Schema markup audit for any website

Schema markup audit for any website

‘Structured data’ snippet data seen in search results . Its added to webpage’s HTML to provide more detailed information about what the content on that page is actually about.

	Main Structured Data Vocabularies Schema.org – Standardized list agreed by major search engines to support/understand Microformats.org – hCard, hReview RFDa formats JSON-LD implementation –
Limitations of this audit This audit only refer to the Schema.org vocabulary hierarchy as it contains the most widely supported types We will only have one of the vocabularies per page	Outcomes of this Audit Identifying structured data opportunities for the site Check existing implementation errors

 

Check current implementation

<itemscope itemtype=”#url”>          <itemprop=”xyz”>          <itemprop=”abc”>          <itemprop=”pqr” itemscope itemtype=”#url” >                  <itemprop=”def”>

Itemscope – Starts a new schema Itemtype – Points to url of the new schema Itemprop – Gives elements inside schema

<div itemscope itemtype=”http://schema.org/Movie”>
  <h1 itemprop=”name”>Avatar</h1>
  <div itemprop=”director” itemscope itemtype=”http://schema.org/Person”>
  Director: <span itemprop=”name”>James Cameron</span> (born <span itemprop=”birthDate”>August 16, 1954</span>)
  </div>
  <span itemprop=”genre”>Science fiction</span>
  <a href=”../movies/avatar-theatrical-trailer.html” itemprop=”trailer”>Trailer</a>
</div>

 

Check current implementation

Check whether Google is finding this markup, and whether there are any errors being flagged. Correcting errors is the first priority as Google may penalize sites (via either algorithmic quality factors or manual action) which are using markup incorrectly or in a way that looks spammy.

GO TO https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/structured-data 

Check for search results for any schema types which you currently have on the site and, therefore, would expect to be seeing rich snippets for. These include:

• product
• event
• review/rating
• article
• video
• knowledge graph box (for branded searches)
• Breadcrumbs

 

Setting Up Project

Create a project folder in your workspace. All project related files will be put inside google drive inside project folder. Then make sure all files are created inside this and use native google drive documents where possible. 

Google Doc Replaces word, Google Sheet replaces Excel etc 

 

Site URL Audit

1. Open Up Xenu
2. Enter Website URL
3. Export Results to Google Sheet = Xenu URL Scan – Website.com
   1. Sort the sheet according to the URL. There will be duplicates, mark them in a separate column with a Y.
   2. Filter out duplicates and only display the rows with Duplicate status ‘N’.
   3. Filter on status code and choose 200, status 12002, 12017 etc, type pages. Ignore status 200, 301, 302 etc.
   4. Add 2 columns – Content classification and Markup
4. Also Create a Project Main Document = Project Document – Website.com

 

Audit site content

This is similar to General Content & Auditing done in SOP – 3.1 Content audit. Check SOP For more Details. Once the content is classified we need to map each content type to the relevant markup from next table. 

Content Type	What Kind Of Pages comes under this type of content	What markup to Apply
Homepage
LandingPages	Lead capture page or any page you send out in a campaign, for eg a page requesting for donations
Trust Building Pages	These are pages like About Us Page, Contacts Us Page, Testimonial Page, Terms & Conditions Page, Privacy Policy Page, User reviews/testimonials, Store locations/contact info, Business /company information
Archive Pages	Category pages, Tags Pages, Author Pages
Editorial content	Blogs, Articles, News, tutorials/how-to content
Internal Guest Posts
Stub Content	e.g., “No content is here yet, but if you sign in and leave some user-generated-content, then we’ll have content here for the next guy.” By the way, want our newsletter? Click an AD!
Curated Content	Comprised almost entirely of bits and pieces of content that exists elsewhere
Sales Pages	Cart, Checkout, Product Page
Media & Related Pages	Image, PDF, Videos, Audio Files and related pages
Downloads Page	a software application or a giveaway like PDF download

 

Map Correct Markup to Relevant Content

http://schema.org/docs/full.html 

Markup Types	How to decide if this markup is to be used?
Action	Can the user complete an action on this page? If so, look in the ‘Action’ list. AchieveAction AssessAction ConsumeAction ControlAction CreateAction FindAction InteractAction MoveAction OrganizeAction PlayAction SearchAction TradeAction TransferAction UpdateAction
Creative Work	Article Blog Book Clip Comment Conversation Course CreativeWorkSeason CreativeWorkSeries DataCatalog Dataset DigitalDocument Episode Game Map MediaObject Menu MenuSection Message Movie MusicComposition MusicPlaylist MusicRecording Painting Photograph PublicationIssue PublicationVolume Question Recipe Review Sculpture Series SoftwareApplication TVSeason TVSeries VisualArtwork
Webpage	AboutPage CheckoutPage CollectionPage ImageGallery VideoGallery ContactPage ItemPage ProfilePage QAPage SearchResultsPage
WebPageElemenr	SiteNavigationElement Table WPAdBlock WPFooter WPHeader WPSideBar
Product	A product – This one is fairly self-explanatory but worth noting that ‘Vehicle’ is a specific subtype of ‘Product’, so car dealers etc should use the specific ‘Vehicle’ markup for their product listings. Product, Offer, AggregateOffer
Event	BusinessEvent ChildrensEvent ComedyEvent CourseInstance DanceEvent DeliveryEvent EducationEvent ExhibitionEvent Festival FoodEvent LiteraryEvent MusicEvent PublicationEvent SaleEvent ScreeningEvent SocialEvent SportsEvent TheaterEvent
Intangible	AlignmentObject Audience BedDetails Brand BroadcastChannel BusTrip ComputerLanguage DataFeedItem Demand DigitalDocumentPermission EntryPoint Flight GameServer Invoice ItemList JobPosting Language ListItem MenuItem Offer Order OrderItem ParcelDelivery Permit ProgramMembership PropertyValueSpecification Quantity Rating Reservation Role Seat Service ServiceChannel StructuredValue Ticket TrainTrip
Embedded non-text objects	AudioObject, ImageObject, VideoObject
Organization	An organization – Use the ‘Organization’ list includes a wide variety of types of businesses. Organization markup can be implemented on the homepage, and can help with getting a ‘brand knowledge box’ in the search results.
Person	A person – use Person type.
Place	Place, LocalBusiness, Restaurant
Review	Review, AggregateRating

 

Using Structured Data testing Tool

https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/u/0/ 

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/prototype How to guide?

https://webmaster.yandex.com/tools/microtest/ 

https://metaforensics.io/setup.php 

Using Google Search Console for Structured Data

How to guide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrEJds3QeTw 

Implement – Quick way to generate common markup types use Structured Data Highlighter Helper tool

Check – Test if setup correctly with Structured Data Testing Tool and monitor for 2-3 months. 

https://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/u/0/ 

 

Using JSON-LD Schema Generator For SEO

https://hallanalysis.com/json-ld-generator/

 

Helpful Resources

Structured Data Documents

https://moz.com/blog/google-glossary

https://builtvisible.com/micro-data-schema-org-guide-generating-rich-snippets/ 

 

Main Schema Plugins

WordPress – Schema Creator, Yoast, WordLift

Magento – Schema.org Extension, MSemantic

Joomla – J4Schema, Schema.org

 

Main Tools for Structured Data

• Structured Data Testing Tool – Google
• Structured Data Testing Tool (NEW) – Google Developers
• JSON-LD Playground – json-ld.org
• Schema Creator – Raven Tools
• Schema.org & Microdata Generator – micro DATA generator
• Markup Validation Tool – Bing
• Rich Snippets Testing Tool Bookmarklet – AJ Kohn
• The Semantic Web Index – Sindice
• Meta and Rich Snippet Tester – GreenLane