One of the technical considerations of an SEO audit is how you are using the “invisible” part of your website to coach the search engines. We say invisible, because your customers and prospects don’t see the output when they visit a page, but Google certainly does.
Social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn utilize this content within the HTML as well, and that’s how they determine how they will display your site when someone shares it.
Often, you’ll hear SEOs refer to the code on your site as schema markup, and the way Google may display the output as Rich Snippets.
What types of Schema are checked in an audit?
Generally, most businesses use the same types of schema. However, there will be some nuance depending on the vertical, such as:
- E-commerce stores will have product markup, including price, condition, availability, etc.
- Local retailers will have hyperlocal geographical schema so customers can find them easily
- Any business that wants walk-in traffic should have hours of operation markup
- Although many do not, restaurants can use menu markup to highlight the foods and drinks they serve
- Larger websites should also have Breadcrumb and Sitelinks Searchbox markup
Globally, Organization and Website type schemas should be used, and businesses that publish additional content such as blog posts and longer form educational pieces should use the Article schema.
In the age of social proof, Schema can be used to markup either aggregate reviews about a company, or about a product. Showing 5 stars next to your service or product during a Google search can really help your click through rates, and subsequently lift traffic.
If you’d like to see a full list of the types of markup available, it’s available at Schema.org.
How is Schema Markup Tested During an SEO Audit
There are a few tools available that let anyone check for a proper Schema structure on a specific page. Businesses with small websites can do that on their own if they are curious about the results.
However, enterprise scale websites need automated processes to consume all of the markup across hundreds, thousands, or even millions of web pages.
Imagine checking Amazon.com by hand… You simply couldn’t.
Over the years, marketing technology tools have made it far easier for SEO auditors to crawl websites in their entirety, and isolate specific pages or groups of pages that have problems with their schema markup. Some of the tools include:
- Screaming Frog
- Ryte
- Sitebulb
A great SEO audit will provide you with a list of all the broken pages, and the steps you’ll need to take in order to fix them.
Examples of Schema Markup and their Search Results Output
Let’s look at a specific example, so you can see what your auditor is looking for.
E-commerce Product Markup
The Markup
Here’s how Bote Boards has leveraged product markup on their Shopify site. Note that while Shopify does automatically generate this code, you’ll see here that audits are still necessary, as in this instance, the description is blank. (Line 8 below)
{
"@context": "http://schema.org/",
"@type": "Product",
"url": "https://www.boteboard.com/products/lono-aero-126-classic-cypress-inflatable-kayak",
"name": "LONO Aero 12′6″ Classic Cypress Inflatable Kayak",
"image": "https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0046/9018/2262/products/126iLN22CL-photo-01-min.png?v=1643139839",
"description": "
",
"brand": {
"name": "BOTE"
},
"sku": "126iLN22CL",
"mpn": "817116026615",
"offers": {
"@type": "Offer",
"price": "1,749.00",
"priceCurrency": "USD",
"availability": "http://schema.org/InStock",
"seller": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "BOTE"
},
"url": "https://www.boteboard.com/products/lono-aero-126-classic-cypress-inflatable-kayak"
}
,"aggregateRating": {
"@type": "AggregateRating",
"ratingValue": 4.76,
"reviewCount": 164,
"bestRating": 5,
"worstRating": 1
}
The Search Result:
Bote Boards has successfully implemented Reviews, Price, and Availability schema.
They’ve also utilized the OpenGraph so that Facebook and Twitter pick the right information for sharing. Again, we can see the need for audits, as the description should be about the product, not simply the company name.
<meta name="description" content="BOTE" />
<meta property="og:url" content="https://www.boteboard.com/products/lono-aero-126-classic-cypress-inflatable-kayak">
<meta property="og:site_name" content="BOTE">
<meta property="og:type" content="product">
<meta property="og:title" content="LONO Aero 12′6″ Classic Cypress Inflatable Kayak">
<meta property="og:description" content="BOTE">
<meta property="og:image" content="http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0046/9018/2262/products/126iLN22CL-photo-01-min_1024x.png?v=1643139839">
<meta property="og:image:secure_url" content="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0046/9018/2262/products/126iLN22CL-photo-01-min_1024x.png?v=1643139839">
<meta property="og:price:amount" content="1,749.00">
<meta property="og:price:currency" content="USD">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="LONO Aero 12′6″ Classic Cypress Inflatable Kayak">
<meta name="twitter:description" content="BOTE">
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0046/9018/2262/products/126iLN22CL-photo-01-min_1024x.png?v=1643139839">
<meta name="twitter:image:width" content="480">
<meta name="twitter:image:height" content="480">
Next Steps for You
To get started, head over to Google’s testing page and run one of your product pages through it to see what kind of schema your site is providing, and if it’s working.
If you’re not completely satisfied with the result, it may be time to do a full SEO audit on your site. Proper execution of Schema code will assist in improving Google’s understanding of your site, and should improve the number of people clicking through to your website as well.
Ready to get ranked? We’re ready to help.
