Why JSON-LD? What is it for, and why…
JavaScript Object Notation Link Data
Linked Data is important because it gives webmasters the ability to publish very specific information about their web pages. Speaking specifically on JSON-LD, the standards-based (set by the organizations like Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and Yandex), machine-readable information is used by Search Engines so that they can easily and quickly decipher what the website/page(s) are about. Search Engines use this information to better assess how to index your website and its other various web pages.
This back-end data allows an application like Googlebot to start at one piece of data, and follow/learn the embedded links and other information to other pieces of data for a myriad of Search reasons. There are a myriad of apps in Search that display for a myriad of SI’s. (SI is just an abbreviation for ‘Search Intent’.) Google actually works to bring the best links and information to a user, all based upon whatever information they’ve found to satisfy ‘that’ specific SI; all from the information that they’ve gleaned from YOUR website! JSON-LD is integral to helping Google determine exactly what your website is about and where to index the services, products, or answers to very specific Search Queries.
And so…If you’re looking to get on to things like Google’s Snack Pack, PAA, Google Maps, or just in SERPs in general, you’ll want to add JSON-LD to your website. It’s super easy to do, it really helps your gain SERP momentum, and for such little work, you can get big pay-offs from its implementation. Here are some items that will help you get started in the way of JSON-LD, and some quick take-away’s for your review:
– Machine-readable data from websites
– To promote search results
– More info at: https://schema.org/
– To assist search engines to understand what the website is about by helping to determine where and for what your website/pages will index for.
– Embed <script> within the <head> of the pages source code, and not in the <body>
– You can copy/paste the below code into the tester, or you can copy/paste any website that you want to research. Here is an example snippet of code to use:
<script type=”application/ld+json”>{“@context”:”https://schema.org”,”@graph”:[{“@type”:[“Person”,”Organization”],”@id”:”https://jimakagi.com/#/schema/person/29ded92fb8cc3701b0373224c060f35b”,”name”:”Jim Akagi”,”image”:{“@type”:”ImageObject”,”@id”:”https://jimakagi.com/#personlogo”,”inLanguage”:”en-US”,”url”:”https://jimakagi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Hawaii_2020.jpg”,”width”:689,”height”:919,”caption”:”Jim Akagi”},”logo”:{“@id”:”https://jimakagi.com/#personlogo”},”sameAs”:[“james m akagi”]},{“@type”:”WebSite”,”@id”:”https://jimakagi.com/#website”,”url”:”https://jimakagi.com/”,”name”:”| Web Marketing, Development, Conversion Rate Optimization, Web Production, and Analytics”,”description”:””,”publisher”:{“@id”:”https://jimakagi.com/#/schema/person/29ded92fb8cc3701b0373224c060f35b”},”potentialAction”:[{“@type”:”SearchAction”,”target”:”https://jimakagi.com/?s={search_term_string}”,”query-input”:”required name=search_term_string”}],”inLanguage”:”en-US”},{“@type”:”WebPage”,”@id”:”https://jimakagi.com/#webpage”,”url”:”https://jimakagi.com/”,”name”:”Jim Akagi | Web Marketing | Digital Marketing | SEO Analysis”,”isPartOf”:{“@id”:”https://jimakagi.com/#website”},”about”:{“@id”:”https://jimakagi.com/#/schema/person/29ded92fb8cc3701b0373224c060f35b”},”datePublished”:”2019-11-03T04:30:27+00:00″,”dateModified”:”2020-02-29T22:04:41+00:00″,”inLanguage”:”en-US”,”potentialAction”:[{“@type”:”ReadAction”,”target”:[“https://jimakagi.com/”]}]}]}</script>
– Some commonly used types used: Event, Person, Health and/or Medical type, Organization, Place, Local Business, Restaurant, Bank, Credit Union, Real Estate, Mortgage Broker, etc.
– Find more about what other things that Google looks for, that could help you and your website rank within Google Search Engine Results Pages.