The concept behind structured data may be confusing, here is a guide for you

If you've ever wondered how search engines like Google can come up with precise answers for your queries at a moment's notice or why certain websites are dominantly featured on the search engine results pages, the answer is structured data. As its name suggests, it refers to sets of structured and organized data on a web page. In terms of search engine optimization, it is tagged with certain text groups that enable search engines to understand the information's context better to deliver more accurate results for the users.

The concept behind structured web data may be confusing. However, its implementation process is neither as tricky nor complicated as it appears. In fact, there's a bevy of tools that can make the task more straightforward, such as the Structured Data Mark-up Helper and the various testing software of Google. While it's undoubtedly possible to do everything by hand, using these tools will enable you to ensure accuracy. As a result, it makes your life much easier.

Adding structured data on a website

As brilliant as Google is, it's unable to understand many things by itself. With the use of the proper markup, you'll help make your content much more apparent to the search engine, potentially elevating your online property's visibility and click-through rate. With that said, here's how to add structured data through the Structured Data Mark-up Tool.

1. Open the tool. The first step is to open the Structured Data Mark-up Tool of Google. It would be best if you made sure that the software's website tab remains open. Select the data type to which you want your HTML markup to be added. Plug the URL of the webpage and click on the option to start tagging.

2. Highlight the page elements. Once the tool completes loading, there should be a web page that appears to the left while the data items are on the right side. Highlight various components of the webpage so you can assign specific data tags like the data published, author, and name. Once you've completed assigning and tagging items, click on the create HTML in the upper-right corner.

3. Add a schema markup. When the next screen loads up, the markup for the structured data should appear. While the tool will automatically produce the script as a JSON-LD markup, it's possible to change it via the drop-down menu. Copy the HTML markup to the webpage's source code or CMS if you want to publish it.

4. Test it. Open the testing tool Google and enter the URL of the site you're looking to test. The tool can be used to fix and diagnose issues. Once it does, all that's left to do is to wait. Google may take a while to recrawl the new HTML, but so long as you maintain the proper standards of data structure, your website will benefit from it.

Conclusion

Structured data can be incredibly useful, especially when you consider that most search engines continue to evolve and improve the way they present and aggregate information. They offer intelligent and enhanced search experiences with a focus on the users, and with structured data, you'll be able to keep up the pace.