Micro-markup is a special semantic markup of tags within a website. This tool helps search bots understand the structure of a website, find and understand useful information on specific web pages in order to provide users with the most relevant results. By adding certain attributes to the website layout, a search engine can determine such important information as the type of product or service, price, dimensions, characteristics, etc. This is a universal language that most search engines understand.
Advantages of micro-markup:
- improving the appearance of a web resource in search engine results;
- optimizing search for user convenience due to the brief transfer of site content;
- improving site optimization after introducing useful information content in a concise form
Using structured data markup in search engines allows you to create so-called "sorcerers" that increase the visibility of your resource, as well as extended informative snippets that can improve the ranking of a site due to the growth of high-quality transitions to the site.
Purpose of extended snippets
A snippet is an information block, the so-called business card of a website, which is shown in a search engine. A snippet includes a URL, title, description and other additional information about a web resource, such as rating, assessments, contacts (the format of the micro-markup depends on the content of a specific website). Such a more interactive snippet is considered extended and inspires greater trust in users, thereby increasing the clickability of the resource.
A query asked in the form of a question generates the largest number of rich snippets and is always loaded at the top. So they can help in promoting sites with useful content, but having a low position.
The role of snippets in SEO promotion:
- improving behavioral factors;
- increasing click-through rates;
- increasing the number of transitions to the site from search.
Micro-markup dictionaries
To create micro-markup, you need a dictionary with pre-prepared values — a set of rules, a standard indicating what and how to name on the page. The dictionary identifies classes and properties, through which content is transferred from the page to the search results. There are several types of dictionaries, but the most important for search engine optimization are:
- Schema.org — "correct markup" or "gold standard" is the most popular dictionary that allows you to describe almost any product and service. This dictionary was jointly developed by major search engines in order to better understand the information on sites and display it correctly in search results.
- Open Graph — the main task of this micro-markup is to create an attractive snippet of an Internet site in social networks and instant messengers. It is a set of tags that describe for different social networks — what content to take and how to display it when reposting.
- JSON-LD is considered an alternative to schema.org and is a way to transfer related data using the JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) text format.
The ideal solution would be to use all three types of micro-markup.