Enhancing internal linking with schema markup: a comprehensive guide
If you’re like me, you know that a well-structured website is a search engine’s best mate. Schema markup can give your site the extra lift to ensure search engines comprehend your content and improve your internal linking strategy.
So, let’s dive into this comprehensive guide on schema markup, unleash our inner geek, and learn how to take our internal linking game to new heights. Ready? Set? Let’s go!
Understanding schema markup and its importance for SEO:
Schema markup, also known as structured data, is a standardised format for conveying additional context about your web page’s content to search engines. This extra layer of information allows search engines to understand your content more accurately and display it more effectively in search results, such as through rich snippets or knowledge cards.
The influence of schema markup on SEO:
Implementing schema markup can significantly impact your website’s SEO by:
- Enhanced visibility: Rich snippets and other enhanced search result features can increase your website’s visibility, potentially leading to higher click-through rates.
- Improved content understanding: Schema markup helps search engines comprehend the context and purpose of your content, enabling them to index and rank it more effectively.
- Increased credibility: By providing more accurate and detailed information in search results, schema markup can improve your website’s credibility and trustworthiness in users’ eyes.
Exploring schema markup for chatbots such as ChatGPT:
Exploring the use of schema markup for chatbots, such as ChatGPT, presents exciting opportunities for improving chatbot performance and user experience.
By integrating structured data, chatbots can better understand and extract relevant content from websites, recognise and process different types of content, offer personalised recommendations based on user preferences, and promote user engagement with related and significant links. This potential is supported by recent research, which demonstrates the benefits of using structured data for chatbots [1][2][3].
| Schema Markup Application | Benefits |
|---|---|
| Improve Content Retrieval | Extract relevant content from websites and provide accurate and helpful responses |
| Boost Chatbot Interactions | Recognise and process various content types, and facilitate meaningful interactions with users |
| Customise User Experience | Offer personalised suggestions or recommendations based on user preferences, content, or browsing history |
| Enhance User Engagement | Highlight and classify related and significant links, and offer additional resources to promote user engagement |
While more research and development are necessary to realise the potential of schema markup for chatbots fully, the possibilities it presents are undoubtedly intriguing. As AI and chatbot technology advance, structured data may become an integral aspect of optimisation and functionality.
Schema properties that matter for internal linking:
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s delve into the schema properties that can impact your internal linking strategy. This is where the fun begins!
RelatedLink:
The RelatedLink property is like the friendly neighbour that introduces you to their cool friends, and it helps you indicate that a link is related to the content on the current page. Using this markup, you can help search engines understand the connection between the two pages, making your site’s structure more intelligible and strengthening your internal linking game.
SignificantLink:
The SignificantLink property is the VIP pass of your website’s content, and it specifies a link of significant importance to the content on the current page. Be it a closely related article, a primary source, or any other content that adds significant value to the page, this markup tells search engines, “Hey, this link is a big deal!”
BreadcrumbList:
The BreadcrumbList property is like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs (but less messy) for search engines and users alike. It allows you to add breadcrumb navigation to your website, showing users their path from the homepage to the current page. Implementing this schema markup helps search engines understand your site’s hierarchy and improves user experience.
ItemList:
The ItemList property is the grocery list of your website’s content. It helps you create a list of items, such as a collection of blog posts or products. This markup assists search engines in understanding the relationship between the listed items and may improve the indexing of your content.
Implementing schema markup for internal linking: website-specific examples
Alright, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty with some code. In this section, we’ll walk through implementing schema markup to enhance your internal linking for several common websites.
Choosing the right schema properties:
Before diving into the markup, take a moment to identify the properties that are most relevant to your website’s content and structure. Consider using properties like RelatedLink, SignificantLink, BreadcrumbList, and ItemList to better help search engines understand the relationships between your pages.
Adding schema markup to your website:
Once you’ve identified the relevant schema properties, it’s time to add the markup to your website using JSON-LD, Microdata, or RDFa. JSON-LD is the recommended format by Google [4], and it’s also widely used due to its simplicity and flexibility. You can find more information on how to write JSON-LD within our “Writing JSON-LD structured data: A beginners guide for SEOs”
Blog or news website:
For a blog or news website, consider using the RelatedLink, SignificantLink, BreadcrumbList, and ItemList properties. Here are some examples of JSON-LD markup for these properties on a blog post:
RelatedLink and SignificantLink:
{
"@context": "http://schema.org",
"@type": "BlogPosting",
"headline": "The Ultimate Guide to Schema Markup",
"url": "https://example.com/blog/schema-markup",
"relatedLink": "https://example.com/blog/seo-best-practices",
"significantLink": "https://example.com/blog/advanced-seo-techniques"
}
In this example, the RelatedLink property indicates that the blog post is related to the page on “SEO Best Practices.” In contrast, the SignificantLink property specifies a link of significant importance to the blog post.
BreadcrumbList:
{
"@context": "http://schema.org",
"@type": "BreadcrumbList",
"itemListElement": [
{
"@type": "ListItem",
"position": 1,
"item": {
"@id": "https://example.com/",
"name": "Home"
}
},
{
"@type": "ListItem",
"position": 2,
"item": {
"@id": "https://example.com/blog",
"name": "Blog"
}
},
{
"@type": "ListItem",
"position": 3,
"item": {
"@id": "https://example.com/blog/schema-markup",
"name": "The Ultimate Guide to Schema Markup"
}
}
]
}
In this example, the BreadcrumbList property provides breadcrumb navigation for the blog post, showing users their path from the homepage to the current page.
By incorporating these schema properties, you can improve the internal linking strategy of your blog or news website and help search engines better understand the relationships between your pages.
E-commerce website:
RelatedLink and SignificantLink can be used on various types of e-commerce pages to help search engines understand the relationships between different pages on your site. Let’s explore a few examples of how you can use these properties for different e-commerce page types:
Product pages:
You can use RelatedLink to point to similar or complementary products on product pages, and SignificantLink to highlight links to essential resources, such as user guides or warranty information.
Example JSON-LD markup for a product page:
{
"@context": "http://schema.org",
"@type": "Product",
"name": "Super Smartphone",
"url": "https://example.com/electronics/smartphones/super-smartphone",
"relatedLink": "https://example.com/electronics/smartphones/compatible-case",
"significantLink": "https://example.com/electronics/smartphones/super-smartphone/user-guide"
}
Category pages:
On category pages, you can use RelatedLink to point to related categories, such as accessories or subcategories, and SignificantLink to showcase essential resources, like buying guides or comparison charts.
Example JSON-LD markup for a category page:
{
"@context": "http://schema.org",
"@type": "CollectionPage",
"name": "Smartphones",
"url": "https://example.com/electronics/smartphones",
"relatedLink": "https://example.com/electronics/smartphone-accessories",
"significantLink": "https://example.com/electronics/smartphones/buying-guide"
}
Blog or resource pages:
On blog or resource pages within your e-commerce site, you can use RelatedLink to point to other relevant articles or resources and SignificantLink to highlight primary sources or essential pages, such as product pages or category pages.
Example JSON-LD markup for a blog post:
{
"@context": "http://schema.org",
"@type": "BlogPosting",
"headline": "Top 10 Smartphones of 2023",
"url": "https://example.com/blog/top-10-smartphones-2023",
"relatedLink": "https://example.com/blog/top-10-smartphone-accessories-2023",
"significantLink": "https://example.com/electronics/smartphones"
}
By using RelatedLink and SignificantLink on various e-commerce page types, you can help search engines understand the connections between your site’s pages and improve your site’s internal linking structure.
Learning and content hubs
If you create a learning or content hub, you can leverage RelatedLink and SignificantLink to establish relationships between learning materials and resources. Let’s create an example learning hub focused on web development to illustrate how to use these schema properties.
Course pages:
On course pages, you can use RelatedLink to point to other relevant courses or modules and SignificantLink to highlight essential resources, such as reference materials or prerequisites.
Here’s an example of JSON-LD markup for a course page:
{
"@context": "http://schema.org",
"@type": "Course",
"name": "Introduction to HTML",
"url": "https://learninghub.example.com/web-development/html/introduction",
"relatedLink": "https://learninghub.example.com/web-development/css/introduction",
"significantLink": "https://learninghub.example.com/resources/html-reference"
}
Lesson pages:
On lesson pages, you can use RelatedLink to point to other relevant lessons within the same or a different course and SignificantLink to highlight essential resources, such as code examples or external references.
Here’s an example of JSON-LD markup for a lesson page:
{
"@context": "http://schema.org",
"@type": "WebPage",
"name": "HTML Basics",
"url": "https://learninghub.example.com/web-development/html/introduction/lesson-1",
"relatedLink": "https://learninghub.example.com/web-development/html/introduction/lesson-2",
"significantLink": "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML"
}
Resource pages:
On resource pages, such as reference materials or blog posts, you can use RelatedLink to point to other relevant resources or learning materials and SignificantLink to highlight primary sources or essential pages, such as course pages or other lessons.
Here’s an example of JSON-LD markup for a resource page:
{
"@context": "http://schema.org",
"@type": "WebPage",
"name": "HTML Reference",
"url": "https://learninghub.example.com/resources/html-reference",
"relatedLink": "https://learninghub.example.com/resources/css-reference",
"significantLink": "https://learninghub.example.com/web-development/html/introduction"
}
By utilising RelatedLink and SignificantLink in your learning or content hub, you can help search engines comprehend the relationships between various learning materials and improve the overall organisation of your content.
For easier reference, the below table provides a brief overview of various types of websites and the pages that could benefit from utilising Related and SignificantLinks through schema markup:
| Website Type | Potential Pages for Related Links | Potential Pages for Significant Links |
|---|---|---|
| E-commerce | Product pages, category pages, blog/resource pages | Product pages, category pages, blog/resource pages |
| News/Media | Article pages, related articles, category pages | Article pages, related articles, important pages |
| Travel | Destination pages, related destinations, activity pages | Booking pages, important pages |
| Real Estate | Listing pages, related listings, neighborhood pages | Listing pages, important pages |
| Education | Course pages, lesson pages, resource pages | Course pages, lesson pages, resource pages |
| Healthcare | Service pages, related services, condition pages | Service pages, important pages |
| Food/Recipe | Recipe pages, related recipes, category pages | Recipe pages, important pages |
| Finance | Product pages, related products, blog/resource pages | Product pages, important pages |
| Technology | Product pages, related products, blog/resource pages | Product pages, important pages |
| Non-profit | Donation pages, related causes, blog/resource pages | Important pages, donation pages |
Finally, when implementing schema markup, it is essential to test your work to ensure it is correctly implemented and free of any errors that could affect your website’s SEO. You can use Google’s Rich Results Test or the Schema Markup Validator to test your schema markup implementation.
References:
- Wan, Z., Xu, B., Liu, Y., & Zhang, Y. (2020). “A Comparative Study of Structured and Unstructured Data for Chatbot Development.” Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (CSAI 2020).
- Dang, T. N., Tran, N. T., & Nguyen, D. D. (2019). “Designing chatbots with structured data: An approach for better user engagement.” Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Information Management (ICIM 2019).
- Jaiswal, S., & Kaur, P. (2020). “Enhancing Chatbot Performance using Schema Markup.” International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering, 10(6), 45-50.
- Google. (n.d.). Getting Started with Schema Markup. Google Developers. Retrieved March 15, 2023, from https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/intro-structured-data
