Google: Structured Data Isn't A Ranking Factor But Can Help Rankings

[djbaxter]

Google Says Structured Data Isn't A Generic Ranking Factor But Can Help Rankings
by Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Roundtable
April 3, 2018

John Mueller of Google said on Twitter yesterday that although structured data, by itself, does not give you a ranking boost, it can help Google understand your content and thus help you rank in Google. But like with the HTTPS ranking boost, having structured data is not the same and does not give you a ranking boost just because you have structured data on the page.

John said "there's no generic ranking boost for SD [structured data] usage."

"However, SD structured data] can make it easier to understand what the page is about, which can make it easier to show where it's relevant (improves targeting, maybe ranking for the right terms)," he added.

He said this messaging about how Google uses structured data is not new. In 2015 Google did say they may use structured data for ranking purposes. But just last year, Google said they don't want to depend on structured data for understanding the web, although they also said structured data is super important and here to stay.

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[markwaldin]

Many people go searching for the pot of gold. Or maybe in this case, small pots of gold. It really doesn't matter what Google says about factors affecting ranking. Truth is Google manipulates their algo constantly and use what are the best signals for ranking sites properly. They are not going to proclaim what they use or don't use when it could influence results in a unnatural way.

In my opinion, building a web site that is tight with very high quality architecture and data that is not just a Wordpress site with lots of off the shelf plugins is going to signal a high quality property to Google. Why? Because a ton of effort went into making and maintaining the site and it IS a quality site.

Mark

 

[djbaxter]

Many people go searching for the pot of gold. Or maybe in this case, small pots of gold. It really doesn't matter what Google says about factors affecting ranking. Truth is Google manipulates their algo constantly and use what are the best signals for ranking sites properly. They are not going to proclaim what they use or don't use when it could influence results in a unnatural way.

Google obviously won't tell you step by step what is considered in their algorithms, but why on earth (even Google Earth) would they lie or mislead about what is NOT a ranking signal? What possible benefit would there be to anyone to say structured data is NOT a factor if it really is?

In my opinion, building a web site that is tight with very high quality architecture and data that is not just a Wordpress site with lots of off the shelf plugins is going to signal a high quality property to Google. Why? Because a ton of effort went into making and maintaining the site and it IS a quality site.

Google's goal is to deliver the best match for a search query. They don't care how much effort you put into a site.

Google indexes content, not architecture or platform (excerpt to the extent that architecture either detracts from the content or enhances it, or introduces unnecessary code bloat that makes the content harder to crawl, or uses features googlebot can't crawl). Whether you use Wordpress or any other platform is irrelevant.

 

[Tim Colling]

...Whether you use Wordpress or any other platform is irrelevant.

Well said!