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Structured Data on Drupal 8 website. What is It and Why Should You Implement It?

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Even if you are not a technical person and do not have coding knowledge, you should use structured data on your Drupal website.

Even though the words schema markup, structured data, and structured data markup sound like spells from Harry Potter, you should befriend them and add the necessary structured data to your Drupal 8.

In today's blog, Wishdesk web development agency will explain in detail for all Drupal site owners, or those who are planning to create a site, the answers to these questions:

  • what is structured data?
  • how to properly use structured data in Drupal 8 to boost SEO?
  • which modules are better for working with structured data in Drupal 8?
  • and everything else related to this topic

What is structured data?

Structured data or schema markup is a short description of your content so that search engines can find you and show your content to people in the SERP. That is, it is like content for machines and for people.

Before a user finds you, the search engines must see your site first and "read" it.
But search engines do not understand "human" language. Therefore, you need to write your content for them in a particular language understandable to them - using schema markup.

Just imagine.

There are 3 people in the room: an interpreter and two others who speak different languages. 

  1. To understand each other, one person first speaks (content for users). 
  2. The translator (structured data) then interprets this for the other person. 
  3. Only then can the third one (search engines) understand what the first one wanted to say.

Schema.org and Structured Data

Somehow, the four largest search engines Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Yandex have created one spot for this information — Schema.org. There anyone can find the rules of structured data markup and collection of pieces of code that you can use. There’s structured data for books, movies, reviews, products, etc. 

The only thing to remember is that you should tailor these pieces of code to suit your specific products and services, not blindly use them. After correctly adding such pieces of code, the likelihood of appearing at the top of search results increases incredibly.

Let's see how the site is searching with and without Schema.

site is searching with and without Schema

In orange, we highlighted those sites that add the structured data using Schema, and in purple, those that did not use Schema.

We think the difference is visible to you too. Those sites that add Schema to their code look more attractive, contain more complete data for users, and occupy higher positions in search engines.

And now let's see how these very pages with mulled wine recipes look from the inside — what does the code look like?

1. This site code contains Schema.

This site code contains Schema

2. This site code is without Schema.

This site code is without Schema

How to use Structured Data in Drupal 8

In order to appear as effectively in the first positions of search engine results, you need to add structured data via schema. There is a special Drupal module for Structured Data in Drupal 8 - Schema.org Metatag.

Schema.org Metatag

Versions to work with: 7, 8

Last updated at 15 September 2020

5 Main features of Schema.org Metatag module:

  1. shows structured data as JSON LD
  2. the list of object types is constantly expanding
  3. today it includes 39 properties
  4. it has an override system
  5. it has a convenient admin panel for control

Why is structured data important for SEO?

Of course, structured data is important for SEO. The fact is that with the help of structured data, search engines can "read" the content of your site and, when requested, show your page in the search results.

Also, using structured data in Drupal 8 affects how your snippet looks — that is, what your search results will look like. The more structured data you add, the more attractive it will look and provide more information to users. And the more attractive it looks, the more likely they are to click on your results.

6 main advantages of adding structured data to the Drupal 8 site:

  1. Increase in CTR
  2. Improve ROI 
  3. Bigger conversions rate
  4. Visually more attractive search results
  5. Improved optimization for voice search
  6. Forms your brand awareness

Add structure data to your Drupal 8 site with the Wishdesk web development agency help

It's important to remember that using structured data in Drupal 8 increases the chance to rank first in search results. As we said above, in order to add structured data to your Drupal site, you need to install the Schema.org Metatag module.

Just be careful not to change the entire site after installation. If you are not sure that you can cope with this task yourself, then you can turn to web developers who know it inside and out.