[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]A schema markup, often referred to as structured data, is a piece of code or a form of micro-data that you put on your web page to help search engines such as Google, Bing, etc. understand it better and return more informative results for a searcher.
A schema markup creates an enhanced description for your web page. Today, implementing schema markups is considered necessary for effective SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of eCommerce portals.
It was way back in 2011 when leading search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex joined hands to establish Schema.org.
This collaborative community activity aimed at creation, maintenance, and promotion of structured data on the Internet so that search engines could better understand web pages and map search queries to most relevant results according to the context. After all, this is what makes search engines so useful for internet users.
There’s no clear evidence that schema markups directly impact an eCommerce website’s organic search rankings.
However, rich snippets do make your web pages appear more prominently in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
With improved visibility, it has been observed that websites register higher CTR (Click-Through-Rate).
Just about 33% of Google’s search results include one or more rich snippets. It essentially means there’s a huge opportunity for the remaining search queries.
Here in this post, we will discuss the five most important schema markups you should consider implementing for your eCommerce website. Read on.
1. Product Schema Markup
Product-schema structured data tells search engines that they are looking at a product page (vs. an article, or video blog, for instance). This markup includes basic information related to various products such as shoes, shirts, etc. or services such as speech therapy, office cleaning, etc. listed on your website.
Product schema markup can include information such as the name of the product, the dimensions (if applicable) of the product such as height, depth, width, etc., the color of the product, etc.
The information is not always shown in search results but search engines may use it to rank different web pages for specific queries (e.g. ‘red polo shirt medium size’)
You can use Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper to quickly add structured data markup.
2. Reviews and Rating Schema Markup
About 9 out of 10 online shoppers read at least one online review before they buy anything online. Therefore, eCommerce website owners must consider having reviews on their product pages.
Just as you’d want to have your products reviewed on popular review platforms such as Google My Business, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Foursquare, Angie’s List, Better Business Bureau (BBB), etc. to persuade consumers to trust your brand, it is equally important now to display reviews and ratings in your organic search listings.
With reviews and rating markup, star rating and total-review-count are displayed alongside your product web page’s meta-title and meta-description in SERPs. This schema markup can help you significantly improve your eCommerce website’s CTR.
For many consumers, star-rating of a product is the most important criterion for deciding whether a product or brand is trustworthy or not. Therefore, even if you do not wish to display the total number of reviews, your web pages should at least have a markup for star-rating.
There are different ways you can implement reviews-structured-data for your eCommerce website. Your webpages will get a rich snippet after successful validation by Google.
3. Price Schema Markup
Product price is one of the most important factors consumers consider when they shop online.
Your webpages will register higher CTR if prices for products are displayed in search results.
Consumers these days want to quickly compare different products and eCommerce brands. They start doing it as soon as they glance through the search results.
You may be losing a big chunk of customers simply because your webpages do not pass on pricing information to search engines.
With price schema markup for an eCommerce website, you can provide search engines with valuable information such as the offer price, % drop in price, currency, detailed pricing specs (unit price & delivery charges), etc.
4. Product Availability Schema Markup
It’s disappointing to find an eCommerce website inform you that a product you are interested in, is out of stock. You regret the decision to have clicked on that webpage in search results. The next time, you may intentionally avoid visiting such a website.
Of course, you do not want your prospective customers to have such an experience when they visit your eCommerce website.
To reduce soft bounces, you can implement product-availability schema markup for your eCommerce website.
With product-availability structured data in place, users will know about the availability of a product without having to visit a webpage.
5. Video Schema Markup
Have you ever wondered why businesses today are investing heavily in production and dissemination of video content?
While some businesses have focused their efforts on increasing video penetration on YouTube, others are using video content to inform customers, SEO, boost conversions, and build brand trust.
According to a report published by Cisco, more than 80% of all traffic by 2020 will consist of video!
Not just large scale organizations, small scale businesses are also using video content for digital marketing, advertising, and branding.
A recent study conducted by Animoto suggests that more than 9 out of 10 online shoppers think videos are quite helpful in making the right purchase decisions. More than half of people who shop online are likely to trust a brand that generates video content.
Just as videos on landing pages can improve the conversion rate by a whopping 80%, explainer videos in search results can also help increase the organic CTR (click-through-rate).
An explainer video or a product demo video is one of the best ways to get searchers to click on your product web page. Some studies suggest that approximately 74% of online shoppers, who watched an explainer video, subsequently completed the purchase.
When you implement video-schema for your eCommerce website, a video thumbnail is displayed right next to the meta-description of a web page in the SERPs.
You do not have to host such videos on your server. You can use embedded videos (hosted on YouTube, Vimeo, etc.) for implementing video schema markups.
Author Bio
Simon Mikail is one of the founders and head of operations at 405 Ads. Simon serves as an online marketing manager to businesses and agencies worldwide. His overall business and marketing experience has helped hundreds of business owners get their presence done right when it comes to today’s online world.
