Use structured data strategically to build SEO resilience in a rapidly changing SERP

Crystal says: "If you are not getting involved with structured data in a big way, then you absolutely should be. If you have invested in structured data, you should be looking at new opportunities to enhance the pages you've already got working for structured data. There are so many different opportunities emerging all the time. They're constantly adding new different schema types and continuously using new iterations in the SERP. This is something that everyone should be keeping on top of, and we're seeing really good SEO results in a fairly swift turnaround - most of the time.

We tend to see that you'll certainly get an increase in impressions as soon as you implement structured data - although it's obviously not a ranking factor. However, it does give you access to certain parts of the SERP that you are not able to access in other ways. It's useful for all verticals, and it's useful for businesses of all sizes. Just adding some structured data to your pages means that people know who you are, and Google can find you and connect all of your different platforms."

How do you prioritise what needs to be done to use structured data strategically?

"From a strategic point of view, I always go for what makes you money. When you think about what to do with SEO, you need to sort out the money pages first. You can't pay the bills with clicks. Clicks are lovely, but if the clicks you're getting aren't actually making money, then you need to think again. If you have an eCommerce website, you need to make sure you've got all the appropriate structured data for the products you're selling - your product pages need to be rock star product pages.

There are some great opportunities for structured data with product structured data, and with the APIs for Google Shopping and Google Merchant that all work together. They're not necessarily dependent upon each other, but they all support each other.

Secondly, make sure it fits with your different strategies. If you need to increase your visibility, consider things that help people know who you are - such as information about your organisation schema and your team pages. If you've got people who are doing talks and going to events, those people should have 'paid people' pages with structured data supporting them. Look at what works with your business, and if you really can't decide where to start, look at your competitors and try to fill the gaps."

What are the main changes in the standard SERP at the moment that SEOs need to be targeting with structured data?

"People talk about plain blue links and being number one or page one of Google, but Google is constantly adding stuff ahead of the plain blue links. A lot of the different elements they are adding are structured-data-enabled. For instance, Google Shopping shows up ahead of the plain blue link. If you're looking for shoes, generally, the structured-data-enabled stuff will show up ahead.

Google's being led by a mobile-first space, and structured data and mobile-first work really well because structured data essentially gives Google the ingredients. If we think about the content on your website like a pizza - previously, you were trying to give them a pizza. Structured data gives Google the ingredients for the pizza. If they start off with a pepperoni pizza, then you give them the ingredients, they can make it a pepperoni pizza, a cheese pizza, or a cheeseless pizza. They can chop and change how they want and make sure the SERP is more consistent for mobile. All of those different things, like recipe cards and shopping cards, are all set up so that they're easy to click with a finger.

Also, they're easy to sort for users because Google is trying to organise the information on your website. They're trying to make the experience very consistent, and structured data allows them to do this because it essentially sorts your website into a spreadsheet.

Structured data gives you more opportunities to chop and change the search in different ways with things like carousels, videos, and articles. Google has said that just because structured data isn't there now, it doesn't mean that it won't be there going forward. A good example is recipes. They used to be a really big space for featured snippets and that sort of stuff, but now it's entirely structured data. That's what they do - they can evolve it via structured data. First, you get the image cards, then you get the video within the structured data, like pre-rolling within the SERP. It just gives Google more tools to do more interesting stuff for users - which is what they want to do."

Is Google Image Search another opportunity for structured data that some SEOs may not have thought of? When I search for 'blue suede shoes' in Google image search, I've noticed that some of the top listings actually say, 'in stock'. Is this structured data being used to tell Google these items are available to click-through and buy?

"That will depend on their configuration. It may or may not be done directly with structured data, as it might be with a product feed. Generally speaking, they work really well together. Google Lens gives you a lot of different tools to talk about what your picture is. Structured data gives you another layer for adding some information about your images within your website, which allows Google to access the images for users in various different ways."

One of the things you say is that structured data builds SEO resilience. What is that, and why is that useful?

"SEO resilience is my way of saying that I don't like having to do things twice. I don't like having to go back again and optimise the same page in the same way for the same thing. If you're doing one-keyword optimisation or aiming for one part of the server at a time, then when things change - which they do all the time - you have to do it again. Structured data allows you to add another bit on to it fairly easily.

You can add structured data to a page that's not optimised for a particular search result yet, and it can just stay there in the background, just waiting for the chance. Then, when Google creates this new Rich Snippet, that page is already for that rich result. All your competitors suddenly don't understand what's happened. They were the top, and now there's this new feature, and you're already there. This is because your structured data was already there.

If you've got pages that are already performing, you can add this on to it, and it gives Google another thing to crawl. It also gives you time to wait and pounce on the latest element - because they're constantly adding things, such as the topic layer. At the moment, it seems to be one of Google's favourite ways of utilising the information on the web.

Structured data implementation is great because it works with what's already on the page. It's straightforward in terms of client implementation, and getting permissions or signoffs, because you're reinforcing what's already on the website. You just say, 'We're adding this in the background, and it's exactly the same - we've changed no copy.' It allows you to move at a pace, take advantage of some great opportunities from Google, and get some great results for your clients. It's a no-brainer!"

If an SEO is working in-house and hasn't got any structured data on their site at the moment, what are the most efficient ways to install and manage structured data?

"If you want to see if you have any structured data, Google Search Console has a report that tells you what Google is reading. They don't cover everything, because there's lots of different types, but it will tell you what they're seeing. If you're using Semrush, they also have a structured data report. Screaming Frog also has a crawl you can do - it's a certain configuration - that allows you to see the structured data there. And if you're using WordPress, get Yoast. The free Yoast will give you the very basic structured data, such as organisation schema."

Would you advocate adding structured data manually, or are there good tools out there to do this?

"If you're on WordPress, you can add it with Yoast. There are lots of good ones you can add, and you can add structured data to every different page type.

If you're using Shopify, there's a couple of different plugins you can get that work really well. I haven't used it yet, but I've heard fantastic things about Schema App. The other thing you can do is talk to your lovely developers and tell them what schema you want. If you ply them with sweets and compliments, I'm sure that they'll help you!"

What's one thing an SEO needs to stop doing to focus more time on structured data?

"It's worth dialling down making a bespoke meta description for every single page. I'm not saying that meta descriptions aren't important - it's worth spending time on the meta description for your homepage, your money pages, and particular pages that perform really well. However, if you've got thousands of pages, and you're spending a lot of time and energy writing lots of bespoke pages, this isn't as relevant as it used to be. This activity can be far more automated these days. You don't have to sit there and handcraft like an artisan from the 1800s - life is too short!"

You can find Crystal Carter over at Wix.com/seo/learn.