The Top 5 Schema Types your SEO can’t be without

At ENDURANCE, we often get asked, “What’s the minimum we can do for x…” especially with anything related to SEO (search engine optimization), and Schema is no exception. So, let’s talk about the bare minimum Schema data you should implement on your website. If you do nothing else with schema, here are the top five microdata nodes you should implement on your website.

Also, in this article, I like using the word “node” vs. “type.” I think it makes more sense, but others might call these Schema types vs. nodes. That’s perfectly fine. Just understand they’re one in the same for the purpose of this article.

Breaking down a website into its core “purpose.”

If we look at any website in the simplest manner, a website is just one of the following three things:

A business card: it can be a complex or simple business card, but the purpose is to let people know a company exists, provide simple business data, and contact information.
Informational/Value Driven: provide technical information for customers, a blog, contact information, etc. (most companies fall under this overly simplified categorization).
Product Sales (E-commerce): a company that is selling something online. Easy to understand, right?

After twenty years in the business I understand this is a vague way to bucket websites but humor me. This article is all about understanding which schema should be implemented at a minimum. When we speak of the lowest possible effort, we should speak in the simplest terms! And with this understanding in mind, here’s the top five Schema (aka Microdata, aka structured data) nodes you should implement on your site (at a minimum).

1. The Schema/Structured Data “ORGANIZATION” node

Regardless of the type of site you have (see above), all websites should have an organization node. In practice we have found success by creating a graph and including the organization node on every page. At the very minimum it should be on the contact us page of every site.

Here’s an example of how we implement the organization schema type:

Download the organization schema node code example.

Is the “ORGANIZATION” structured data node supported by Google?

Yes (within the gray area). The organization node is not in Google search documentation under advanced SEO like other structured data (check out the feature guides section) per se, however, it is in many of the examples and is recognized and checked by the old Google structured data testing tool and the new Google rich snippets testing tool.

2. The Schema/Structured Data “WEBSITE” type

In practice, we use the “website” node on the homepage only as a signal to describe to search engines that this page is the homepage of an entire website. We include the site’s purpose and what makes the site special (vs. the competition). Think of it as the entire site’s elevator pitch.

Download the website schema node code example.

Is the “WEBSITE” structured data node supported by Google?

Yes (within the gray area). The website node is not in Google search documentation under advanced SEO like other structured data (check out the feature guides section), however, it is recognized and checked by the old Google structured data testing tool and the new Google rich snippets testing tool.

3. The Schema/Structured Data “WEBPAGE” type

The “webpage” node should describe what each page on a website is (kind of like the over abused meta description). It should be used on every page except:

Do not use on the homepage
Do not use on product pages.
Do not use on blog articles.

Download the webpage schema node code example.

Is the “webpage” structured data node supported by Google?

Yes (within the gray area). The webpage node is not in Google search documentation under advanced SEO like other structured data (check out the feature guides section), however, it is recognized and checked by the old Google structured data testing tool and the new Google rich snippets testing tool.

4. The Schema/Structured Data [Blog article] “NEWSARTICLE” type

The blog article node (“NewsArticle” type) should be used for blog articles, sports stories, and news posts.

Download the blog article schema node code example.

Is the [Blog article] “NEWSARTICLE” structured data node supported by Google?

Yes (100%). The newsarticle node can be found in the “Article” section of the Advanced SEO documentation.

5. The Schema/Structured Data “PRODUCT” type

This might be the most important of the five schema types mentioned in this article. Or, to put it another way, if you do nothing else on your E-commerce site, implement product schema; you’re not competing if you don’t. Product Schema only goes on product pages. It is a way for your site to do the hard work for google. Product Schema not only tells google about the product name and product price, it also shares review information, short and long product descriptions, inventory data, and so much more. But at a bare minimum, implement this product structured data information:

Download the product schema node code example.

Is the “PRODUCT” structured data node supported by Google?

Yes (100%). The product node can be found in the “Product” section of the Advanced SEO documentation.

RECAP: The 5 Schema/Microdata/Structured Data Types every website needs at a bare minimum.

A summary of the five schema nodes every site should have (for SEO) at the bare minimum:

“Organization” Type – All Sites should have this – on every page (contact page at a minimum).
“Website” Type – All sites should have this – homepage only.
“Webpage” Type – All sites should have this – do not implement on the homepage, product pages, or blog pages (only basic/info pages).
“NewsArticle” [Blog article] Type – All Sites with a blog should have this – on every blog article.
“Product” Type – All Ecommerce Sites should have this – on every product detail page (PDP).