BTTR and structured data

At BTTR, we make sure our clients appear as high as possible in Google search results. There are many contributing factors. One of those factors is the use of structured data, or similar formatting. There are different types of structured data that makes it clear to Google what the content is about and what it means.

Structured data indicates what your page is about and the purpose of the content present. For Google, this is how it assesses which search results your content should show up in. This is because you state in language that is understandable to the computer what the subject of the page is.

This increases the usability of Google, since the goal is to show the most relevant search results as quickly as possible in the search results overview. The applied structured data can therefore result in rich snippets or rich cards. These are search results that contain more visual information. This makes you stand out more within the search results.

Structured data itself is not a direct ranking factor of Google. That is, Google does not value structured data when they crawl a Web page. However, it does help in an indirect way. Many people don't get beyond the first page of search results on Google. Getting on the first page of Google is often a chore in itself. And once you appear on the first page of Google, it's still no guarantee that people will click on your web page.

Structured data can change this. Your web page stands out more with the addition of the structured data when it results in rich snippets. This can be as simple as adding the review snippet. This is the average of reviews displayed with 1 to 5 stars. Once your web page gets more notice and clicks, the click trough rate (CTR) increases. And that is a ranking factor of Google. After all, if more people click on your Web page in search results, it is clear to Google that it matches what people are looking for. In this way, structured data can indirectly cause you to rank higher in Google. For example, we applied structured data for one of our clients which produces the following result.

Structured data and associated rich snippets come in many different forms. This makes sense since not every page has the same purpose. Do you want to promote a product or service or answer frequently asked questions? Rich snippets therefore come in the following forms, among others:

• Places
• Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
• Books
• Events
• Recipes
• Prices
• Reviews
• Local businesses
• Breadcrumbs
• Products/services

Voice search is getting bigger and bigger. You may have noticed but more and more places have a Google home speaker and the recognizable "hey Google..." is shouted across the room. The results that Google communicates back are from rich snippets. So it may be that the application of structured data is causing your information to be shouted through entire rooms by Google.

Not too long ago, Google for Jobs was officially launched. In it, job openings are collected and displayed in a separate view. This allows job seekers to have the jobs in front of them at a glance. However, to appear in Google for Jobs, it is necessary for Google to know what information is on your website and that it is a job page. You can indicate this with structured data. So without structured data, you won't appear in Google for Jobs.

To add structured data, certain content must be marked up. This can be done using JSON-LD, microdata, RDFa or a WordPress plugin. In addition, it is possible to add structured data using Google's markup helper. This may sound complicated and it can be if you have little understanding of it.

So at Timbee we help you get this done. This way your website will stand out and you will get more visitors! Feel free to contact us if you have any questions about or come visit us at the office.