SMX Advanced presentation on : Rich Snippets, Schema & Microformats / RDFa - presentation by Stephan Spencer

1. From Microdata & Schema To Rich
Snippets: Markup For The Advanced SEO
Stephan Spencer
Co-Author of The Art of SEO; Author of Google
Power Search; Founder of Netconcepts

2. © 2009 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com sspencer@netconcepts.com
Who Am I?
• Author of Google Power Search &
Co-author of The Art of SEO
• Founder of SEO agency Netconcepts
• Sold Netconcepts to Covario in 2010
• Lived in New Zealand for 8 years, returned to US in 2007
• Invented GravityStream, a pay-for-performance SEO
technology (now Rio SEO Website Optimizer)
• Now a free agent, developing an SEO training program which
will launch this year at ScienceofSEO.com
– Free SEO Myths report at www.scienceofseo.com/seo-myths

5. Rich Snippets
• Rich snippets boost clickthrough on your
Google listings
• Author headshots
• Video thumbnails
• Star ratings
– On product pages
– On category pages (based on aggregate ratings)

6. Benefits of Google’s Authorship
• More Compelling Search Snippets: Increased
Clickthroughs
• Bonus Search Results: More clicks to more
pages on your site.

7. Better Search Snippets
More clicks!!

8. Bonus Search Results

9. Bonus Search Results (2)
Additional listings 

10. Gaining Authorship Status
• Option 1: Link your content to your Google+
profile using a verified email address.
• Option 2: Set up authorship by linking your
content to your Google+ profile

11. Verified E-mail Address Option
• Need an email address in the same domain as the content is
hosted. For example:
– Domain: stephanspencer.com
– E-mail: stephan@stephanspencer.com
• Each article must include a byline that includes your name.
For example:
– Article: 36 SEO Myths That Won't Die But Need To
– Byline: By Stephan Spencer

12. Verified E-mail Address Option (2)
• Submit your e-
mail address to
Google
https://plus.go
ogle.com/auth
orship

13. Verified E-mail Address Option (3)
• Verify using the
structured data
testing tool
http://www.go
ogle.com/web
masters/tools/
richsnippets
Authorship data recognized
Google+ page

14. Verified E-mail Address Option (4)
• This is
how the
correctly
marked
up data
looks

15. Verified E-mail Address Option (5)
• Confirm by
checking your
Google+
Profile
https://plus.g
oogle.com/au
thorship Validation
Completed

16. Promoting Google+
• Authorship markup is
just another tool to
help Google grow
Google+
• Signing up for the
service is required

17. Linking Content to Google+ Option
• Create a link to your Google+ profile from your
content. Example:
– <a
href=https://plus.google.com/1020511177406659
31580/?rel=author>Google</a>

18. Linking Content to Google+ Option (2)
Add a reciprocal link back from your profile

19. Linking Content to Google+ Option (3)
Add a reciprocal link back from your profile
Search Engine Land Link

20. Linking Content to Google+ Option (4)
• Verify using the
structured data
testing tool
http://www.goog
le.com/webmast
ers/tools/richsnip
pets
Authorship data recognized
Google+ page

21. Authorship Misfires
• Google mis-
associated Eric’s
photo with my
article despite the
rel=author links to
my Google+ profile
& to my SEL bio
page, instead basing
it on the mention of
Eric as a co-author in
my bio. Deleted his
name and BOOM!
All fixed!

22. How to Get Nice Video Thumbnails
• Add one of the supported
formats to the on-page
markup:
– Schema.org/VideoObject
(recommended)
– Facebook Share
– Yahoo’s RDFa

24. Step 1: Add Rich Snippet Markup (Option
1)
<div itemscope
itemtype="http://schema.org/VideoObject"> <h2>Vid
eo: <span
itemprop="name">Title</span></h2> <meta
itemprop="duration" content="T1M33S" /> <meta
itemprop="thumbnailUrl" content="thumbnail.jpg"
/> <meta
itemprop="embedURL" content="http://www.exampl
e.com/videoplayer.swf?video=123" /> <object
...> <embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
...> </object> <span itemprop="description">Video
description</span></div>
Schema.org Video Format

25. Step 1: Add Rich Snippet Markup (Option
2)
<meta name="title" content=”Need SEO Help? – from a
world class expert" /> <meta name="description"
content=”Hire the Smartest SEO on the World Wide
Internet!" /> <link rel="image_src"
href="http://example.com/thumbnail_preview.jpg" />
<link rel="video_src"
href="http://example.com/video_object.swf?id=12345
"/> <meta name="video_height" content="296" />
<meta name="video_width" content="512" /> <meta
name="video_type" content="application/x-
shockwave-flash" />
Facebook Share Format

26. Step 1: Add Rich Snippet Markup (Option
3)
<object width="512" height="296" rel="media:video"
resource="http://example.com/video_object.swf?id=12345"
xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/searchmonkey/media/"
xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"> <param name="movie"
value="http://example.com/video_object.swf?id=12345" /> <embed
src="http://example.com/video_object.swf?id=12345" type="application/x-
shockwave-flash" width="512" height="296"> <a rel="media:thumbnail"
href="http://example.com/thumbnail_preview.jpg" /> <a rel="dc:license"
href="http://example.com/terms_of_service.html" /> <span
property="dc:description" content="Stephan Spencer is co-author of The Art of
SEO and author of Google Power Search, both published by O’Reilly. He founded
the SEO agency Netconcepts in the 1990′s and in 2010 it was acquired by Covario."
/> <span property="media:title" content=”Need SEO Help? – from a world class
expert" /> <span property="media:width" content="512" /> <span
property="media:height" content="296" /> <span property="media:type"
content="application/x-shockwave-flash" /> <span property="media:region"
content="us" /> <span property="media:region" content="uk" /> <span
property="media:duration" content="63" /> </object>
RDFa (Yahoo! SearchMonkey) Format

27. Step 2: Validate Rich Snippet Markup
Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool
(http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets)

28. FaceBook Share Video Markup

29. Product Page

30. Step 3: Submit a Video XML Sitemap
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
xmlns:video="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1"> <url>
<loc>http://www.example.com/videos/some_video_landing_page.html</loc> <video:video>
<video:thumbnail_loc>http://www.example.com/thumbs/123.jpg</video:thumbnail_loc>
<video:title>Grilling steaks for summer</video:title> <video:description>Alkis shows you how to
get perfectly done steaks every time</video:description>
<video:content_loc>http://www.example.com/video123.flv</video:content_loc>
<video:player_loc allow_embed="yes" autoplay="ap=1">
http://www.example.com/videoplayer.swf?video=123</video:player_loc>
<video:duration>600</video:duration> <video:expiration_date>2009-11-
05T19:20:30+08:00</video:expiration_date> <video:rating>4.2</video:rating>
<video:view_count>12345</video:view_count> <video:publication_date>2007-11-
05T19:20:30+08:00</video:publication_date>
<video:family_friendly>yes</video:family_friendly> <video:restriction relationship="allow">IE
GB US CA</video:restriction> <video:gallery_loc title="Cooking
Videos">http://cooking.example.com</video:gallery_loc> <video:price
currency="EUR">1.99</video:price>
<video:requires_subscription>yes</video:requires_subscription> <video:uploader
info="http://www.example.com/users/grillymcgrillerson">GrillyMcGrillerson
</video:uploader> <video:live>no</video:live> </video:video> </url> </urlset>
Video XML Sitemap FORMAT

31. Step 4: Validate Video XML Sitemap
Google Webmaster Tools > Optimization > Sitemaps

32. Video Thumbnail Misfires
• Why is the Core
Ox not showing
a thumbnail but
Core Hi & other
products are?
No reason.

35. Leverage Schema.org: Rich Snippets
• Reviews (Ratings)
• Aggregate Reviews
• Product/Offer
• Breadcrumbs
• Events

36. Ratings / Reviews
• http://schema.org/Rating
• Not always shown in SERPs, depends on trust
• Improves visibility, trust, and CTR

37. Ratings / Reviews

38. Ratings / Reviews

39. Clever Use of Microformats –
Aggregate Reviews
This site aggregates
Reviews from all hostels
At the parent category
Level. Clever!!
It works with http://schema.org/AggregateRating

40. Product / Offer
• Product http://schema.org/Product
• Offer (selling a product)
http://schema.org/Offer
• Gives engines a lot more product related data
• So far only additional display in SERP is price
• Prices in SERP display can increase CTR

41. Product / Offer

42. Product / Offer

43. Breadcrumbs
• http://schema.org/WebPage
• Adds Breadcrumb links to SERP
• Makes your listing stand out
• Adds more links to your site to SERP
• Potential for higher CTR

44. Breadcrumbs

45. Breadcrumbs

46. Events http://schema.org/Event

47. Events

48. Events

49. Location (Business)

50. Location (Business)

51. Location (Business)

52. Location (Attraction)

53. Location (Attraction)

54. Location (Attraction)

55. Location (Attraction)

56. How–To: Google Data Highlighter
• Found in WMT > Optimization > Data
Highlighter

57. How–To: Google Data Highlighter

58. How–To: Google Data Highlighter
• Used to create semantic markup in WMT only
• Adds no code to page
• Competition can’t see your markup
• Good for non-techie clients and sites
• Hard to scale for large sites (though you can build
“page sets”)
• For articles, events, local businesses, movies,
products, restaurants, software apps, TV episodes

59. How–To: Google Structured
Mark-up Helper
• Found in WMT > Other Resources > Structured
Data Markup Helper

60. How–To: Google Structured
Mark-up Helper

61. How–To: Google Structured
Mark-up Helper

62. How–To: Google Structured
Mark-up Helper

63. How–To: Google Structured
Mark-up Helper
• Marks up same data types as Highlighter
• Outputs actual HTML code
• Can work for web pages or emails
• You can play around with it for any site
• Page by page basis
• Useful for small sites or building examples of
code for developers

64. OpenGraph Markup
• For marking up data for Facebook
• http://developers.facebook.com/docs/opengr
aph/
• Cool new feature based around location
markup
• http://searchengineland.com/seo-for-
facebook-open-graph-search-150772 for more
info

65. OpenGraph Markup
• Adds Facebook pages for each location when a
location page with OG markup is “Liked”
• Allows easy build out of location pages for FB

66. Which One to Use?
• RDFa or Schema.org Microdata?
• Schema.org created by the engines to be
search friendly
• Schema easier to understand
• RDFa conforms to W3C standards
• Newer RDFa Lite basically mirrors Schema
• Read this then decide:
– http://manu.sporny.org/2012/mythical-
differences/

67. What’s Next?
• More and more data types
• More integration of semantic data into the
SERPS
• Engines displaying more data directly in the
SERPS
• How can you add value to data, not just
provide the data itself?

68. Now What?
• What can you do tomorrow that will improve your
site’s SEO? Write down 3 things. Get ‘em done!
• Remember: you eat an elephant one bite at a time
• To follow me on Twitter: @sspencer
• To contact me: stephan@stephanspencer.com
• To get a copy of this slide deck email
admin@stephanspencer.com