5 Types of Schema Markup and Their Examples [2024]

Search Engine Optimization ( SEO ) is a set of practices that optimizes your website to achieve a higher ranking in search results. As explained through our article here, SEO is important for business nowadays as it helps connect potential customers to your website, and in turn secure your sales.

Schema Markup is a method in SEO that helps search engines better understand your content, and represent it better to the audience. This is achieved by providing richer information about your website, which in turn leads to an improved click-through rates ( CTR ) and better conversions.

Types of Schema Markup

Schema markup is a type of code that you can add to your website’s HTML. There are three main formats for the schema markup code : JSON-LD, Microdata, and RDFa. While all three are recognizable by search engines, Google recommends using JSON-LD format due to its ease of implementation and maintenance.

Here are five of the most common types of schema markup:

1. Article schema markup:

This type of schema markup is used to highlight articles in search results. It can potentially lead to more visually appealing snippets by including an image that is contained within the article. It’s perfect for websites with informative content like news articles or blog posts

How Article Schema Works

Article schema markup works by showing a set of properties that provide the readers with essential info about the articles. Some of these properties include:

Title: The main title of the article.
Website: The website that hosted the article.
Published Date: The date or time the article was published.
Image: The main image included in the article.

2. Product schema markup:

This type of schema markup is a huge game-changer for e-commerce websites. It allows you to display useful product information in the search results, such as prices, availability, reviews and also ratings. This can significantly improve your CTR and conversion rates. Other related schema types like brand and aggregate rating can further improve your product listings.

How Product Schema Works

Product schema markup provides detailed information about the product to users through a set of properties. Some of these properties are:

Product Name: This is the official name for the product.
Description: This includes a short explanation about the product features or benefits.
Image: An image of the specific product.
Price: The product’s current price on the website.
Availability: This indicates whether there is available stock for the product.
Reviews: This includes the ratings, number of people rated, and number of reviews for the product.

3. Video schema markup

If your website features any type of video content, adding a video schema markup can be highly beneficial for you. This markup allows you to provide more details about your video, such as the title, thumbnail, length and more. This can help inform the users about the video at a glance and improve CTR.

How Video Schema Works

Video schema markup provides detailed information about the video to users through a set of properties. Some of these properties are:

Video Name: The title of the video.
Description: A description of the video’s content.
Thumbnail: A snapshot or image representing the video.
Upload Date: The date or time the video was published.
Video Duration: The total length of the video.

4. Event schema markup

This type of schema markup is useful for websites that host events or sell tickets. You can use it to provide more details about your event, such as the name, date, time, location, description, and even the ticket pricing. These features can be really helpful for promoting concerts, conferences, workshops, and other such events.

How Event Schema Works

Event schema markup provides detailed information about the event to users through a set of properties. Some of these properties are:

Event Name: The name of the event.
Event Date: The start date and time of the event.
Location: The location of the event venue.
Artist or Performer: The person or group who will perform at the event.
Ticket Seller: A link to the official site selling the ticket.

5. Recipe Schema Markup

Recipe schema markup allows you to display a rich snippet of your recipe in the search results, including cooking time, number of ingredients and also the ratings. This can be a great way to attract a larger audience to visit your food blog or recipe website.

How Recipe Schema Works

Recipe schema markup provides detailed information about the recipe to users through a set of properties. Some of these properties are:

Recipe Name: The name of the recipe.
Image: An image of the finished dish.
Category: The type of dish (e.g., Food, dessert).
Cuisine: The specific culinary region (e.g., Italian, French).
Cook Time: The estimated time needed to cook.
Ingredients: Numbers of ingredients needed.
Ratings: Ratings and numbers of people rated the recipe.
Author: The person or website which published the recipe.

There are also other schema markup types available, such as Local Business schema and FAQ schema. The best type of schema markup for your website highly depends on your content and purpose of the website.

How to Choose the Right Schema Markup for Your Site

Google has a resource library for some of the main types of schema markup that list out the sample code and image examples. Before going and checking those out, you will need to know what are the best schema types for your website. The key importance is to choose one – or a few ( yes, using a few markup in one page possible ) – schema markup that best reflects the content and goal of your website. Here are some suggestion on the types of markup for some popular website types :

Schema Markup For Ecommerce Website

For an e-commerce website, the best schema type would be the product schema markup. This type of schema allows you to showcase your product in a more informative way while still being visually easy to digest. This can contribute to higher clicks and ultimately, more sales.

Here is an example of the JSON-LD type code for product schema:

 <html>
  <head>
    <title>Sneakers</title>
    <script type="application/ld+json">
    {
      "@context": "https://schema.org/",
      "@type": "Product",
      "name": "Product Name",
      "description": "Product Description",
      "review": {
        "@type": "Review",
        "reviewRating": {
          "@type": "Rating",
          "ratingValue": 4,
          "bestRating": 5
        },
        "author": {
          "@type": "Person",
          "name": "Author Name"
        }
      },
      "aggregateRating": {
        "@type": "AggregateRating",
        "ratingValue": 4.4,
        "reviewCount": 89
      }
    }
    </script>
  </head>
  <body>
  </body>
</html>

Schema Markup For Blogging Website

If your website focuses more on providing informative content like blog articles and guides, utilising the article schema markup is the best choice. This schema markup type can help search engines better understand your content, leading to a richer snippet in the search result.

Here is an example of the JSON-LD type code for article schema:

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of a News Article</title>
    <script type="application/ld+json">
    {
      "@context": "https://schema.org",
      "@type": "NewsArticle",
      "headline": "Article Title",
      "image": [
        "https://example.com/photos/1x1/photo.jpg",
        "https://example.com/photos/4x3/photo.jpg",
        "https://example.com/photos/16x9/photo.jpg"
       ],
      "datePublished": "2024-01-01T08:00:00+08:00",
      "dateModified": "2024-02-01T09:15:00+08:00",
      "author": [{
          "@type": "Person",
          "name": "Author Name",
          "url": "https://example.com/profile/authorprofile"
        }]
    }
    </script>
  </head>
  <body>
  </body>
</html>

How to Implement Schema Markup

There are a lot of tools for implementing schemas that you can choose from, one of them is the Yoast SEO plugin for wordpress. This tool automatically implements the schema markup for your whole site but you have the option to edit and implement a specific schema for specific pages. Here’s a quick guide on how you can achieve that :

Open the post or page editor for the content you want to change the schema.
Scroll down to the Yoast SEO features box.

Click on the Schema section.
Click on the Page type and Article type dropdown menu.
Choose the most relevant schema type for your content (e.g., Web Page, FAQ Page, Blog Post, Tech Article, etc).

This method works with the Yoast SEO plugins where the schema markup is automatically implemented for all pages. Different plugins may require a manual activation and individual implementation of schema for each page.

Conclusion

There are many types of schema markup in SEO, each with its own features and suitability. By implementing the right markup on your site, you can help search engines and your audience understand your website better. This will put you at an advantage amongst your competitors, allowing you to be the digital leader in your field. There are also a lot of other benefits for optimising your website for the search engine as explored in this article. So, what else is holding you back from using this feature on your website?

Types Of Schema Markup in SEO and Which is The Right One for Your Site?