Best Structured Data Testing Tools Structured data is the code on your website that explains and organizes the content on the page. The image below is an example of structured data. Image Source Structured data relates to SEO and marketing because it helps search engines understand your content and website. When your website content is optimized using structured data, you’ll gain more visibility for your site pages in SERPs. Given its impact on SEO, you’ll want to ensure your website’s structured data is optimized. Below we’ll recommend some high-quality structured data testing tools, and explain how to fix errors you find in your testing process. Structured Data Testing Tool Preview 1. Rich Results Test Google’s Rich Results Test tool analyzes the structured data on your desktop and mobile site pages to ensure it supports rich results. It specifically tests for Google SERPs special features, so it’s crucial to use if you’re optimizing your website for Google search results. Image Source To use it, simply paste a URL or code snippet and click test and the results will call out any errors and explain how to fix them. 2. JSON-LD Playground JSON-LD Playground tests your structured data syntax against JSON standards to ensure it is correct. To use it, simply enter your structured data markup code and you’ll get a detailed report. Image Source The tool also shares example code structures for specific categories, like recipes or people, that you can use to model your structured data. 3. Schema.org Schema.org checks...

How to Use Schema Markup to Improve Your Website's Structure Just like when I first watched The Matrix, when I initially heard the term "schema markup," I was intimidated by the technical know-how I felt I needed to understand it. However, just like the movie, understanding schema markup isn't as difficult as you might think. As a marketer, schema markup is important because you want to make it as easy as possible for search engines to crawl your website. The easier it is for Google to understand your site, the higher in search engines your website can appear. Below, let's review what schema markup is, where to add it, and how it can improve your website's structure. What Is Schema Markup? Schema markup is code you can add to your website that helps search engines return better results for users. Essentially, it gives vital information to search engines to include in your listing that can improve visibility online, as well as click-through rates. In 2011, top search engines including Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Yandex collaborated to create schema.org, which is a "collaborative, community activity with a mission to create, maintain, and promote schemas for structured data on the Internet, on web pages, in email messages, and beyond." Ultimately, schema markup is a form of microdata. According to Wikipedia, "microdata is an HTML specification used to nest metadata within existing content on web pages. Search engines, web crawlers, and browsers can extract and process microdata from a web page...

The Beginner's Guide to Structured Data for Organizing & Optimizing Your Website It’s Friday afternoon, and your team is jonesing for Happy Hour. For the last few weeks, you’ve been going to the same ol’ bar by your office, so you decide it’s time to try something new. What do you do? Step outside and walk around until you find a new spot? No, you hop on Google and let it conduct the search for you. Your ideal post-work pub is nearby, open right after work, and offers a few gluten-free options so your entire team can partake. You plug these criteria into Google, and you’ve got three viable options at your fingertips — in a handy map format to boot. Pause. Have you ever wondered how Google can whip up such accurate, precise answers in so little time … and present them in such an easy-to-read way? Moreover, what are those restaurants doing to get featured so dominantly on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs)? Heck, I’d love my business to pop up when consumers search for criteria relevant to me … wouldn’t you? No one knows exactly how Google’s algorithm works — but, there are a few ways to organize and optimize your website content so Google knows what content to feature on the SERPs for the various searches people conduct to find you. This is where structured data comes in. Structured data can make your organization more visible to potential customers and increase your click-through rate by...

Unstructured Data Vs. Structured Data: A 3-Minute Rundown Most marketers think being data-driven means using web metrics to inform every decision they make. But that's not actually being data-driven. That's being Google Analytics-driven. To truly be data-driven, we must remind ourselves of the actual definition of data -- all types of information. One of the most insightful types of information is qualitative data or unstructured data. It can reveal your customers' true opinions and feelings toward your brand, which is challenging to extract from quantitative data or structured data. Even Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, is a passionate proponent of using qualitative data to drive strategy. "The thing I have noticed is when the anecdotes and the data disagree, the anecdotes are usually right. And there's something wrong with the way you are measuring (your data)," he explained during an onstage interview at George Bush Presidential Center. Bezos' love for customer feedback shouldn't compel you to supplant quantitative data with qualitative data when strategizing your next marketing campaign, though. It should compel you to inform your strategy with both sources of data. By combining the insights pulled from web metrics and customer feedback, you can get a full understanding of your marketing program's effectiveness. If you want a deeper explanation of what qualitative or unstructured data and quantitative or structured data is, check out this quick rundown of what both data sources exactly are and which tools you can use to store and analyze them. It's also...