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Website owners worldwide want one thing: to make their business rank higher above their competition. On Google’s search engine result pages (SERPs), we see different websites showing up for a certain search query, giving people relevant content.

In recent times, Google has innovated its approaches to providing relevant information to users. With 61% of internet searches coming from mobile devices, Google transforms how users see results. One of such introductions is the Google SERP features.

What are SERP features?

They are blurbs curated from the long-form post. They provide instant answers to queries at the top of the search results.

SERP feature examples include:

● Featured snippets.

● People Also Ask.

● Image Pack.

● Video Carousel.

● Local Map Pack.

● Knowledge Panel.

● Knowledge Card.

● Top Stories.

● Sitelinks.

● Top and Bottom Paid Ads.

● Shopping Results.

These features have indirectly made SEO harder for most business owners. It almost seems people will not bother to click a website if they can see the answers. However, it comes with a unique opportunity that businesses can take advantage of.

This article explores the importance of organic SERP features and how to optimize your website.

Why Is It Important to Win a Google SERP Feature?

Most digital marketers will argue that winning Google SERP features isn’t important to web traffic. However, taking advantage of the features come with several benefits.

Organic SERP features provide users with useful information relevant to their search. This enables them to make informed decisions or carry out actions. Leveraging these features can give your business an advantage over the competition.

Take the example below:

A newbie looking to identify equipment a disc jockey needs can read all the information on the page. They are more likely to click the link to read the best of the article. If the website is an eCommerce that deals in DJ equipment, it might be able to make revenue and boost its bottom line.

Featured snippets account for about 35% of all clicks on organic search positions. Thus, optimizing your website for SERP features will improve your click-through rates and increase your website traffic.

How Do I Find My SERP Ranking?

There are different tools to check your website’s SERP ranking for targeted keywords. One of such tools is the Ahrefs Free Keyword Rank Checker. All you need to do is input the keyword and your website URL and click Check Rankings.

It will automatically scan SERP features and provide you with the position of your website.

You can even see the websites ranking higher than others on the result pages for that keyword. You can use this free tool to identify the position your competitors rank for certain keywords.

This will guide you in optimizing your website for higher rankings.

Difference Between Paid and Organic SERP Features

SERP features come in two forms: paid and organic. So, what’s the difference between paid vs organic SERP features? 

The answer is simple: the cost. Paid SERP features allow web admins to pay to feature their web content in search results. This benefits digital marketers looking for instant results for their strategy.

As long as the content displayed is engaging, users will click on the link to get the whole picture. On the other hand, Organic SERP features utilize SEO to optimize web pages appearing on search results. 

While paid SERP features deliver instant results, it costs more in the long run. Organic SERP features may take some time to be visible, but optimizing your website content is relatively cheaper. 

Ways to Optimize for SERP Features

There are different ways you can optimize your website for Google SERP features. We will explore all of them below:

Keyword Research for SERP Features

Before optimizing your website to show up on SERP features, you must research the keywords that trigger such results. You can research your competitors’ SERPs opportunities for targeted keywords.

If your website can provide more valuable content, Google could replace their snippet with yours.

Semrush Organic Research provides a comprehensive list of all the organic SERP features of a website. All you need to do is:

● Type a competitor’s website and run a search.

● Click the Positions tab to see the SERP features for the analyzed domain.

From the SERP Features tab, you can track SERP features they don’t rank for. Thus, you can optimize your website to rank for that specific feature.

Optimize Content for Featured Snippets

Next, you need to optimize your website content to appear on the featured snippet. Most digital marketers would opt for writing compelling content that is better than the competitor. But it isn’t always successful in the long run.

Google will not quickly replace a featured snippet on a whim. However, there are different strategies you can deploy to convince Google to put up your content on the featured snippet.

There are different types of featured snippets. They include:

● Videos.

● Tables.

● Paragraphs.

● Lists.

One efficient way to create content that will make Google choose it is to keep it simple. Your content should be easy to read and understand.

Ensure that the content is not chunky or long-form. The easier it is for people to understand, the better it becomes for Google to feature it.

You should deploy the following strategies:

● Make your posts easier to read.

● Use numbers and bulleted lists.

● Include images, GIFs, videos, infographics, etc.

● Structure your content with headers such as H1, H2, H3, H4, etc.

These tips will make your website content easier to read, and Google will favor it by placing it on organic search positions.

Optimize for SERP Features With Structured Data

Another way you can optimize your website for Google SERP features is with structured data. This is simply the concept of organizing your website data into a database. For SEO, structured data refers to incorporating markup on a webpage. This is aimed at providing additional details around that webpage’s content.

This markup helps improve Google’s understanding of what that webpage is about. Thus, increasing its chances of being placed on SERP features.

To achieve this, you need to:

 ● Understand how structured data works.

● Choose the content you want to target for SERP features.

● Take note of the General Structured Data Guidelines and apply them to your website.

● Take advantage of schema.org properties to markup your website content.

● Run a Google Rich Results Test to check for successful optimization.

These structured data tips will help optimize your web content’s appearance on Google SERP features.

Submit Sitemap to Google

A sitemap is a file that provides detailed information about all your website pages. It aids Google’s bots in crawling your website faster and indexing your content accordingly.

Sitemaps inform Google which of your web pages are important to organic search. Sitemaps are essential if your website is relatively new with no external links. It tells Google what content is on your website without depending on backlinks from another website.

It’s also vital for a website with hundreds of pages. If your website has many pages, it will take longer for Google to completely crawl through it. A sitemap makes crawling easier and faster.

Submitting your sitemap to Google improves your chances of being featured. Follow these tips to submit your sitemap to Google:

● Sign in to your Google Search Console.

● Select your website from the sidebar.

● Click on the Sitemaps menu under the Index section.

● Enter the website address of your sitemap.xml file.

● Click submit.

Use Google SERP Optimization Tool

Using a SERP optimization tool, you can also improve your Google SERP features opportunities. It allows web admins to structure their web content, page titles, and meta description to convince Google to place it on organic search positions.

When this happens, it enhances your click-through rate (CTR) and web traffic.

Some of these tools include Higher Visibility, Mangools’ Google SERP Simulator, Wideman’s Google SERP Snippet Optimization Tool, Popupsmart’s Google SERP Tool, etc.

Improve Your SERP Feature Ranking With Abstrax Web

Improving your website rankings on organic search results requires you to have a deeper understanding of how SEO works. If you don’t know how to pull it off, reach out to a professional SEO expert.

Abstrax Web is an innovative SEO consultancy company tasked with improving your business’ visibility and traffic from organic search. Over the years, we’ve helped both small and large businesses to generate more leads, boost revenues, and increase their bottom line.

Get in touch with us today.

SEO is constantly changing the way results are presented to search queries. When people conduct organic searches on their smartphones or PCs, Google’s bots crawl through millions of web pages to present the best and most relevant results.

Most digital marketers optimize website pages and hope for the best. They leave the job of ranking websites solely on Google’s algorithms. However, it’s essential to provide search engines with additional details to make them better understand your website. This will help them display what’s relevant to users during an organic search.

Coding schema is one of the innovative ways you can inform search engines about your website content.

This article explores everything you need to know about schema.org markup and how to implement it for your website.

What Is Schema.org?

Schema.org is a collection of schemas (descriptive tags) that are added to the HTML code of websites that web admins use to improve their content for visibility during an organic search. That’s a mouthful. So, let’s break it down.

Content schema provides detailed information to search engines so that they understand your web pages better. It allows search engines to see the meaning and the interaction between the content on your website.

Schema markup was designed by Google, Bing, and Yahoo back in 2011. This structured vocabulary helped their search algorithms understand web content, so they will rank it based on its relevance.

 There are several schema.org multiple types to indicate different sections of a website. They include: 

● Recipes

● Events

● Articles

● Local businesses

● Medical conditions

● Products

● People

When these markups are included on your site, search engines understand it better.

Why Schema Markup Is Important?

People who click on your website understand what it’s all about from the content. But search engines do not. They cannot 100% confirm the website’s content without pointers as much as they try to crawl and index web pages.

By coding schema markup into your website HTML code, you can help these engines to learn what it is all about. And this will help them display them to users in the best way during an organic search.

The importance of schema markup in SEO includes:

● Provide tags for search algorithms. Schema markups provide search engines with descriptive tags. This helps them to learn more about your website content.

● Increase web page rankings on SERPs. When search engines understand what your website is all about, it will rank better in SERPs.

● Improve website traffic. Web traffic automatically increases when search engines rank your pages higher in SERPs.

● Connect your website to your target audience. With schema.org markups in place, your website will be rightly positioned to target your audience.

Looking at these advantages of structured data, it is essential to implement schema marketing for your website.

How Does Schema.org Work?

Schema.org provides comprehensive vocabularies web admins can incorporate on their website so that it can be understood by search engines. These vocabularies are made up of tags (microdata) that you can add to your website HTML code to improve the way search engines understand your website.

Coding schema markup into your website code will improve how it appears in organic search. All of this involves structured data. It includes matching values and names to make it easier for search bots to index your website.

Microdata – a form of schema markup – works with HTML5, generally accepted as a markup language. This markup provides a set of definitions for descriptive tags.

Types of Schema Markups

The schema.org markup indicates a wide range of web content. The schema.org multiple types are commonly used to indicate:

● Events

● Products

● Organization

● Local Businesses

● Medical conditions

● Articles

● People

When you include these markups in your website HTML code, search engines will understand how your website is set up. Search engines will then showcase this information via Rich or Featured Snippets.

How Does Schema Markup Help SEO?

SEO typically works like this:

Someone needing information tries to look it up by running an organic search on Google, Bing, or Yahoo. These search engine bots crawl through millions of web pages and display the relevant results on SERPs.

More often than not, some websites with relevant content don’t get displayed. This is because search bots do not properly understand them enough to display them for organic SEO.

With schema markup for local SEO, search bots can get a picture of what a website is all about and rank it above others for relevance. With such an understanding of website content, Google and other search engines will be able to position them in special places on their result pages.

So, yes, schema markup helps SEO for businesses in a remarkable way.

What Is the Recommended Format for Implementing Schema Markup?

There are different formats available for incorporating schema markup into your website code. It’s often difficult to decide the perfect schema markup for blog posts. However, we will look at some of the most preferred formats for implementing schema markup.

They include:

RDFa

Resource Description Framework in Attributes (RDFa) is an extension to HTML5, created to help web developers structure markup for SEO.

Initially, it was considered a web standard. So, its usefulness goes beyond creating structured data for a schema. Noticeably, RDFa tags mingle with the preexisting HTML code on your web page. Some of its attributes include:

● about – it specifies the resource the metadata is all about.

● content – it overrides the content of the element for the property attribute.

● datatype – it specifies the datatype of text for use within the property attribute.

● typeof – it specifies the RDF type of the partner resource or the subject

Microdata

Microdata is a special set of tags to make an annotation on HTML elements easier for search engines to read. Microdata is the best place to start if you’re a beginner web developer.

One of the drawbacks to using Microdata is that you have to mark every item within the code of your web page. However, once you get the hang of it, you can utilize it for schema marketing.

Some of its attributes include:

● itemscope – it creates the item and indicates that all the elements contain the details about it.

● itemprop – it indicates the containing tag with the specified property’s value.

● itemid – it indicates the identifier of the item

● itemref – it references properties of an element that isn’t contained in the itemscope.

● itemtype – it describes the property and item within a valid URL.

JSON-LD

JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Objects (JSON-LD) is a style of content schema that is positioned into the <head> or <body> tag of a web document.

It uses notations such as @context and @type to specify the schema.org creativework. JSON-LD is perhaps one of the fastest ways to incorporate schema into an HTML code.

Schema on Read vs Schema on Write

Regarding schema markup, there are two types of expression: schema on read vs schema on write. We look at their differences here:

Schema on read essentially creates structured data only when it is read. The structure is applied to the data, allowing unstructured data to be stored in the database. With schema on read, you do not need to define the schema before storing the data.

Schema on write, on the other hand, deals with creating a schema for data and writing it into the database. Most of the data exists in an unstructured form. Thus, with schema on write, you have to define the schema for the data and structure it according to the schema created.

How to Add Schema Markup

If you have ever wondered how to add schema.org to website, here’s how to do it:

● Visit Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper.

● Select the type of data you want to use. It could be an article, reviews, products, etc.

● Paste the URL you want to add to the schema.org

● Select the elements to mark up on the web page.

● Fill in the external information on the markup items.

● Create your HTML.

● Add the snippets to your CMS or source code for your website.

Conclusion

Schema.org markup is essential for every website to gain more visibility on SERPs. If it’s too technical for you to understand, contact Abstrax Web to take care of it.

Today’s businesses are battling for digital supremacy on search engine result pages (SERPs). Thus, they’re investing in tools, conducting on-page optimization, and monitoring their marketing efforts.

To stand out, you need to take a keen look at your website’s performance and ascertain if you’re doing the right thing to attract leads and boost your bottom line. Google offers an array of free innovative tools to monitor your SEO performance.

One of such tools is the Google Search Console (GSC). It’s a website tool that shows web admins and digital marketers how search engines crawl through their web pages. Formerly called Google Webmaster Tools, GSC delivers sensitive data on how Google crawls and indexes your website.

With the data displayed on the platform, you will be able to see if your marketing efforts are paying off or not. More so, you will be able to discover which section of your website needs improvement.

This article discusses the intro to the Google search console and how you can take advantage of its unique features.

What Is Google Search Console Used For?

Google search console comes with several benefits. Its uses include:

● Confirming if your web pages can be crawled. One of Google Search Console’s benefits is that it helps you identify if Google can crawl through your web content. If your website cannot be crawled, it will be near impossible to show during an organic search.

● See the ranking of your web pages. With Google Search Console, you can see just how your page ranks when targeted keywords are used by users. You can also see which web page is generating the most Google site traffic. You can identify how much traffic each web page generates for your website.

● Make you understand how Google sees your website. The tool gives you a clear picture of how Google crawls through your website and indexes its content. It also provides details such as website appearance and web traffic information.

● Discover technical errors. You can spot technical errors affecting your SEO performance with this tool.

● Ensure your website is mobile-friendly. Another usefulness of Google Search Console is that you can ascertain if your website is mobile-friendly. A record 63% of organic searches come from smartphones. GSC lets you know if your website is fully optimized for mobile devices.

● Discover your website page loading speed. Search console and analytics also allow you to discover how fast your website loads on PCs and mobile devices.

● Monitor your AMPs. You can monitor your Accelerated Mobile Pages from the Google console report to check for critical errors.

Google Search Console is designed to help business owners, SEO specialists, bloggers, web developers, and site administrators.

Using Google Search Console for Traffic

Google Search Console can be used to monitor your website traffic and performance. It’s important to have this information to ascertain if you’re making the right SEO improvements on your website and its pages.

When people search for content online, Google will crawl through millions of pages and reveal the best and most relevant web pages on the search results. Google only displays pages that have been optimized for those targeted keywords.

If your website has not been optimized for those keywords, it will not appear on the SERPs. And that is going to affect your website traffic. Without web analytics tools like GSC, you won’t know whether your SEO efforts need more work.

Google search console comes with several unique features you should take note of. These features include:

Clicks

Google Search Console clicks reveal your website’s exact number of clicks. This figure displayed on the dashboard is essential to ascertain that your website is performing and achieving business objectives.

For instance, if your content marketing isn’t on point, your website will take a lot of time to generate clicks. Your website content should be simple to read and understand. Your content should be original, factual, and engaging to your audience.

Your website content should be informative. People often land on pages to seek solutions to their concerns. If your website provides solutions to your targeted audience, they will always come back for more. On the plus side, they will advertise your website to their friends, generating more traffic for your website.

CTR

CTR in SEO stands for click-through rate. It’s one of the features you will find on the search console and analytics. It reveals the percentage of people who have seen your website from an organic search and have clicked on it.

If your website has a higher CTR rate, it means more people are clicking your website. The same thing follows if your CTR is less.

CTR is often a determinant of how your page ranks on SERPs. Thus, you need to carry out on-page optimization for your website. This includes editing your meta titles and descriptions for the best results.

Impressions

Google search console impressions is another useful feature of the search console. It shows how frequent your web pages show on SERPs. Thus, you can examine how often your website pages appear and if users see them.

Another uniqueness is that you can monitor the impressions across all your website pages.

Average Position

What does average position mean in Google Search Console? This tab shows the average ranking of your web pages for specific keywords.

Different users, depending on their location, get different search results. Thus, your website ranking for those keywords will be slightly adjusted every time.

How to Add Your Website to Google Search Console

So, how do you submit a URL to Google Search Console? Follow these steps.

● Log in to Google Search Console. You need to log in to Google Search Console. You must have a Google account before using the tool.

● Add the URL of your website. Enter the URL of your website under the Domain section and click continue.

● Verify your domain. Google will need authenticating for it to monitor your website. On the next page, they will send you a tracking code in a TXT format. You will copy the tracking code, sign in to your domain provider and paste the code into the DNS configuration of your website.

Submit Your Sitemap to Google

You can also submit your sitemap to Google Search Console. It lets Google quickly understand your website and showcase it to users during organic searches. Here’s how:

● Sign in to Google Search Console.

● Select your website from the sidebar.

● Input your sitemap URL to the space provided.

What Is Google Indexing Tool?

Google Indexing Tools is an innovative tool that lets Google store all your website’s information. Indexing is essential in SEO performance because it allows Google to quickly fetch information about your website when people search for related content online.

You will find the URL inspection tool on the Google Search Console dashboard. It conducts a Google search comparison between Google’s index and the current to check for differences.

Configuring Search Console Data in Analytics

To get a full picture of your digital marketing efforts, you can link your Google Search Console and Google Analytics.

Here’s how to do it:

● Sign in to your Google Analytics account.

● Click Admin and locate the property and enable Search Console data sharing.

● Under the PROPERTY column, click Property Settings > Search Console Settings.

● Select the reporting views and click Save.

Conclusion

Google Search Console is an integral aspect of your digital marketing efforts. Now, you know how to implement, monitor, and improve your website’s SEO performance.