What is Structured Data?
Structured Data are HTML attributes that communicate the specific meaning of data on a Web page to search engines in order to provide better results.
Structured Data is the term used for adding additional markup to HTML pages to help bots better understand information on a Web page. For example, if a Web page has information about an event, it may be difficult for a search bot to fully comprehend all of the details. However, when you add structured data, like the Event microdata provided by Schema.org, it can correctly communicate every detail of the event.
One of the key benefits of using structured data is rich snippets. Rich snippets are enhanced search results created from structured data that include additional details. Here are a few examples of rich snippets.
Event Rich Snippet in a Google Search Result
Recipe Rich Snippets in Google Search Results
Structured data doesn’t alter the style of content on a page. For example, the Person Schema.org microdata has been added to the HTML below, but it doesn’t affect the style in anyway.
Jon Henshaw
Raven Tools
Co-founder
This is what the Person Schema.org microdata looks like in the HTML source.
<p itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><a itemprop="url" href="https://plus.google.com/+jonhenshaw"><span itemprop="name"><strong>Jon Henshaw</strong></span></a><br/><span itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Organization"><span itemprop="name">Raven Tools</span></span><br/><span itemprop="jobtitle">Co-founder</span></p>
Structured Data Resources
Structured Data Experts
Synonyms
- schema.org
- RDFa
- microformats