If you want a quality website for your Internet business – then you need to understand Semantic Web Standards (Web 3.0) & the implications for SEO.
Semantic Web might sound complex, but at the wholistic level, it’s pretty easy to follow.
Once you have applied the standards across your website with building techniques & using plugins like Rank Math SEO, you’re set for better search engine understanding.
Semantic Web Standards
By applying Semantic Web Standards (SWS) through structured data, you improve search engine’s understanding of a site’s relevancy, & currency.
“SWS are a set of guidelines & technologies created by 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, privacy, & security.
“Their goal was to create a Web of Data that is machine readable, through structured data processing.”
Some key technologies included Resource Description Framework for representing information, Web Ontology Language for relationships, & SPARQL for RDF data.
“Developers follow SWS for a variety of reasons – to improve searchability, interoperability, & data sharing.”
Adding Semantic Web Standards to a web page, e.g. Schema Markup, page titles, meta descriptions, H1 tags, & image alt text, assists search engines to understand the page for better searchability.
It assists the sharing of data across different sources – think search results pulling data from Google Business Profile into Google Maps or AIO.
1. Using Semantic Sections
Data sharing across websites, marketing systems, & social media is a key benefit of structured data.
If you’re using WP there’s native features & SEO plugins to support structure data implementation.
“One example is adding structured Sections in web pages, for 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 for styling <container>.
Some sub-topic examples; services, features, testimonials, examples, portfolio, pricing, & FAQs – each with a <section> metatag.
This structure provides context helping search engines to understand the web page, & improves accessibility for impaired visitors.
“It’s good practice when your sub-topic changes, add a new section tag with your website builder.”
If you’re using Bricks WP builder, the section elements are enhanced – as Bricks automatically adds section & container tags & provides controls to set-up tags.
You also get predefined styles & spacing with sections in Bricks, so when adding a new section your page gets consistency.
2. Using Schema Markup
Schema Markup (SM) was developed in 2011, as a collaboration between Google, Microsoft, Yahoo & Yandex, to implement a structured data framework.
“Schema Markup is another SWS which improves a site’s visibility, making them more understandable to search engines.”
The markup defines the content 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, by reviewing Schema.org.
There are several WP plugins that add Schema Markup.
SM is placed in your web page using one of the supported formats – JSON-LD, Microdata, or RDFa – using Rank Math SEO.
I have SM tags like “@type”: “Service” for Home page, “@type”: “Service” for Services pages, & “@type”: “BlogPosting”, “datePublished” for articles.
“SM has categories for Local Businesses, Pages, Articles, Authors, Orgs. & more.”
When you publish an article with SM, e.g. “BlogPosting”, “Author”, & “Publisher” are a few of the tags added by Rank Math SEO.
Google states SM is mandatory for important YMYL articles on technical expertise, medical & health information, or financial information.
Rich Snippets For Local Business
SM assists search engines to create better rich snippets for Author searches, outlining their work, biographical, & social media profiles.
SM for Local Business is critical & tags your business type, NAP data, & other items, e.g. open hours/days, URL & web pages.
Next time you search for your name or business, when the information displays, ask yourself is it accurate & pulling data from my SM or website socials?
“Stand out with Local Business SM to feed a rich snippet in the SERPs.”
SM for Local Business will assist you on Google Maps in achieving a better listing in your local region, & increase your site’s visibility.
Securing your Google Business Profile is critical for a new business, along with adding SM for Local Business with NAP metadata.
You can determine your Local Business category from 30-types on Schema.org. SBMarketer is a coaching & consulting business, so “Service” is appropriate.
3. Using Open Graph
Open Graph (OG) enables web pages to become rich objects & controls how your content appears when shared on Facebook & other social media.
“Open Graph is a subset of Semantic Web Standards, created by Facebook to boost engagement, & enhance web page displays.”
Open Graph (OG) uses RDF in attributes (RDFa) to embed structured data in pages.
If you’re using WP, the OG data is handled by your builder or SEO plugins & it’s good to check how your content shares on social media after publishing.
OG can 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.”
4. Using Twitter Card
Twitter Card (TC) is a subset of Semantic Web Standards, which makes it easier for Twitter’s web crawler to display your content.
“Twitter Card is a subset of SWS, developed by Twitter for enhancing website appearances & sharing via structured data in web pages.”
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 WP, it’s good to check your Twitter Card metadata before you publish by using a plugin like Rank Math SEO 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.”
How Semantic Web Helps SEO
When building a website or publishing articles – ask how do I tag this information with Semantic metadata to achieve Semantic Web Standards for SEO?
“Semantic Sections, Schema Markup, OG & TC may not be in your thoughts – but if you’re involved in building websites – ask am I meeting the standards?
When it’s time to focus on SEO – add Schema Markup, Open Graph, & Twitter Card, for improvement in your searchability from better machine learning & matched search queries.
It’s always good to check your pages & posts when publishing to see if the SM, Open Graph & Twitter Card metatags are correct in your page source code.
Achieving Semantic Web Standards
Semantic Web Standards improve the effectiveness of search engines, websites & social media to deliver on search queries & provide better visual displays using cards.
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!
