Creating SEO Magic Using Structured Data

We’ve all seen Google results that feature detailed contact and location information, recipe details and reviews, browsable discographies and more when we’re looking for information. These kind of rich search results give users instant access to the most actionable and shareable content on your website, creating a great user experience before they even get to your site. What kind of dark arts are site owners using to create this kind of detailed, rich information that search engines gobble up and use to create meaningful, easy to digest search results for their audiences? The answer lies in structured data formats.

Attendees will leave this talk with a basic understanding of what structured data is, the formats available, and what types of structured data benefit a site the most when it comes to SEO. We’ll also look at what tools are available to most efficiently use these principles within Drupal.

Transcript

1. Creating SEO Magic Using Structured Data
2. About me • Long-time Austinite • Solutions Architect & Engineer • Started working with Drupal 10 years ago • Director of Engineering at Kanopi Studios
3. What we’ll cover • What is structured data • Why we use it • Structured data formats • How to use it in Drupal 8
4. What is Structured Data?
5. Meta information about content Can define a single element or a whole page
6. Semantic Constructs Repeatable, machine-oriented structure that is core to the Semantic Web
7. Why we use it
8. Search engines love it
9. Founded by Search Companies Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Yandex
10. Structured and Repeatable Makes it easy to understand, categorize, and weight content
11. When it Matters • Business identity • Articles • Courses • Events • Job Postings • Local Businesses • Music and Movies • Products • Recipes • (and it’s always changing)
12. Search Engine Usage
13. Featured Placement 36% of Google search results have it; but only 0.3% of sites use it.
 SearchMetrics Schema.org Analysis, 2014
14. Featured Placement • Enhanced search result listings • Placement in mobile and featured carousels • Knowledge Panel results • Immersive search experiences
15. Enhanced results Thumbnails, ratings, detailed information
17. Knowledge Graph/ Knowledge Panel Contact and social information
19. Mobile Carousels Carousels of grouped results
20. Immersive experiences Lead to qualified clicks and content engagement
22. Immersive experiences Lead to qualified clicks and content engagement
24. You get out of it 
 what you put into it.
25. Structured Data Formats
26. Schema.org
27. But first…
28. Vocabulary
29. Vocabulary • Vocabularies (schema.org) • Schemas • Item (Thing) • Type • Property
30. More Schema.org • Provides a wide variety of object definitions • Hierarchical schemas - property inheritance • Interlinking of objects • Can implement using any of these data formats
31. Microdata
32. Microdata • Format initially used on Schema.org • HTML specification - attribute-based • Feels familiar for beginners
33. Microdata Example Sample of the Article Schema implemented with Microdata
34. RDFa
35. RDFa • Resource Description Framework in Attributes • More XML-Flavored - extension of HTML5 • Better than microdata for representing nested schema
36. RDFa Example Sample of the Article Schema implemented with RDFa
37. Markup-based Considerations • Adds attributes to your existing markup to define a Thing • Minimizes data redundancy • Keeps the schema definition with the data itself
38. JSON-LD
39. JSON-LD • JavaScript Object Notation - Linked Data • Injected into the document • Easy to read • Preferred by Google (especially with AMP) • Results in some data redundancy
40. JSON-LD Example Sample of the Article Schema implemented with JSON-LD
41. Did we do this right?!?
42. Google has the answer Google != schema.org
43. Structured Data Testing Tool http://bit.ly/2zown2u
44. So… what format do I use?
45. All of these are valid formats!
46. When in doubt, go JSON-LD (Unless Bing is your Thing)
47. Structured Data in Drupal 8
48. Use Metadata The most important thing you can do for findability and sharability.
49. Core RDF Module
50. Core RDF Module • Doesn’t validate with Google out of the box • Can’t really define your Type • Not much you can manipulate without writing code • Produces RDFa
51. Schema.org Metatag Module
52. Schema.org Metatag Module • Karen Stevenson, Lullabot • Extends the Metatag module • Provides Schema.org objects for a limited subset of types • Provides architecture to extend the types of Things available
53. Conclusion • What is structured data • Why we use it • Structured data formats • How to use it in Drupal 8
54. Resources • Intro to Structured Data: http://bit.ly/2znKODU • JSON-LD Playground: http://bit.ly/2ytGq8J • Structured Data testing tool: http://bit.ly/2zown2u • Schema.org Full Hierarchy: http://bit.ly/2wV616o • Schema.org Metatag Module: http://bit.ly/2hG072s
55. Questions & Feedback • Here and now • katherine@kanopistudios.com • @katherinemwhite on Twitter