The topic of structured data has a rapidly growing audience looking into options beyond “rich snippets”. But some webmasters, if not most, are not sure what to do next. Many have questions like “What are the benefits of publishing structured data?”, “Does it influence rankings?”, and “can its impact be measured?”.
The case study presented in this slide deck will answer these types of questions by telling the success story of a website that was semantically optimized by using schema.org and other protocols.
Details are provided on what was optimized, data showing semantically-enriched webpages generated substantially more search engine-referred traffic than non- or less-enriched control groups did, and insights gained by re-using structured data to measure its impact on search.
3. Jarno
van
Driel
• In-‐house
SEO
for
Sanoma
Digital
NL
• Degree
in
Mechanical
Engineering
• Working
on
the
web
since
1998
• Semantics
enthusiast
since
2001
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
4. As
a
moderator
for
the
Google+
community
Semantic
Search
Marketing
I
sometimes
help
out
with
structured
data
issues
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
5. Which
is
how
I
ran
into
CosmeticSurg.net
autumn
2013
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
6. Then,
late
January
2014,
a
request
came
in
We
need
help
writing
microdata
with
schema.org
for
our
procedure
pages.
Are
you
available
for
this
sort
of
thing?
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
16. This
one!
New
and
important
site
quality
algorithms
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
17. Which
Google
deployed
worldwide
less
than
2
months
after
introducing
them
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
18. Algorithms
based
on
ideas,
research
and
a
mindset
that
Google
engineer
Amit
Singhal
tried
to
clarify
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
19. We
responded
by
doing
a
range
of
things
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
20. Summer/Autumn
2012
• Rewrote
meta
titles
and
descriptions
site
wide
• Changed
the
URL
structure
of
photo
galleries
• 301
redirects,
page
deletions
• Merged
all
photos
of
the
same
patient
into
a
single
gallery
page
• Beefed
up
photo
gallery
pages
surrounding
content
• Started
investigating
link
profile
• Attended
to
the
usual*
Winter
2012/2013
• Site
redesign
and
launch:
Refined
site
hierarchy
and
templates,
revamping
the
home
page,
the
procedure
info
pages,
and
the
photo
gallery
pages
• Started
posting
questions
on
Google’s
Product
forum
• Methodical
review
of
Amit
Singhal’s
Content
Quality
23
point
list
• Modified
the
site’s
URL
parameters
• Continued
scrutinizing
site
content
(editing
and
deleting
pages)
• Edited
+25%
of
old
blog
posts,
added
images
and
sub-‐
headings.
• Attended
to
the
usual*
Spring
2013
• Site
audit
• Revised
all
site
video
pages
and
YouTube
channel—
integrated
YT
videos
into
site
content.
• Local
citation
audit
(and
re-‐submission
to
top
tier
portals)
• Made
MapMaker
corrections
• Attended
to
the
usual*
Summer
2013
• Got
in
touch
with
Google
engineer
John
Mueller
after
taking
another
big
hit
in
May.
We
learned
the
algorithms
were
having
a
‘hard
time
recognizing
the
overall
quality
of
the
website’.
• Focus
group
review
of
Amit
Singhal’s
Content
Quality
23
point
list
• Continued
improving
the
depth
of
current
content
• Scaled
up
the
publication
of
new
content
and
Social
Media
participation
• Updated
KML
files
• Attended
to
the
usual*
Autumn
2013
• Added
G+
authorship
markup
• Started
adding
structured
data
• Went
to
SMX
New
York
to
attend
semantic
track
sessions
• Attended
to
the
usual*
* The
“usual”
generally
consisted
of:
• Finding
and
fixing
technical
glitches
• Keeping
a
close
eye
on
Google
Webmaster
Tools
(now
Google
Search
Console)
for
crawl
errors
and
html
suggestions
among
other
things
• Adding
new
content
• Optimising
Google
places,
other
business
listings
and
profiles
• Thwarting
content
scrappers
• Fixing
broken
links
• Being
more
and
more
active
in
social
media
• etc.
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
21. 01]
02/24/2011
-‐
Panda/Farmer
02]
04/11/2011
-‐
Panda
2.0
03]
05/09/2011
-‐
Panda
2.1
04]
06/21/2011
-‐
Panda
2.2
05]
a
-‐
07/23/2011
-‐
Panda
2.3
05]
b
-‐
08/12/2011
-‐
Panda
2.4
06]
a
-‐
09/28/2011
-‐
Panda
2.5
06]
b
-‐
10/05/2011
-‐
Panda
"Flux"
07]
10/14/2011
-‐
Panda
2.5.2
08]
11/18/2011
-‐
Panda
3.1
09]
01/18/2012
-‐
Panda
3.2
10]
02/27/2012
-‐
Panda
3.3
11]
03/23/2012
-‐
Panda
3.4
12]
a
-‐
04/19/2012
-‐
Panda
3.5
12]
b
-‐
04/27/2012
-‐
Panda
3.6
01]
02/24/2011
-‐
Panda/Farmer
02]
04/11/2011
-‐
Panda
2.0
03]
05/09/2011
-‐
Panda
2.1
04]
06/21/2011
-‐
Panda
2.2
05]
a
-‐
07/23/2011
-‐
Panda
2.3
05]
b
-‐
08/12/2011
-‐
Panda
2.4
06]
a
-‐
09/28/2011
-‐
Panda
2.5
06]
b
-‐
10/05/2011
-‐
Panda
"Flux"
07]
10/14/2011
-‐
Panda
2.5.2
08]
11/18/2011
-‐
Panda
3.1
09]
01/18/2012
-‐
Panda
3.2
10]
02/27/2012
-‐
Panda
3.3
11]
03/23/2012
-‐
Panda
3.4
12]
a
-‐
04/19/2012
-‐
Panda
3.5
12]
b
-‐
04/27/2012
-‐
Panda
3.6
13]
a
-‐
06/08/2012
-‐
Panda
3.7
13]
b
-‐
06/25/2012
-‐
Panda
3.8
14]
07/24/2012
-‐
Panda
3.9
15]
08/20/2012
-‐
Panda
3.9.1
16]
a
-‐
09/18/2012
-‐
Panda
3.9.2
16]
b
-‐
09/27/2012
-‐
Panda
#20
17]
a
-‐
11/05/2012
-‐
Panda
#21
17]
b
-‐
11/21/2012
-‐
Panda
#22
18]
12/21/2012
-‐
Panda
#23
19]
01/22/2013
-‐
Panda
#24
20]
03/14/2013
-‐
Panda
#25
21]
05/09/2013
-‐
Phantom
(Quality
algorithm)
22]
06/11/2013
-‐
Panda
Dance
23]
07/18/2013
-‐
Panda
Recovery
I
searched
for
clues
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
22. Nothing
worked,
so
we
want
to
see
if
structured
data
can
turn
things
around
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
23. Turning
Panda
around
with
structured
data!
Have
you
lost
your
whiskers?
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
24. Then
again,
interesting
concept
-‐
and
the
site’s
got
plenty
of
content
to
work
with
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
26. We
fix
the
structured
data
fundamentals
first
You
stop
what
you’ve
been
doing
for
one
year
We
wait
and
see
what
we
can
learn
from
that
We
act
once
we
feel
we’ve
located
the
underlying
issue
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
78. We
think
we
need
more
triples
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
79. Does
the
site
have
duplicate,
overlapping,
or
redundant
articles
on
the
same
or
similar
topics
with
slightly
different
keyword
variations?
Does
the
site
have
duplicate,
overlapping,
or
redundant
entities
on
the
same
or
similar
topics
with
slightly
different
property
variations?
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
80. You
two!
Go
build
Next
Gen
graphs
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
91. Structured
data
tracking
in
GA!
You
know
what
you
can
do
with
that?
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
92. Google
Tag
Manager
+
Google
Analytics
http://bit.ly/ImplementAndTrackStructuredData
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
93. Having
this
type
of
data
in
GA
is
just
the
beginning
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
94. The
real
fun
starts
when
you
export
GA’s
enriched
data
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
95. All
pages
Landing
Page
–
All
Sessions
Imagine
you'd
like
to
know
what
the
effects
of
adding
‘about’
triples
were
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
t-‐1
=
before
Panda
4.0
t+1=
after
Panda
4.0
96. schema:Article
(Subject)
Landing
Page
–
All
Sessions
October
6th
2014
–
start
adding
‘about’
triples
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
102. Hail,
Triples
–
King
of
the
Graph
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek
103. @JarnoVanDriel
Feel
like
doing
your
own
analysis?
You
can!
The
datasets
used
can
be
found
at:
http://bit.ly/structureddatasuccess
#SmartDataWeek
104. Many
thanks
go
out
to
(in
alphabetical
order)
• Aaron
Bradley
–
SEO
Analyst
–
Electronic
Arts
• Daniel
Bos
–
Director
Data
&
Analytics
–
Takeaway.com
• Leeza
Rodriguez
–
Chief
Marketing
and
Operations
–
CosmeticSurg
• Leigh
Aucoin
–
Web
Development
Team
Lead
–
Search
Influence
• Lisa
Melvin
–
SEO
Consultant
–
Windy
Hills,
Inc.
• Mike
Arnesen
–
Founder
&
CEO
–
UpBuild
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek