Google’s search engine results pages (SERP) have evolved dramatically over the years.
Organic search results are increasingly being eaten up by PPC ads, knowledge graph, “what else people searched for” boxes, “related searches” and other SERP features.
Introduced in 2014, code snippets quickly became a sign of new hope for many SEO professionals who want to master zero position.
Until last year, the introduction of a prominent piece of code meant increased SERP visibility.
If you’re into e-commerce and don’t use rich outcome schemes, you’re missing out on huge SEO opportunities. We’ve compiled this guide to help you understand what data schemas are, how to implement them, and the 3 types of schemas that are most useful for e-commerce sites.
Frequently asked questions schema
Marking the schema of frequently asked questions, or frequently asked questions, allows you to highlight a set of questions and answers, which will be displayed under your search result in the SERP.
If your e-commerce website has Q&A-based content, this is a great way to make it more visible to users. For example, you can share information about delivery times, payment options, warranty length, etc.
The FAQ page schema can also help your site appear in Google’s People Ask Also section.
A great way to use this type of schema markup to your advantage is to find questions people ask and answer directly in one or two sentences.
Presenting as a rich result for questions is also a great way to target long-tail keywords, and bring in an additional source of traffic. And like most forms of Rich Snippets, FAQ snippets will appear on both desktop and mobile.
According to Neil Patel, the FAQ schema is one of the least used forms of structured data, so if you want to stay ahead of the competition, it’s an excellent technique.
Product review scheme
The data structure of an overview allows you to display Star segments and customer reviews in search results. This is especially relevant for e-commerce sites.
Because buyers want to see, compare, and research before they buy, making this information visible to potential customers will drastically improve your click-through rates. It will also help your product stand out in the SERP and build trust with searchers.
As well as ratings and reviews, the price scheme type allows you to add price ranges to your rich results. If your prices are competitive in your market, the price scheme is a great way to help consumers in their purchase decision.
While the price ranges can be added directly to the price scheme, in order for reviews to be marked, they must be displayed on the landing page in full in order for them to appear in the rich result.
Product Availability Scheme
The third essential schema type for e-commerce sites is product availability. As a consumer, there’s nothing more frustrating than clicking to a page where the item displayed in the SERP is out of stock. This can also contribute to high bounce rates, as most users will leave the page immediately.
To avoid a bad user experience and ‘soft bounces’, you can emphasize upfront inventory availability in the SERP. The structured data allows you to specify inventory levels, highlight whether something is ‘InStock’ or mark if you have been sold. This can help protect ratings if a product goes ‘OutOfStock’, as it will avoid unnecessary clicks and frustrated prospects.
Because this schema type is dynamic, you’ll need to add the code manually following the instructions from schema.org. Although it is slightly more complex than the other consent styles, it is worth it for the improved customer experience and conversion increase.
Summary
Using rich results schemes on sales sites is one of the most powerful SEO tools for e-commerce sites, and if implemented correctly, it can drastically increase click-through rates and conversion rates. If you need any help identifying, implementing or tracking your schema marking opportunities, contact us and we will be happy to help you.