A website's structured data success story

A
website’s
structured
data
success
story

August
19th,
2015

Jarno
van
Driel

SEO
Specialist
@JarnoVanDriel#SmartDataWeek

1.
Introduction

Jarno
van
Driel

• In-‐house
SEO
for
Sanoma
Digital
NL

• Degree
in
Mechanical
Engineering

• Working
on
the
web
since
1998

• Semantics
enthusiast
since
2001

As
a
moderator
for
the
Google+
community
Semantic
Search

Marketing
I
sometimes
help
out
with
structured
data
issues

Which
is
how
I
ran
into
CosmeticSurg.net
autumn
2013


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?

A
pretty
straightforward
request

We
called

But
wouldn’t
you
know
it…

Spring
2012
we
noticed
the
site’s
traffic

and
leads
were
on
a
steadily
declining
path

I
compared
their
data

Houston,
we
have
a
problem!

We
think
we
got
hit
by
Panda

No,
not
this
one

This
one!
New
and
important
site
quality
algorithms

Which
Google
deployed
worldwide
less

than
2
months
after
introducing
them


Algorithms
based
on
ideas,
research
and
a
mindset

that
Google
engineer
Amit
Singhal
tried
to
clarify

We
responded
by
doing
a
range
of
things

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.

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

Nothing
worked,
so
we
want
to
see
if

structured
data
can
turn
things
around

Turning
Panda
around
with
structured
data!

Have
you
lost
your
whiskers?

Then
again,
interesting
concept
-‐
and
the

site’s
got
plenty
of
content
to
work
with

You
know,
what
if…

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

2.
Moving
ahead

A.
Investigating
the
evidence

Only
1
business

showed
up
in
the

SERPs
where
there

should
have
been
2

Practice
Surgery
center

A
hot
topic

Oh!
the
joy
of
more

Surgeon

What
can
we
do
about
this?

We
are
going
to
develop
our
own
knowledge
graph

You
two!

Go
build

that
graph

Surgery
center

schema.org/MedicalClinic
Surgeon

schema.org/Person
Practice

schema.org/Physician

schema.org/sameAs

But
just
when
we
were
about
to
release,

Google
updated
Panda
(May
16th
2014
)

We
adjusted
plans
and
delayed
release
until
the
end
of
June

And
calmly
waited
to
see
if
something
would
happen

Bill
Slawski
SemTechBiz,
August
19th
2014
http://bit.ly/SemanticSearchSemTechBiz2014

2
different
types
of

businesses,
sharing
the

same
NAP
information,

showing
up
in
the
SERPs

His
Royal
Highness
–
Triples
–
King
of
the
Graph

Want
to
know
more
about
knowledge
graphs
and
triples?

Go
to:
http://bit.ly/KeyTakeawaysSemTechBiz2013

B.
Social
Media
optimization

The
site’s
blog
contained
some
markup

but
there
were
still
some
big
gaps
to
fill

Markup
was
added
for

Twitter’s
Summary
Card

and
Summary
Card

with
Large
Image

og:article
markup
was

added
for
Facebook

But
getting
Google+
right

needed
some
sorting
out

Schema.org
types
changed
and
graphs
had
to
be
rebuilt

Which
led
to
the
desired

result
for
Google+
shares

But
overall

Social
Media
requires

more
than
just
adding

some
markup

3.
The
hunt
for
Panda

After
the
upgrade,
Sessions
refused
to
move

Time
for
some

further
investigation

Loads
of
GWT
reports
showed
overlapping
queries
and
pages


Looking
at
the
site
this
made
sense
–
plenty
of
topical
overlap

Could
it
be
Panda
is
struggling
to
tell
Things
apart?

The
moment
when
Amit
Singhal

finally
started
to
make
sense

We’ll
run
a
test
to
see
if
it
helps
when

we
specify
what
the
articles
are
about

An
example
of
an
article
about
2
topics
(text
values)

But
alas,
Sessions
still
wouldn’t
move

We
think
we
need
more
triples

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?

You
two!

Go
build

Next
Gen

graphs

MedicalProcedure

+
Service
Thing
Article
about
about

An
example
of
an
article

about
2
topics
(entities)

Will
this
work?

Sessions
finally
took
off

And
reached
heights

never
reached
before


Even
after
a
new
Panda
update

4.
Satisfying
the
skeptic

Structured
data

tracking
in
GA!
You
know
what
you

can
do
with
that?

Google
Tag
Manager
+
Google
Analytics

http://bit.ly/ImplementAndTrackStructuredData

Having
this
type
of
data
in
GA
is
just
the
beginning

The
real
fun
starts
when
you
export
GA’s
enriched
data

All
pages

Landing
Page
–
All
Sessions
Imagine
you'd
like
to
know
what
the

effects
of
adding
‘about’
triples
were
t-‐1
=
before
Panda
4.0

t+1=
after
Panda
4.0

schema:Article
(Subject)

Landing
Page
–
All
Sessions
October
6th
2014
–
start

adding
‘about’
triples

schema:Article
(Subject)

Landing
Page
–
All
Sessions

schema:Article
(Subject)

Landing
Page
–
Pageviews
/
Session

schema:Article
(Subject)
 
Landing
Page
–
Avg
Session
Duration

schema:MedicalProcedure
schema:Service
(Object)

Landing
Page
–
All
Sessions
Over
at
the
‘Object’

side
of
the
triples

schema:MedicalProcedure
schema:Service
(Object)

Landing
Page
–
All
Sessions

Hail,
Triples
–
King
of
the
Graph

@JarnoVanDriel
Feel
like
doing
your
own
analysis?
You
can!
The
datasets

used
can
be
found
at:
http://bit.ly/structureddatasuccess
#SmartDataWeek

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 

twitter.com/JarnoVanDriel

linkedin.com/pub/jarno-‐van-‐driel/75/470/36a

plus.google.com/u/0/+JarnovanDriel
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