Schema: Localbusiness vs business category tag

[Jamie Steigerwald]

Hi David, thank you for the suggestion. Do you think it would be better to schema.org/WebPage instead of Article? Do you know any difference or benefit in using one over the other?

 

[David Deering]

Well, technically speaking, every page on the web is by definition a "web page", so you don't really have to declare it as such for search engines. For that particular page, you can use either the WebPage or Article schema as your primary schema and then nest the other markups within it. It just really depends if you want the content to be recognized as a web page about Woodbridge or as an article about Woodbridge. Since the page is linked from Irvine neighborhoods and isn't a part of your blog, I might lean towards using WebPage. But honestly, either one would work.

 

[MichaelJ]

And can the code go literally anywhere on the page?

 

[Jamie Steigerwald]

Hi David, I updated the page. When you have a moment please take a look and let me know if you feel there is any errors or corrections that should be made. Also if you feel I am missing any best practices or opportunities please let me know.

Woodbridge Irvine Real Estate

Thanks again for all your help!

 

[bradleymarones]

David/Chris, thanks again guys!

Hopefully, one last question, how can I properly nest schemas together? Should there only be one schema set-up per page, and if there are multiple schemas, then those should be nested together? For example, if I want to markup the entire website with the location and type of local business (attorney), long with including some rich snippets of allowing an image to show up in the SERPs, how is that done?

Again, your inputs are very much appreciated.

Btw, I found some of these pretty useful guides that are good at giving a big picture idea of the schema idea, but are a little light on the technicals/details.

An SEO's guide to schema.org

2014 SEO Roadmap: Adopting Semantic Markup

How to Use Schema Markup for Local SEO | Search Engine Journal

Free GEO Meta Tags, hCard, KML & GEO Sitemap Creator | 51Blocks


Btw, is a geosite map/KML file useful anymore? I've heard contrasting views.

 

[Chris McCreery]

Technically, yes there should only be one main schema per page which defines what the page is. So for example you could mark up the page for the schema.org/Attorney But you can add multiple schemas to the page when one schema property requires an additional one. In the example below of LocalBusiness the address property requires another schema "Postal Code" which is nested inside that containing <div>

<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/LocalBusiness">
   <span itemprop="name">Sample Name</span>
   <div itemprop="address" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress">
     <span itemprop="streetAddress">123 My Street</span>
     <span itemprop="addressLocality">Dallas</span>,
     <span itemprop="addressRegion">TX</span>
     <span itemprop="postalCode">90210</span>
   </div>
   Phone: <span itemprop="telephone">555-555-5555</span>
</div>

For Images in SERPs I'm guessing that you want a headshot in those results? In that case you would be referring to Google+ Authorship which you can accomplish using the following instructions.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2539557?hl=en

Keep in mind though that Google has recently taken the images out of some SERPs.

If you have any other questions let us know.
Thanks
Chris

 

[bradleymarones]

Hey thanks Chris! If say that Schema you cited to was located in the footer site-wide, can you include a Schema code within the body of the page to mark-up the content on that page?

With respect to the pics in the SERPS, not the authorship pics, but an image that's on that specific page. For example, if a page is about a cake recipe, I want to be able to mark-up an image on that page and allow that image to show up on the SERPs.

 

[Chris McCreery]

Can you show me a screen shot of the images in SERPs you're referring to?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Chris McCreery]

Here is a sample Recipe Schema

Here is the same HTML code marked up with microdata.<div itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Recipe" >
  <h1 itemprop="name">Grandma's Holiday Apple Pie</h1>
  <img itemprop="photo" src="apple-pie.jpg" /> 
  By <span itemprop="author">Carol Smith</span>
  Published: <time datetime="2009-11-05" itemprop="published">
    November 5, 2009</time>
  <span itemprop="summary">This is my grandmother's apple pie recipe. I like to add a
    dash of nutmeg.</span>
  <span itemprop="review" itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Review-aggregate">
    <span itemprop="rating">4.0</span> stars based on
    <span itemprop="count">35</span> reviews </span>
  Prep time: <time datetime="PT30M" itemprop="prepTime">30 min</time>
  Cook time: <time datetime="PT1H" itemprop="cookTime">1 hour</time>
  Total time: <time datetime="PT1H30M" itemprop="totalTime">1 hour 30 min</time>
  Yield: <span itemprop="yield">1 9" pie (8 servings)</span>
  <span itemprop="nutrition" itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Nutrition">
    Serving size: <span itemprop="servingSize">1 medium slice</span>
    Calories per serving: <span itemprop="calories">250</span>
    Fat per serving: <span itemprop="fat">12g</span>
  </span>
  Ingredients:
    <span itemprop="ingredient" itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/RecipeIngredient">
      Thinly-sliced <span itemprop="name">apples</span>:
      <span itemprop="amount">6 cups</span>
    </span>
    <span itemprop="ingredient" itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/RecipeIngredient">
      <span itemprop="name">White sugar</span>:
      <span itemprop="amount">3/4 cup</span>
    </span>
  ...
		  
  Directions:
    <div itemprop="instructions">
      1. Cut and peel apples
      2. Mix sugar and cinnamon. Use additional sugar for tart apples.
      ...
    </div>
</div>

This is from the Google Webmaster Tools support site. At the bottom of the page are the different types you can use but the recommended type is microdata.
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/173379?hl=en

 

[Jamie Steigerwald]

While searching for schema.org resources I came across this page which has some great info for adding schema to WordPress:

How To Improve WordPress SEO with Schema.org - leaves-and-love.net

Cheers.

 

[bradleymarones]

I hope that did the trick. If not, just google "pasta recipe."

 

[Chris McCreery]

That's what I thought you were trying to accomplish. In that case then you need to use the specific schema for recipes. Right now Google doesn't pull just any image from a schema. They only recognize(or are will to display) images for a few of the schemas. So if you mark up that page with the proper schema, like the example that I had added a few posts ago it should work properly.

At the bottom of this page there is an example of the recipe schema applied to some standard HTML.

Recipe - schema.org

Let me know if that works out for you or if you need a hand I'd be happy to help you out.

Thanks,

 

[David Deering]

Hi Jamie. Very sorry about disappearing on you. I didn't see a notification about your post, so I apologize. But I did take a look at your markup and I do have a couple of recommendations.

Your markup structure is essentially like this:

1. WebPage
   1. VideoObject
   2. WebPageElement
2. Place
   1. PostalAddress
3. RealEstateAgent
   1. PostalAddress
   2. GeoCoordinates

So in other words, you have three separate and independent groups of schemas. I would try to nest them all under WebPage, since they are all related to Woodbridge, including the real estate agent info. I don't want to paste all of the schema code here as I would create it, as it would be crazy long, and it would take me a good while to create it all, too. But do try to nest everything under your main WebPage schema.

I'd also suggest not using the "mainContentOfPage" schema, since this is actually intended to be used when a different element of your web page, such as a sidebar, is a part of the page's main content. So you'd use it in cases such as your page was about a product and your sidebar had reviews about that product. But in your case, that schema is not necessary or fitting. And it's also not necessary to use both the Wiki link and the Freebase link, as Freebase gets much of its content from Wiki. I'd just use the Freebase link.

Try making those changes and I'll be happy to take a look. And feel free to ask me any questions about the above if you have any.

 

[Jamie Steigerwald]

Hi David, no need to apologize I appreciate all your insight whenever you can give it.

The issue I have with nesting is the wordpress theme. While I can update it the developer of the theme also does updates quite often and I wasn't smart enough when doing the install for this one to create child theme pages that would avoid update issues. So I am left with including separate independent groups of schemas. How much of an issue is this?

I can remove the "mainContentOfPage" should I replace it with something else? Should I have the last <div> be at the end of the content or at the logical end of the last schema item? (I hope that made sense).

Curious why you suggest using the Freebase link vs Wiki?

Do you have any suggestions on other schemas I should include on the page that I am not?

Thanks again for all your time and help.

Cheers!

 

[David Deering]

Hi Jamie. Well, as far as the nesting goes, I would recommend making sure that your markups are all properly nested and not separate, independent groups of markups. If they were independent of one another on the page, they'll basically be working against each other instead of working together. So even if you have to add the markups manually using the HTML text editor, I'd recommend doing that as opposed to allowing the template to create them separately.

You really don't have to worry about replacing the "mainContentOfPage" property with another property. And Freebase is a huge database of structured data and it contains much of the same information as Wikipedia. But in that particular markup of yours, I'd recommend using the Freebase link with the "sameAs" property. That's not necessarily a rule for every time that you use that property, but in this particular case, I would suggest Freebase because it's more powerful and helpful to search engines.

 

[Jamie Steigerwald]

Hi David,

It took some effort but I updated the page with what I hope is the correct nesting. When you get a chance please take a look and let me know if there is anything wrong or anything I can improve.

Woodbridge Homes for Sale - Value Real Estate

Cheers! And thanks again for all your help.

 

[David Deering]

Hi Jamie. I got a chance to take a look at your markup and I do have a couple of suggestions. It looks like your markup is still separated into a few different "groups", so we need to try to unify everything and nest it all within your WebPage schema. So this is a rough sketch of what I would recommend:

<body itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/WebPage">
  
  <div itemprop="about" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Place">
    <span itemprop="name">Village of Woodbridge</span> 
    <link itemprop="sameAs" href="http://www.freebase.com/m/0cjs75" />
    <meta itemprop="map" content="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=village+of+woodbridge++irvine,+ca&hl=en&sll=35.917872,-119.568458&sspn=5.203959,10.821533&hnear=Woodbridge,+Irvine,+Orange+County,+California&t=m&z=14"/>
  </div>
  
  <div itemprop="video" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/VideoObject">
     <video markup properties here>
   </div>  

  <div itemprop="creator" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/RealEstateAgent">
    <name and location markups here>
  </div>

</body>

When you test it with Google's testing tool, you will see how everything is nested within your WebPage schema. I would also recommend that you eliminate the postal address schema within schema.org/Place (since that is for a mailing address), the mainContentOfPage property, and the aggregate rating markup, which is apparently in your footer. I would only use the aggregate rating markup once on your site such as on your About Us page, and including on that page your ratings and reviews which have also been marked up. Ideally, that page should also include a method in which clients can leave you a review/rating.

I hope this helps.</div>

---------- Post Merged at 01:09 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 12:55 PM ----------

Oh, I forgot to mention... dont' forget to use properties such as "headline" and "text" to mark up your title and content. Those would be nested directly within the WebPage schema.

 

[Margaret Ornsby]

Here's another resource I've found useful for getting my head wrapped around schema

Schema-org Guide for Beginners (Everyone Can Understand!) + Schema Cheatsheet