Structured Data and Semantic SEO

Matthew BrownSEMPDX Sept 2012

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdhancock/

Matthew BrownSlideshare: MatthewBrownPDXTwitter: @MatthewJBrown

matthew@audiencewise.com

http://www.portlandground.com/archives/2003/05/steel_bridge_an.php

@MatthewJbrown

Definitions

Good definition of Semantic SEO: http://bit.ly/kUW0fJ

Semantic Search Engine Optimization (Semantic SEO) is the use of techniques from the Semantic Web technology stack for: 1.sending detailed information about the meaning of your page content to search engines and other data consumers,

2. in a way that can be easily processed by computers.

Other notable parts of the ‘Semantic Web Technology Stack’

Structured Data = Data organized by a markup language and a vocabulary. Can be organized and searched by machines.

Linked Data = Publishing structured data so it can be accessed at a URI

RDF = Resource Definition Framework. This is a data model that establishes entity relationships using ‘triples’

Semantic Web = The web of globally accessible, interlinked data entities

Example of RDF triples describing entities. This is how semantic web data is defined.

http://www.seoskeptic.com/seo-semantic-web/Great overview of the Semantic Web here

So what’s schema.org? Microdata? RDFa? Good primer here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/schema-examples

Schema: A specific vocabulary

Choose your weapon. Which language and vocabulary fits your situation?

There are many languages and vocabularies for structured data. Schema is just one.

@MatthewJbrown

Current Status of “semantic SEO”: Google, Bing, Facebook

@MatthewJbrown

Google is doing more displacing of organic results. Deal with it: mark up your data (and not just for Google)

OUCH!

Rich snippets are everywhere now, even spammy ones

There are more options everyday to increase SERP real estate

Rich Snippets can take up 30 days or more. Don’t panic.Study at: http://bit.ly/P6pF4n

Track CTR changes for keywords that get rich snippets to measure ROI

Google Knowledge Graph

Look for what markup gets into Knowledge Graph

Knowledge Graph Carousel (for ‘multiple’ searches like albums)

There are multiple sources in the carousels as well

Markup type: (Keep a running spreadsheet)

Google Plus Knowledge Graph – Great article at http://bit.ly/PrA7Sy

@MatthewJbrown

Open Graph

Just about every ‘entity’ under the sun is in Facebook’s graph

Straight from Facebook at TC Disrupt: http://tcrn.ch/OolpA4

Open Graph: Huge graph of semantic data. HUGE.

Guardian’s FB traffic eclipsed Google traffic at one point: http://bit.ly/GFo3sg

Wonder why services like Socialcam and Viddy suddenly exploded?

http://developers.facebook.com/docs/opengraphprotocol/

Protip: Use Open Graph Markup in addition to schema, etc.

Open Graph

Schema

Using OG can control how your snippets, images, and description appears in Facebook and other networks

@MatthewJbrown Tools

Webmaster Tools now provides basic structured data stats

Facebook Object Debugger: http://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug

Mat Clayton (CTO of Mixcloud) on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/matclayton

Schema Creator from Raven: http://schema-creator.org/

Local Business Microdata Generator: http://microdatagenerator.org/

Wordpress Schema plugin from Raven:http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/schema-creator/

Drupal has functionality to consume and publish RDF data. Guide to getting up and running at: http://semantic-drupal.com/

Rich Snippets Bookmarklet: http://www.blindfiveyearold.com/rich-snippets-testing-tool-bookmarklet

Bing Webmaster Tools Markup Validator

http://linter.structured-data.org – Industrial Strength Structured Data Display

Sindice.com – Semantic web search engine. Good way to see what sites are doing with linked data

@MatthewJbrown

Linked Data tools for content marketing

Point Blank SEO’s guide to data visualizations: http://pointblankseo.com/visualizations

http://richard.cyganiak.de/2007/10/lod/lod-datasets_2011-09-19_colored.html - Linking Open Data Cloud

Linked Data datasets – current best source: http://www.w3.org/wiki/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData/DataSets

Dbpedia is Wikipedia in Linked Data specification. Outputs are JSON/XML/RDF.

PoolParty has a Wordpress plugin to import Linked Data as tooltips:http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/poolparty-thesaurus/screenshots/

LODSPeaKr – Simple Publishing Kit for Linked Data - http://alangrafu.github.com/lodspeakr/

@MatthewJbrown

Reading Materials/Resources

Raven has an excellent schema.org guide here: http://raventools.com/blog/an-seos-guide-to-schema-org/

Good Relations has several great Q+A sites and a FAQ:http://wiki.goodrelations-vocabulary.org/FFAQ

Great primer to RDFa in HTML5 and Linked Data:

Learn what entities are.http://justinbriggs.org/entity-search-results-the-on-going-evolution-of-search

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuAaa6lZxAU

Proposed schemas: http://www.w3.org/wiki/WebSchemas/SchemaDotOrgProposals

There’s a ton of resources on the web to get you started

http://learnlinkeddata.com/articles Linked Data Primer – Start Here

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/x-disprdf/index.htmlIBM Developer Works tutorial on how to combine data

Reading List

http://searchnewscentral.com/20110207129/Technical/rdfa-the-inside-story-from-best-buy.htmlInterview with Jay Myers, Lead Development Engineer for Best Buy

http://www.w3.org/2011/Talks/0607-SemTech-RDFa-IH/Talk.pdfGreat intro to RDFa and highlights Best Buy, Overstock, Examiner.com

http://semanticweb.com/introduction-to-rdf_b17953 - Dead simple intro to RDF and associated vocabularies and tools. SemanticWeb.com rules.

People who have both search and semantic backgrounds

Semantic SEO Follow ListFolks who have some SEO/Semantic Web crossover:

Aaron Bradley - @aaranged – Hands down the best curator of semantic happenings on the SEO side. When he blogs at http://www.seoskeptic.com it’s not to be missed.

Jeff Preston - @JeffreyPreston – Lead SEO at Disney Corp. Happens to be speaking at the Semantic Web 2012 conference

Sean Golliher - @SeanGolliher – Publisher of SEMJ – writes occasionally for http://www.semanticweb.com

Jay Myers - @jaymyers – Best Buy lead dev and RDFa proponent. He’s the man responsible for Best Buy’s 30% CTR increase with rich snippets.

Dan Brickley - @DanBri – Schema.org outreach for Google, works on proposed Schema.org specs

People building semantic tech tools and standards

Semantic Tech ProsSemantic Tech Folks who are very smart and say things I don’t get:

Martin Hepp- @MFHepp– Heads up Good Relations, which is the most extensive vocabulary for e-commerce data

Manu Sporny - @ManuSporny – Leader of the W3C working group for RDF. The man leading the charge for the RDF spec.

Lin Clark - @LinClark – Works on the linked data/RDF integration for Drupal. Codes neat linked data things for Drupal.

Gregg Kellogg - @Gkellogg – Semantic Web Developer of all trades. Wrote the Structured Data Linter.

Aaron Bradley’s gigantic Semantic Twitter Group: https://twitter.com/#!/SemanticWeb/semanticweb100 - Like tapping into the Matrix of semantic tech information.

Thank you!Slideshare: MatthewBrownPDXmatthew@audiencewise.com

twitter: @matthewjbrown

LinkedIn: MatthewBrownPDX