If you want a quality-built website for your online business – then you need to understand Semantic Web Standards (Web 3.0) & the implications for SEO, & Semantic search!
“Semantic Web Standards are a set of guidelines & technologies developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to make web data machine-readable.”
W3C states they develop standards & guidelines to help everyone build a web based on the principles of accessibility, internationalisation, privacy, & security.
“Their goal was to create a Web of Data that is machine readable, through structured data processing & understanding.”
Some key technologies included Resource Description Framework (RDF) for representing information, Web Ontology Language (OWL) for knowledge relationships, & SPARQL for retrieving RDF data – all used to represent metadata.
By applying Semantic Web Standards (SWS) through structured data, you improve search engine’s understanding of a website’s authority, relevancy, currency, & audience.
“Professional developers follow Semantic Web Standards for a variety of reasons – to improve searchability, interoperability, data sharing, & automation.”
Adding Semantic metadata to a web page, e.g. Schema Markup, page titles, meta descriptions, H1 tags, & image alt tags, assists search engines to understand the purpose of the page for enabling better searchability.
It assists the interoperability of data from different sources – think search results pulling data from Google Business Profile into Google Maps, or a newsletter sign-up & delivery.
Data sharing across different web applications, integrated marketing systems, & social media is a key benefit of structured data – if you’re using WordPress there’s native features & many SEO plugins which support structure data.
“One example is adding structured Semantic sections in web pages, segmented by different sub-topics using the metatag <section>.”
It’s good practice to use Sections to segment pages into sub-topics with the <section> metatag & with a container inside as a styled division, with the <container> metatag.
Some examples of page sub-topics are; hero (Services), features, explainer, testimonials, examples, gallery, portfolio, pricing, & FAQs – with individual <section> metatags.
This structure provides SEO benefits helping search engines to understand the web page, & improves accessibility, as sectioning sub-topics provides context for impaired visitors.
“It’s good practice when your sub-topic changes on page, add a new Semantic section for it with your website builder.”
If you’re using Bricks WordPress builder, the section elements are enhanced – as Bricks automatically adds a container into each new section & tags them semantically.
The section & container structure also provides the benefits of responsive design, as both use flexbox layout models, which make it easier to align & space elements. Learn more.
You also get predefined styles & spacing using sections in Bricks builder, for example when adding a new section your web page is developed with consistent styles & spacing.
“Schema Markup is a standard which improves a site’s visibility, by making web pages more understandable to search engines.”
Schema Markup (SM) was developed in 2011, as a collaboration between Google, Microsoft, Yahoo & Yandex, to implement uniformity via a structured data framework.
The markup language defines the content & code on web pages in a format called metadata that enables machines to read & understand the data.
You determine which markup is best to apply to your web pages, e.g. for services, articles, products, events, then add the uniform schema type from Schema.org.
SM is then embedded in your web page using one of the supported formats – JSON-LD, Microdata, or RDFa – through your website technology, or plugins, or manually.
If you’re using WordPress there are several plugins that can implement Schema Markup.
I use RM Pro with tags like “@type”: “ProfessionalService” for Home page, “@type”: “Service” for Services pages, & “@type”: “BlogPosting”, “name”: “Troy Miller” for articles.
“Your SM plugin creates markup for Local Businesses, Articles, Authors, & more.”
When you publish an article with SM, e.g. BlogPosting, Author, & Publisher in the code with Rank Math Pro – search engines understand the data type, authority, & credibility.
According to Google SM is mandatory for important YMYL articles that cover technical expertise, medical & health information, or financial information.
One benefit of SM is that it can help search engines create better rich snippets for Author searches, outlining their work, biographical, & social media profiles.
Next time you search for your name or business on Google, when the information displays, ask yourself is this accurate, & is it pulling data from SM or website content?
“Stand out with Local Business SM to become a rich snippet in the SERPs.”
SM for Local Business tags your business type, NAP data (name, address, phone number), & other data such as, open hours/days, URL, logo, image, description, & links web pages.
You determine your Local Business category from 30-types on Schema.org. SBMarketer is a coaching & consulting business, so “ProfessionalService” is appropriate.
If you find none of the categories are suitable for your business type, then you can simply markup your business type as “LocalBusiness.”
SM for Local Business will assist you on Google Maps in achieving a prominent listing for your business in your local region, & increase your site’s visitor traffic.
Establishing your Google Business Profile is critical for a new business, along with applying your SM for Local Business with accurate metadata details.
“Open Graph Protocol is a subset of SWS, developed by Facebook to boost social media engagement, & enhance the display of web pages in social media.”
Open Graph (OG) uses RDF in attributes (RDFa) to embed structured data in page code.
OG enables web pages to become rich objects & controls how your content appears when shared on Facebook & other social media.
If you’re using WordPress much of this data is handled by your page builder & SEO plugins – but make sure it’s checked before & after publishing on Facebook & other platforms.
OG can significantly boost social media referrals to a website by giving your page the appearance of a well-designed card display with a title, description, & image.
OG code examples:
- “og:locale” content = “en_us” for US English;
- “og:type” content = “article” for blogs;
- “og:title” content = “Page title;”
- “og:description” content=”Page description;”
- “og:image” content = “Hero image URL.”
“Twitter Card is another subset of SWS, developed by Twitter for enhancing website appearances & sharing via structured data in the web page code.”
Twitter Card is a practical application of SWS, which makes it easier for Twitter’s web crawler to understand & display your website content.
Twitter offers four types – a Summary Card with thumbnail, a Summary Card with large image, an App Card for direct downloading, & Player Card for video, audio, or media.
If using WordPress, it’s a good idea to check your Twitter Card metadata before you publish by using a professional plugin like Rank Math SEO Pro or similar.
After publishing, use Twitter’s validator tool to check how your Twitter Card displays. Also practice sharing the link of your article or page so you can see how it displays in reality.
Twitter code examples:
- “twitter:card” content=”summary_large_image;”
- “twitter:title” content=”Page title;”
- “twitter:description” content=”Page description;”
- “twitter:image” content=”Hero image URL;”
- “twitter:data1″ content=”Troy Miller.”
“SWS, Schema Markup, & Sematic Search will not be on your mind everyday – but if you’re involved with web development – ask yourself am I meeting the standards?
When building a website, writing articles, or publishing online – ask how do I tag this information correctly to enhance my Semantic metadata for better search results?
When it’s time to focus on SEO, add SM, Open Graph, & Twitter Card, to achieve significant improvement in the SERPs & with your Click-Through-Rate from better matched search queries.
Always check your pages & posts when publishing to see if the SM, Open Graph & Twitter Card metatags are correct in the page source code.
To see examples of my SM, Open Graph or Twitter Card metatags on this page – in Chrome, right click on the page, & select “View Page Source.”
If you need assistance adding SM, Open Graph or Twitter Card metatags to your website, send me an email with your URL & request for assistance.
What is your favourite Semantic Web Standard? Let me know in the comments below.
Let’s Rank High Punters!
