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How is SEO changing to support microdata like Schema.org? And why is this metadata good for information retrieval and organic search engine optimization? In this introductory guest lecture for the University of Washington, I present some of the problems in information retrieval for unstructured content ("blobs") and how to solve for these challenges using Schema.org microdata to define "entities". There's a simple Schema.org markup exercise to expose students to the basics as well as jokes about horror movies, The Simpsons, Keanu Reeves, and even Joss Whedon just to keep things light-hearted and fun. You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/
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From Blobs to Structured DataSEO in the Age of Entities
Jonathon Colman, @jcolmanIn-House SEO for REIwww.REI.com
INFO 498: Content Strategy (week #7)
What is content? If you boil away all the formatting, what’s
left?
Just text?
If so, then why isn’t full text search good enough to find what you’re looking for?
What could work better than that?
Any what can we do to content to support its findability?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsA4FnwrR7E
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Bus-That-Couldnt-Slow-Down/114241625259749
Huh? Wikipediais a source?
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Bus_That_Couldn%27t_Slow_Down&redirect=no
Oh, it’s via a synonym redirect to…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_(1994_film)
Joss Whedon was a co-writer? WTF?!
What is a document? How can you tell what a document is
about?
How can you tell one document from another?
What sort of signals do documents give us that help us derive their meaning?
Do you know them when you see them?
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi. Nam liber tempor cum soluta nobis eleifend option congue nihil imperdiet doming id quod mazim placerat facer possim assum. Typi non habent claritatem insitam; est usus legentis in iis qui facit eorum claritatem. Investigationes demonstraverunt lectores legere me lius quod ii legunt saepius. Claritas est etiam processus dynamicus, qui sequitur mutationem consuetudium lectorum. Mirum est notare quam littera gothica, quam nunc putamus parum claram, anteposuerit litterarum formas humanitatis per seacula quarta decima et quinta decima. Eodem modo typi, qui nunc nobis videntur parum clari, fiant sollemnes in futurum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi. Nam liber tempor cum soluta nobis eleifend option congue nihil imperdiet doming id quod mazim placerat facer possim assum. Typi non habent claritatem insitam; est usus legentis in iis qui facit eorum claritatem. Investigationes demonstraverunt lectores legere me lius quod ii legunt saepius. Claritas est etiam processus dynamicus, qui sequitur mutationem consuetudium lectorum. Mirum est notare quam littera gothica, quam nunc putamus parum claram, anteposuerit litterarum formas humanitatis per seacula quarta decima et quinta decima. Eodem modo typi, qui nunc nobis videntur parum clari, fiant sollemnes in futurum.
This is a Blob.
Lorem ipsum: A Study in Dolor Sit AmetAuthor: Melissa WeaverDate: February 18, 2012Language: Latin, EnglishPublisher: UW Husky PressKeywords: consectetuer, adipiscing, elit, sed, diam
Abstract: Nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat
volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit
lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
Chapter 1: Hendrerit in VulputateDuis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi.Nam liber tempor cum soluta nobis eleifend option congue nihil imperdiet doming id quod mazim placerat facer possim assum...
This uses Entities.
The Problem with Blobs Unstructured content is useful, but only to
a point
It’s hard to scan, skim, and easily make sense of – both for humans and robots
It’s hard to search against, particularly in a crowded collection with lots of competing content containing similar information
What should a search engine pay attention to in order to help the user?
HTML metadata Metadata is “data about data”, right?
In HTML, we can express metadata like: <title>The Problem With Blobs</title>
<meta name=“description” content=“An overview of why blobs are tricky things to deal with.” />
<meta name="keywords" content=“blob, entity, seo, content strategy, inf0498" />
Unfortunately, that’s not going to be good enough. But why not? Let’s see…
2.2M results! Where are the movies?
What is Schema.org? Microdata standard agreed upon by
Google, Bing, and Yahoo
Uses relatively simple on-page code to turn blobs of content into structured data
Once structured, this content become interoperable in other systems – you can display that data wherever the standards are accepted
Here’s an example…
This can increase clicks by +30%.
Controlled entities help searchers Documents can be documents, authors
can be authors, products can be products, and prices can be prices. Each of these entities has a definition in
Schema.org and markup that you can use to define a blob as being actual data.
So if Homer doesn’t know the name of the movie “Speed”, he can still find it with searches for its subject, the actors, the year it came out, the director, etc.
Exercise: Use the “Article” schema Go to http://schema.org/Article
Look at the entities and the code sample at the bottom
Pick appropriate content from the IAI Library, such as http://iainstitute.org/en/learn/research/a_simplified_model_for_facet_analysis.php
“View Source” and try marking it up with Schema.org microdata
Partial potential results<div itemscope itemtype=“http://schema.org/Article”>
<h1 itemprop="name">A Simplified Model for Facet Analysis</h1><div itemscope itemtype=“http://schema.org/Author”><h2 itemprop=“name">Dr. Louise Spiteri</h2><br /><span itemprop=“URL">http://dal.academia.edu/LouiseSpiteri</span><br><div itemscope itemtype=“http://schema.org/Affiliation”>Faculty of Management<br />School of Library and Information Studies<br /><span itemprop=“Organization”>Dalhousie University</span><br /><div itemscope itemtype="schema.org/PostalAddress"><span itemprop=“addressLocality”>Halifax</span><br /><span itemprop="addressRegion">Nova Scotia</span> <span
itemprop="postalCode">NS B3H 3J5</span><br /><span itemprop="addressCountry">Canada</span></div><br />Voice: <span itemprop=“telephone”>(902) 494-2473</span><br />Fax: <span itemprop=“faxNumber”>(902) 494-2451</span></div><br /></div>
</div>
How to test
Use Google’s Rich Snippets Testing Tool: http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets
Sample test output For this example blog post:
http://homebiss.blogspot.com/2011/11/markup-blogger-schemaorg-examples.html
The Google Rich Snippets Testing Tool shows this output, which includes some use of Schema.org: http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets?url=http%3A%2F%2Fhomebiss.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F11%2Fmarkup-blogger-schemaorg-examples.html&view=
What did we just learn? Schema.org is frakkin’ verbose.
Entities can cascade poly-hierarchically
There are many “right” approaches
Not all entities need to be expressed
Not all entities provide value
Still, it’s hard to know when to stop In your case, you’re done when the quarter’s over.
Common Schema.org entities Thing > Person
Thing > Organization
Thing > CreativeWork > ArticleSee also: Blog, BlogPosting, NewsArticle, ScholarlyArticle
Thing > CreativeWork > MediaObjectSee also: AudioObject, ImageObject, VideoObject
Thing > Place
See full list at http://schema.org/docs/full.html
Constraints to consider Helping more people find more things is
great, right?
But in the Real World™: Assume that there’s a cost to do this
Assume that there’s a cost for maintenance
Assume that the standards will change
Assume that there are other priorities
Assume that conflicts, dependencies exist
Takeaways Jon likes horror movies and The Simpsons
Blobs aren’t evil, just misunderstood!
Structured data entities help define blobs Structured data entities make blobs easier to
understand, learn from, index, and find Metadata, microdata, and other methods can be
used to create these entities
SEO standards (such as Schema.org) are emerging to support entities in popular search engines.
Many thanks!
Jonathon Colman
In-House SEO for REIHome: about.me/jcolman
Twitter: @jcolman
Pssssst! So you wanna learn more about SEO? See http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo
