Schema for Blogger. Best SEO strategy for Blogspot in 2023

Introduction

In the realm of blogging, it is essential to optimize your website for both readers and search engines. Implementing schema markup is an effective method to increase the visibility of your blog in search engine results pages (SERPs). Schema markup is a code that can be added to a website to provide search engines with information about its content. In this blog post, we will walk you through the process of preparing a schema for your Blogger blog, which will help search engines better understand your content and increase your possibilities of ranking higher in search results.

SCHEMA is the road map to an article containing entire information regarding the database. In simple words, it is a structure or skeleton of a database.

Without understanding SCHEMA, the bots or search engines cannot understand what you intend to say through your blog post. Hence all WordPress blogs have certain plugins like Yoast SEO or Rankmath to auto-generate SCHEMA for entire blog posts and pages.

But Blogger or Blogspot lacks such automation and has to be manually incorporated after every blog post. On the other hand, SCHEMA plays a crucial role in SEO.

SEO – Search engine optimization, is the word that is ruling the world of the internet. Every blog and website tries to abide by the rules of SEO to be visible in search results.

[To know more about the SEO of bloggers click here]

Giant search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo are using their bots to crawl into our websites. This helps to index our web pages based on predefined groups.

In simple words, these search engines do the work of an official librarian. They segregate and group our web pages into specific indices. This is the reason why, when you search for a t-shirt on Google, you will be getting all the search results related to it.

But have you ever seen, that few results in them contain images, ratings, prices, and even comments? These are “rich snippets”.

Search engines struggle a lot to understand our data when they crawl. Hence to make their work easy, they have come up with something called SCHEMA MARKUP.

WHAT IS SCHEMA MARKUP?

Schema markup is a code designed by search engines. Using this code in your website or blog will help search engines to understand your data.    Using schema markup you can reveal the following information to the crawling bot:

1. The name of the website
2. Author’s name
3. The official log of the website
4. Information on what the website is about
5. Social connections of website
6. like a Facebook page or Twitter account linked to it.

WHY SCHEMA MARKUP IS IMPORTANT?

Schema markup helps the search engine to understand your website or blog in a better way. It helps in improving your search engine rankings [SERPs].    This, in turn, has the potential to increase your blog or web traffic. Let me explain it with a simple example. I have a website in a coffee shop somewhere in New York.   

The search engine results should show my coffee shop’s name if anyone is searching for a coffee shop in New York. We call this “LOCAL SEO”.

There is no use if my coffee shop results are being shown for search results in INDIA. Hence in such a case, we can instruct the crawling bot to restrict our SERPs to New York.

Schema markup helps our websites or blogs to rank for different types of data markups. These data markups are content indices. There are different fields of data markups.

Determine Relevant Schema Types

Identifying the appropriate schema types for your blog content is the next step. Think about the nature of your blog and the articles you publish. The article, BlogPosting, NewsArticle, Review, and Recipe are examples of common schema types for blogs. Select the schema types that correlate most closely with your content, as this will assist search engines in classifying and displaying your blog posts more precisely.

Here are a few examples:

1. Local business
2. Multinational companies
3. Websites
4. Blogs
5. e-commerce websites/Product websites
6. Restaurants
7. Online games
8. Review sites etc…

and the list goes on.

In the recent updates of Google’s algorithm, the weightage for schema has increased dramatically. It not only segregates data but also helps the search engine to understand where to show results and where to avoid them.

HOW DOES SCHEMA MARKUP HELP IN INCREASING TRAFFIC?

Rich snippets in Google search results aid in a higher click-through rate. A webpage with Schema markup info has more chance to appear in rich snippets.

This will increase the CTR of the web link, aiding a potential increase in web traffic.

Comprehend the Fundamentals of Schema Markup

Before delving into schema markup for your Blogger blog, it is essential to grasp the fundamentals. Schema markup employs structured data vocabulary to annotate and emphasize specific website content. This structured data assists search engines in interpreting and displaying your content more accurately. Schema.org is the most frequently used and supported vocabulary for schema markup, and it provides a comprehensive list of schema types.

Utilize Schema Markup Tools

Various online tools that generate schema markup code can be used to prepare schema markup for your Blogger blog. Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper, Schema.org’s Structured Data Markup Generator, and JSON-LD Schema Generator are prominent tools. These utilities provide user-friendly interfaces and facilitate the creation of schema markup for blog posts.

Implement Schema Markup on Blogger

Once the schema markup code has been generated, it is time to implement it on your Blogger blog. Follow the instructions below to include schema markup in your posts:

a. Navigate to the “Theme” section of your Blogger dashboard after logging in.
b. Click “Edit HTML” to access your blog template’s HTML code.
c. Locate the head> section of the code and paste the schema markup code generated just above the closing /head> element.
d. Save the modifications and preview your blog posts to ensure that the schema markup is implemented accurately.

Validate and Test Schema Markup

Use the Google Structured Data Testing Tool or the Rich Results Test to verify that your schema markup is error-free and functioning properly. These tools will evaluate your blog posts and provide feedback on any issues or errors they uncover. Resolve any issues that may arise to ensure that your schema markup is valid and properly implemented.

Assess Performance and Make Modifications

After implementing schema markup on your Blogger blog, monitor your search results performance. Observe any fluctuations in rankings, CTRs, and organic traffic. If you uncover areas for improvement or additional schema types that are relevant to your content, make the necessary adjustments to optimize your blog further.

SCHEMA MARKUP FOR BLOGGER?

WordPress users have many plugins to build Schema markup for their posts or web pages. Some common plugins are Schema Pro, Schema Ninja, and WP Review.

WordPress users can use these plugins to generate page-specific SCHEMA MARKUPS.

But Blogspot lacks such plugins. You can create manual Schema markups and incorporate them into your blog. Here are a few websites where you can build SCHEMA FOR YOUR BLOG.

Hence we thought of providing a demo MARKUP for a blogging site and individual blog post.

CHECK YOUR BLOG FOR RICH TEXT SUPPORT

Before following the below procedure, once check your blog for “rich text support”. Click the link below and enter your blog URL. Set the search to “Google bot smartphone”.

CLICK HERE

Click on Test URL.

If the results are positive, then no need to go further. But if they are negative, kindly follow the steps shown below.

SCHEMA MARKUP FOR YOUR BLOG

Step 1: To create SCHEMA MARKUP for your blog you can click on the below link.
CLICK HERE

Step 2: Click on the option “Website”.

Step 3: Fill the boxes “name”, “alternative name”, “url”, with the required information.

Step 4: Copy the script generated in the 2nd box. It usually starts with <script> and ends with </script>.

Step 5: Go to the blogger dashboard. Click on “Themes” > “Edit HTML”.

Step 6: Click on Ctrl+q to find “<head>. Paste the copied code below <head>, and save the HTML.

THAT’S ALL, YOU HAVE MADE YOUR BLOG COMPATIBLE WITH RICH TEXT SUPPORT.

SCHEMA MARKUP FOR INDIVIDUAL BLOG POSTS

Google has provided a separate tool to create SCHEMA MARKUP for individual pages or posts.

Click on the link below

CLICK HERE

Step 1: Click on “Article”.
Step 2: Enter your blog post URL.

Step 3: Your page will be displayed. Now highlight the title of your blog post. The title gets colored and a box appears beside it with various headings. Within the box click on “Name”.

Step 4: Click on the featured image [which you want to incorporate in SCHEMA], and click on “image” in the box displayed.

Step 5: In a similar way, highlight the body of the post and link it to the “Post body”.
Step 6: Carry on similar steps to fill or complete the displayed box with information.
note: In case of any difficulty you can fill all these manually by clicking on “Add missing tags”.
Step 7: After completion, click on “Create HTML”.
Step 8: Copy the generated HTML code.
Step 9: Open your blog post in Blogger> Click on “Edit” > Click on “HTML”.

Step 10: Paste the copied code on the top and click “Update”.    NOW SCHEMA MARKUP FOR INDIVIDUAL BLOG POSTS IS COMPLETED.

NOTE:Making your blog page SCHEMA MARKUP compatible, doesn’t qualify you page as rich text. Google takes a lot of other things into account before showing your page as Rich text snippet.

SHORTCUT TO SCHEMA MARKUP FOR BLOGGER

The above process is a bit tedious for new bloggers. Hence we thought of providing a shortcut to it. Here is the format for an “Investing” related blog, which we want to create in blogger.

Copy the code shown below and paste it below the <head> tag of your blogger code. Change the places AS DESCRIBED IN THE CODE. The recommended format is JSON-LD.

{
  "@context": "http://schema.org",
  "@type": "Blog",
  "name": "Your Blog Name",
  "url": "https://www.yourblog.com",
  "description": "Brief description of your new blog.",
  "image": {
    "@type": "ImageObject",
    "url": "https://www.yourblog.com/images/logo.png",
    "width": 800,
    "height": 600
  },
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Your Name"
  },
  "publisher": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "Your Blog",
    "logo": {
      "@type": "ImageObject",
      "url": "https://www.yourblog.com/images/logo.png"
    }
  },
  "dateCreated": "2023-06-03",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.facebook.com/yourblog",
    "https://twitter.com/yourblog",
    "https://www.instagram.com/yourblog"
  ]
}

Replace the blog’s name, URL, description, image URL, author’s name, organization’s name, logo URL, and social media URLs with your own information. This demonstration schema represents the fundamental blog properties, including the blog’s name, URL, description, image, author information, publisher information, creation date, and links to associated social media profiles.

Feel free to modify and add additional properties based on the unique characteristics of your blog or any other structured data you desire to include. The JSON-LD Schema is a flexible format, so you can modify it to meet your requirements and add more information to your new blog.

EDIT THE CODE IN NOTEPAD OR WORD AND MAKE NECESSARY CHANGES. THEN PASTE THEM INTO YOUR BLOG <head> section.

SHORTCUT TO SCHEMA MARKUP FOR INDIVIDUAL BLOGGER POSTS

As described above, copy the code shown below and make the necessary changes. Then add the code to your individual blog post in HTML format. (REMEMBER THE CODE HAS TO BE PASTED ONLY IN HTML FORMAT, NOT IN THE COMPOSE FORMAT).

{
  "@context": "http://schema.org",
  "@type": "BlogPosting",
  "mainEntityOfPage": {
    "@type": "WebPage",
    "@id": "https://www.yourblog.com/investing-article"
  },
  "headline": "Title of Your Investing Article",
  "image": [
    "https://www.yourblog.com/images/investing-article.jpg"
  ],
  "datePublished": "2023-06-03",
  "dateModified": "2023-06-03",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Your Name"
  },
  "publisher": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "Your Blog",
    "logo": {
      "@type": "ImageObject",
      "url": "https://www.yourblog.com/images/logo.png"
    }
  },
  "description": "Brief description of your investing article.",
  "articleBody": "The main content of your investing article goes here..."
}

Remember to insert your own information in lieu of the URL, image URLs, article title, author name, organization name, logo URL, description, and article content. This sample schema provides the fundamental structure and properties required for an investment-related blog post, including the page’s main entity, headline, image, publication and modification dates, author information, publisher details, description, and article body.

Feel free to add additional properties or modify the schema to meet your specific requirements, as well as to include any additional structured data in your blog post.

Now your blog and blog posts are rich text supportive and compatible with Search engines.

Conclusion

Preparing schema for your Blogger blog can substantially improve your odds of ranking highly in search engine results. By using schema markup to provide search engines with structured data, you make it simpler for them to comprehend and present your content to users. Follow the steps indicated in this article to prepare and implement schema markup on your Blogger blog. By doing so, you will increase the visibility of your blog, attract more readers, and possibly obtain higher rankings in search engine results.

Hope you understood the process. If you find this article useful, please do share it with your friends. For any information or queries comment below.