What is structured data?
Structured data refers to any type of data that is organized in an orderly and easily accessible format, often in tabular form with clearly defined relationships between the various data elements.
This data can be efficiently processed and analyzed by machines because it follows a specific structure defined by schemas or models. In the context of web development andsearch engine optimization(SEO), structured data refers to the markup that web developers can add to a web page to provide search engines such as Google with more detailed information about the content of the page. This markup follows specific formats that are understood by search engines, such as Schema.org, RDFa, Microdata, and JSON-LD.
What is the difference between structured data and unstructured data?
The main difference betweenstructuredandunstructureddatalies in how it is organized and processed. Structured data isorganizedin apredefinedformat thatismachine-readable, making it easy for algorithms to process and analyze. Typical examples of this are databases and Excel spreadsheets, where each column represents a specific data type.
Unstructured data, on the other hand, is not organized in a fixed format and can pose a challenge for machine processing. It includestext,images,videos,andothermedia content that does not have a clearly defined structure. Processing and analyzing this data requires advanced techniques such asnatural language processing(NLP) andimage recognition.
Is structured data important for SEO?
Yes, structured data plays an essential role insearch engine optimization. By providing explicit information about the content of a website, it can help search engines better understand the context and meaning of the page. This, in turn, can improve the page's presentation in search results, for example by generating rich snippets that give users additional information about the page before they click on it. Examples of rich snippets include star ratings, recipe ingredients, and product availability. Using structured data can therefore improve the click-through rate (CTR) , improve the visibility of a website, and ultimately lead to higher organic traffic.