Structured data is a type of code that is used to structure data in a way that makes it more easily understood by search engines (that’s why it’s known as structured data!).
Basically in an SEO context, it’s a bit of code that goes into the <head> section of your website, which can give search engines more information about the pages on your site.
Kelly Sheppard
Structured data is normally written in a code called JSON-LD, which I’ll talk about more later.
Why is Structured Data Important?
Structured data is important because it helps search engines understand more about the content on your webpages, and helps create relationships between the content on your site, your products or services and your brand.
What is an Example of Structured Data?
Here is an example of what it looks like:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "LocalBusiness",
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"streetAddress": "2 Some Street",
"addressLocality": "Somewhere",
"addressRegion": "Kent"
},
"description": "We just love writing structured data",
"name": "Schema Shepherd",
"telephone": "+4400000000000"
}
</script>
This is a really basic example of a LocalBusiness structured data that could go on your homepage, but we can do much better than that!
What is Structured vs Unstructured Data?
Structured data is highly organised and formatted in such a way that it’s really easy for machines to read and understand. It has a pre-defined format and you have to stick within those guidelines.
Unstructured data on the other hand is chaotic. There’s no standardised format or guidelines to follow, and it can be really difficult for machines to understand.
What’s the Difference Between Structured Data and Schema?
Structured data is also known as schema, however it’s not really the same thing, although people often use the two terms interchangeably.
Schema markup is basically the JSON-LD language you need to use, also known as “structured data format” by Google. So you need to learn the basics of the language before you can write the actual data.
Structured data is the actual data presented in a standardised format that you write in to tell search engines more about your page. So it’s the actual things like the product description, price, name etc that you put into the JSON-LD language so that search engines can understand it.
Here’s Dall’s interpretation of that:
Which is pretty cool.
Next, you might be interested to learn about the different types of structured data, so that you can choose which one suits you best, or you might be interested to jump straight in and learn how to use schema.org.
