As
Google maintains,
"Structured data makes the web a better place." The design, development, and SEO teams here at Hudson Horizons couldn't agree more.
Just as
social media is evolving into the marketing method of choice for many e-Businesses,
structured data is transforming into the content format of choice for webmasters.
But before I dive into the incredibly exciting developments bubbling over at Google and Hudson Horizons... I sense some questions lingering out there in cyberspace...
What is structured data?
Essentially, structured data is data that's applied to a universal format, making it easily recognized, understood, and displayed by search engines.
But... what's this mean for my page listing?
Structured data is optimized in such a way that allows search engines (for example, Google) to craft helpful snippets for your page listings on the
SERPs. Stocked with structured data recognizable to crawlers AND web browsers, the snippets are displayed beneath a link to your page on the SERPs.
And... what's this mean for my website?
Browsers who peruse these snippets get an extra-informative glimpse into your webpage, an understanding of how it relates to their search terms, and a legitimate incentive to click through to your site.
End result: help increase site exposure, popularity, and overall traffic.
Structured Data. It's a pretty big deal.
Like where this is headed? Check out my in-depth
part two of this post, stocked with a ton of goodies, including:
- A closer look at what structured data means for webpages
- The perks for developers, search engine spiders, and browsers
- The expanding scope of the Semantics Web
- Real life examples of how structured data works
- How Hudson Horizons is embracing and utilizing structured data