Schema is to robots what English is to monkey brains

To speak it, you need to learn the vocabulary, understand the syntax, and follow along all the other monkeys.

Monkey see, monkey do. Bad metaphors aside, Structured data is as complex to humans, as English is to search engines. There are very few universal standards.

Schema bridges that gap in information retrieval, allowing search engines to build out knowledge graphs and entire corpuses of different industries.

Understanding, applying, and mastering the official language of search engines, Schema.org and it’s underlings like GoodRelations, is how companies will win Organic Search against the modern Google Core algorithm, which actually comprises of “millions of baby algorithms” to analyze trillions of documents for billions of search terms across millions of legitimate websites in hundreds of industries.

You already know the basics (which are still challenging to decipher perfectly, even for veteran experts) such as Product, Breadcrumb, Organization, LocalBusiness, HowTo, Recipe, List, FAQ, and other modern Schemas of the 2010s. If you don’t, use the search box on BuiltWith.com to enter a type of schema, and it’ll show you long lists of sites that are implementing it.

Investigate with forensic tools like Google’s SD testing tool to see how other sites communicate Schema to engines. Question, apply, measure, repeat.

Then, once the basics are solidified, layer on 1, 2, 3 new properties to a specific page (set). Scale up as you identify winning schemas.

Then automate! Periodically check your custom Schema JSON-LD scripts for regression. A winning Custom Schema is not just a feature implementation, it’s leverage, it’s a proprietary blend that gives your website tremendous competitive advantages in search.

Beyond that, like a wordsmith, keep advancing your lexicon from the Schema vocabulary, improving your sense of leveraging the syntax on different page types, and building!