Simply put, Schema mark-up is code that you add to your website to allow Google and other search engines understand the type of information on your page.

 According to Google, ‘adding structured data can enable search results that are more engaging to users and might encourage them to interact more with your website’.

There are various different types of schema (close to 800 different types according to Schema.org) but some of the more popular types are:

Product markup- key for ecommerce sites. Allows users to see rich information around, product or item name, description, price, colour, size, rating and stock availability.

Review snippet – Used by local businesses, products, books, films, destinations. This allows Google to display an aggregate star rating, the number of reviewers or raters and a short editorial snippet from an online review.

FAQ Schema – powers popular questions which appear on right hand side of results page. Good to use if you have a list of questions and answers around a specific theme (how / where to donate for example).

Image/Video Schema – Google struggles to crawl and ‘understand’ video and image-based content. So, using the right A/V mark-up is important as it gives Google and other search engines more information on what’s contained in the video or picture.