Benefits/drawbacks to different Schema markup languages (ie. JSON-LD, Microdata, RDFa)
-
Just a question (or questions) I have wondered about. What's the difference, besides the actual encoding, between the three? Why have three? Why not just the one? Seems to me that Microdata is the easiest, but maybe I am wrong. Is there a reason to use one versus another? I have not found anything explaining this on schema.org - I suppose this is just a discussion versus getting one right or wrong answer. I am just curious of the opinions of people in the SEO MOZ community. Unless of course there is one answer. I'll take that too.
-
Great, Peter. Thanks for the answers. I now understand the difference. Much appreciated.
-
That's right. JSON-LD doesn't require change of HTML compared with Microdata and RDFa. And this is one of answers why JSON-LD is beautiful. Second is because you can make changes in JSON-LD without touching HTML. Like adding new fields, parameters, etc.
About placing. I think that this can be just on home page. Placing in each page is pure rich snippet spam.
-
Hi Peter,
Thanks for the answer. So, as I understand it, and keep in mind this is coming from someone that is not very code-savvy, with JSON-LD, one could put the script anywhere in the HTML, the header, the body, the footer, etc. and it won't show up on the actual page, but the search engine will be able to read it. This implies that no changing or tweaking of the actual HTML is necessary, no messing around with 's or
's like you would with Microdata or RDFa, correct?
A follow up question, if I may, how would you implement something like a "local business" schema with JSON, would you put the script on every page, in the footer perhaps? Or would you just put it on the home page? Does it matter?
Thanks
-
So far we have Microdata, RDFa and JSON-LD.
I'll cover Microdata and RDFa in same because they're similar. So they both are addition to HTML attributes indicating what Schema.org field names correspond with what user-visible text on the page. Works perfect but need lot of developer work and designer changes. Because both backend (admin interface) and frontend (HTML) must be changed. And there are many issues that can be messed - incorrect implementation, "rich snippet spam", software bugs, etc. Look easy as 1-2-3 but in reality it's pain (PIA) for implementation and support. Example - only product implementation require in backend least 10 edit boxes if they're manual filled.
JSON-LD - it's relative new protocol based on Schema.org. The main benefit is that you split representation layer (HTML) from semantic layer (JSON-LD). In prev. formats - they're same and linked each other. Now they're split. This give you much more freedom than before. You can place HTML data whatever you wish and just add hidden JSON in head or in content that will add semantic marking. This is future (for now).
If you wish to read more about creation of JSON-LD then this article is for you:
http://manu.sporny.org/2014/json-ld-origins-2/
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Page auto directing to /#/id0 but no 301 in place?
I'm a little perplexed and hope someone technically savvy can help. Wordpress site. Our page: www.curveball-media.co.uk/animation Redirects to: www.curveball-media.co.uk/animation/#/id0 I cannot see any reason for this. No 301s, nothing.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | curveballmedia0 -
Is there any importance in including http:// in the url?
I have seen some sites that always redirect to https and some sites that always redirect to http://, but lately I have seen sites that force the url to just the site. As in [sitename].com, no www. no http://. Does this affect SEO in anyway? Is it good or bad for other things? I was surprised when I saw it and don't really know what effect it has.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MarloSchneider0 -
Schema.org and YouTube Videos
Hi, Does anyone know how to implement schema.org markup with YouTube embedded videos? Thanks Carlos
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Carlos-R0 -
Could a HTML <select>with large numbers of <option value="<url>">'s affect my organic rankings</option></select>
Hi there, I'm currently redesigning my website, and one particular pages lists hotels in New York. Some functionality I'm thinking of adding in is to let the user find hotels close to specific concert venues in New York. My current thinking is to provide the following select element on the page - selecting any one of the options will automatically redirect to my page for that concert venue. The purpose of this isn't to affect the organic traffic - I'm simply introducing this as a tool to help customers find the right hotel, but I certainly don't want it to have an adverse effect on my organic traffic. I'd love to know your thoughts on this. I must add that in certain cities, such as New York, there could be up to 450 different options in this select element. | <select onchange="location=options[selectedIndex].value;"> <option value="">Show convenient hotels for:</option> <option value="http://url1..">1492 New York</option> <option value="http://url2..">Abrons Arts Center</option> <option value="http://url3..">Ace of Clubs New York</option> <option value="http://url4..">Affairs Afloat</option> <option value="http://url5..">Affirmation Arts New York</option> <option value="http://url6..">Al Hirschfeld Theatre</option> <option value="http://url7..">Alice Tully Hall</option> .. .. ..</select> Many thanks Mike |
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | mjk260 -
SEO timeline / action plans
Hi, My first question here so thanks in advance for any responses. I have built websites / done basic seo for a while but I am now making a real concerted effort to implement everything I learn from seomoz. I am wondering if there is any advice or general timeline of items to implement with existing websites or brand new websites. For example xxx action in week 1, xxx action in week 2 etc A sort of crib sheet or tick lists which I think would help reduce any errors and help schedule items for future planning, especially in larger groups of people . If there is anything or anywhere that might be of help then would be great or if anyone has a rough plan they stick too
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | wtfi0 -
Help with setting up 301 redirects from /default.aspx to the "/" in ASP.NET using MasterPages?
Hi SEOMoz Moderators and Staff, My web developer and I are having a world of trouble setting up the best way to 301 redirect from www.tisbest.org/default.aspx to the www.tisbest.org since we're using session very heavily for our ASP.NET using MasterPages. We're hoping for some help since our homepage has dropped 50+ positions for all of our search terms since our first attempt at setting this up 10 days ago. = ( A very bad result. We've rolled back the redirects after realizing that our session system was redirecting www.tisbest.org back to www.tisbest.org/default.aspx?AutoDetectCookieSupport=1 which would redirect to a URL with the session ID like this one: http://www.tisbest.org/(S(whukyd45tf5atk55dmcqae45))/Default.aspx which would then redirect again and throw the spider into an unending redirect loop. The Google gods got angry, stopped indexing the page, and we are now missing from our previous rankings though, thankfully, several of our other pages do still exist on Google. So, has anyone dealt with this issue? Could this be solved by simply resetting up the 301 redirects and also configuring ASP.NET to recognize Google's spider as supporting cookies and thus not serving it the Session ID that has caused issue for us in the past? Any help (even just commiserating!) would be great. Thanks! Chad
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TisBest0 -
Duplicate internal links on page, any benefit to nofollow
Link spam is naturally a hot topic amongst SEO's, particularly post Penguin. While digging around forums etc, I watched a video blog from Matt Cutts posted a while ago that suggests that Google only pays attention to the first instance of a link on the page As most websites will have multiple instances of a links (header, footer and body text), is it beneficial to nofollow the additional instances of the link? Also as the first instance of a link will in most cases be within the header nav, does that then make the content link text critical or can good on page optimisation be pulled from the title attribute? I would appreciate the experiences and thoughts Mozzers thoughts on this thanks in advance!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JustinTaylor880 -
Redirects/Forwarding
I have two niche e-commerce sites. One is a PR3 with 3K pages indexed, the other is PR0 with 5K pages indexed. Each site has a blog that has been updated regularly. They both rank well for some fairly competitive keywords and some good links pointing to them. I also have a main site that is PR3. I am thinking of closing down the sites because they are not generating enough revenue, here are my questions: What is the best way to get the most SEO value from these sites? Do I just do a redirect to the main site? Should I keep the sites and use canonical URLs to the main site? Should I keep the domain as a wordpress blog and point links to the main site? What should I do with the blogs? They are on sub-domains, neither has pagerank. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | inhouseseo0