Schema.org
Schema.org
is a semantic markup format for online data. The format was published by Google, Bing and Yahoo! search engines in summer 2011.
The purpose of semantic markup is to make the internet more understandable and structured. Also, it makes it easier for search engines and special software to extract and process key information and display it in the search results.
You can mark up documents using special attributes that are entered directly in HTML code. You don't need to create any separate export files.
Why use microformats
You can use semantic markup to improve your site's snippets in the search results.
Compare the snippets for a page from a Yandex.Dictionaries partner site. One snippet is based on semantic markup and the other one isn't.
- The site without semantic markup:
- The site that uses semantic markup:
The standard provides a set of classes describing a variety of entities and their properties. There are already several hundred of them. The standard is constantly being improved, with adding new properties and extending the existing ones.
For the standard description, go to the documentation section on the Schema.org official site.
Basic markup principles
Every Schema.org
markup is carried out in two steps:
First you wrap a certain type in a container and specify the markup schema:
<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Organization" > ... </div>
Then you enter the appropriate values for each markup attribute:
<span itemprop="streetAddress">Lva Tolstogo, 16</span>
Document without markup
<div>
<span>Yandex</span>
Contacts:
<div>
Address: ul. Lva Tolstogo, 16, 119021, Moscow,
</div>
Telephone: +7 495 739–70–00, Fax: +7 495 739–70–70, Email: pr@yandex-team.ru
</div>
Document with Schema.org
markup
<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Organization">
<span itemprop="name">Yandex</span> Contacts:
<div itemprop="address" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress"> Address:
<span itemprop="streetAddress">ul. Lva Tolstogo, 16</span>
<span itemprop="postalCode"> 119021</span>
<span itemprop="addressLocality">Moscow</span>,
</div> Telephone:<span itemprop="telephone">+7 495 739–70–00</span>, Fax:<span itemprop="faxNumber">+7 495 739–70–70</span>, Email: <span itemprop="email">pr@yandex-team.ru</span>
</div>
Getting started with Schema.org
Tools for using semantic markup
- Semantic markup validator in Yandex.Webmaster.
- For popular CMS, plug-ins for implementing micro-markup can be developed. You can check whether there is a plugin for your site in the CMS or in the description of the site building platform.
How Yandex uses the markup data
Semantic markup is used by various Yandex services:
Products and prices markup helps Yandex search generate special snippets for pages with this kind of markup.
Software information markup (applications, computer programs, games, and so on) helps the search generate special snippets for pages with this kind of markup.
- Recipe markup helps the search generate special snippets for pages with this kind of markup.
- Film description markup helps the search generate special snippets for pages with this kind of markup.
- Question and answer markup helps the search generate special mobile snippets for pages with this kind of markup.
- Marking up student research and similar works helps the search generate special snippets for pages with this kind of markup.
- Marking up organization information and its address helps Yandex.Business and Yandex search generate special snippets for pages with this kind of markup.
- Image information markupImage information markup helps you improve the presentation of images on the Yandex.Images service.
- Video clip information markup helps you improve the presentation of video materials.
Information marked up according to the Schema.org
standard becomes publicly available and can be extracted or used by any service.