videos Too!

@PersuasiveData

Added Fleet Tracking video to the page.

Created the same accordion function to allow access to the transcript.

Created an image thumbnail for the video.

Added Structured Data to each of these new page elements.

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NexTraq Code Integration Sample We updated the content and assets per

the direction of PPI. PPI authored the Structured Data which

they then delivered in the format of a Word Document, with all added code highlighted yellow.

Our developers added the code totemplates that drive our site, as wellas manually added it to various editable content areas.

Once the Structured Data was manually added to the pages, PPI then tested the live versions, while monitoring Webmaster Tools for any error reports.

We submitted a re-index request via Webmaster Tools.

@PersuasiveData

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Integration Timeline & 20 “Fleet Tracking” Keyword RankingsGoogle Rankings between July 2013 and July 2014

@PersuasiveData

Content restructured

for user experience and

to leverage structured data.

StructuredData addedto solutions pages and

other content areas.

Fleet Tracking Solutions page

jumped to page 1 SERPs

with the Home page.

July 2013 October 2013 November 2013 January 2014 Panda 4 May 2014 July 2014

We survived the Panda 4 Update!

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Incognito Observations

@PersuasiveData

Noticeable rankings increases for all “fleet tracking” terms within weeks of Structured Data integration.

When Panda 4 hit, two different pages began ranking on page one.

The solutions page moved ahead of the home page. This does change but has been pretty consistent since mid-May.

The higher ranking competitors see the same two page ranking scenario, however we were first—and none were using schema.org Structured Data either at the time this presentation was created.

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The following are some pointers that we’ve learned through our process.

Determine what content on your site can be marked up properly, while paying attention to the necessary labels required for complete markup in a data type.

Nest your content types within related HTML sections. Think nesting dolls…

Do not apply any CSS styles to your <span> elements. Reserve <span>tags so they can be used to wrap content that needs the Structured Data markup.

If you need to use <meta /> to inject Structured Data, make sure it lives in the rightHTML section that you defined with Itemscope.

Don’t be afraid to use new naming conventions for new or unattributed data types.

Choose your integration method, and stick with it!

After you add and test your structured data, submit your site for re-indexing via Google and Bing Webmaster Tools. Don’t just fetch, make sure you click “Submit to Index” and have it re-index all directly linked URLs.

Structured Data Integration Tips

@PersuasiveData

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Thank You! Any Questions?Tweet any of your future questions to… @PersuasiveData

You can also visit prominentplacement.com/structured-data-primer and fill out our contact form if you would like feedback on any part of this presentation.

Just mention that this is a question for Aaron Abbott.

@PersuasiveData

@ProminentPlcmnt

@NexTraq