Transcript
Introduction
Welcome to part two of unlocking advanced SEO techniques. In this lesson, we’ll dive into the world of structured data and schema markup, key components of advanced SEO that can significantly enhance how search engines understand and present your content. We will also cover the Open Graph protocol and the importance of continuous SEO monitoring and improvement.
Structured data
So what is structured data? Structured data is a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying its content. It helps search engines understand the context of your content, leading to better indexing and richer search results, such as knowledge panels or enhanced snippets. Structured data adds context to your website. It is a piece of code that helps search engines gain a better understanding of your content. And you can find structured data code at schema.org. Schema.org is a collaborative initiative by major search engines, including Google, Bing, and Yahoo, to create a common vocabulary for structured data. And when you visit schema.org, finding the appropriate code is only a search away. Implementing schema markup on your site can help your content stand out in search results by making it eligible for rich snippets, those extra bits of information that appear alongside your page title and meta description.
Implementing schema markup
But when you use the right plugin, you can automatically add structured data to your site without manually coding it. Let’s use a plugin like RankMath or Yoast to implement schema markup on our website. For this example, I will install and activate the Yoast plugin. Then I will select Settings. And firstly, we will make a way to posts to select the type of schema we want to implement. You will see two drop-down boxes, one for page type and the other for article type. I will keep the default selection for my page type, but for article type, I will select blog posts to specify these posts as blog entries. Once saved, we can make our way to pages and implement the same steps for page type and article type to determine how your pages should be described by default in your site schema.org markup. But you can also add schema markup for a specific page or post. So let’s make our way to pages. And for this example, we will select the About page. And then at the bottom, next to SEO and readability, we can select schema and below page type, I will select an About page to tell search engines exactly what this page is about. When you make your way to integrations and scroll down to schema API integrations, you will also be able to unlock rich results in Google search by using plugins that integrate with Yoast. So for example, if you have the WooCommerce plugin installed, you can unlock rich snippets for your product pages by using Yoast WooCommerce SEO.
Open Graph protocol
Next, let’s talk about the Open Graph protocol. It allows you to control how your content appears when shared on social media platforms like Facebook and X. If you are using Yoast, you can select settings and scroll down to social sharing. You will notice that the Open Graph data and X card data features have been enabled, which allows for these social media platforms to display a preview with images and a text excerpt. If you would like to make further customizations, you can open up one of your posts and then scroll down to social. But you will need the premium version of Yoast to unlock this. If you are using a different plugin, such as RankMath, you can make your way to titles and meta. And when you select social meta, you will be able to add social account information to your website schema and Open Graph. And when you click on home page, you will be able to add SEO meta and Open Graph details to your home page. Just click on Learn More if you want more detail. But RankMath does allow you to customize the title and description for social media sharing. So once you have opened your post, you can click on the RankMath icon and then top right, select social. Here we can see a preview of our post on Facebook or X. And when you click on General, you will be able to customize your title and description to ensure your content is presented in the best way possible on social media.
SEO audits
Finally, conducting regular SEO audits is crucial to identify and fix issues that might affect your search rankings. Use tools like Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, or Ahrefs to perform comprehensive audits of your website. Also, check for issues like broken links, duplicate content, or slow page load times. To check broken links, there are a number of plugins and services available to automate this process. Follow reputable SEO blogs and news sites to stay informed about the latest updates to search engine algorithms. Adjust your SEO strategy accordingly to maintain or improve your search rankings. SEO isn’t a one-time effort. It requires continuous monitoring and improvement to stay competitive.