Schema.org is a website that can be used to “create, maintain, and promote schemas for structured data on the Internet, on web pages, in email messages, and beyond.” The following article will dive into how the website started, what resources are available, and what benefits it provides. 

Uses  

Schema.org is used to markup webpages and email messages. It is a reference website that publishes documentation and guidelines for using structured data markup on web pages. Structured data markup is a “machine-readable representation of your product data directly on your site.” It is added to your HTML to “help Google/other search engines understand and process your content reliably.”

The overall goal of the website is to standardize the HTML tags that developers are using to create rich results about a certain topic (such as an image or infographic). Markup helps webpages surface their content more clearly and prominently in search results. 

Developers can use Schema.org vocabulary with many different encodings (RDFa, Microdata, and JSON-LD). The vocabularies include entities, relationships between entities, and actions, and they can be extended.  

Origin    

Schema.org was founded by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Yandex in 2011 to create and support a common set of schemas for structured data markup on web pages. The vocabulary that the site uses is developed by an open community process using the public-schemaorg@w3.org mailing list. Shared vocabulary is good because it makes it easier for developers to decide on a schema and get as much benefit as they can from their efforts.  

Users   

There are over 10 million sites using schema.org to markup web pages. However, a survey “in 2016 of 300 US-based marketing agencies and B2C advertisers across industries showed only 17% uptake.” Users can markup their webpages with Schema.org for a number of items including 

• Article
• Breadcrumb
• Course
• Event
• FAQ
• LocalBusiness
• Logo
• Movie
• Product
• Recipe
• Review
• Video

Evolution 

According to Schema.org, two major sources are expected to contribute to the evolution of the site. 

1. As new kinds of structured data that can be used to provide better search results is identified, schema.org will be extended to cover it.
2. Schema developers will be encouraged to develop and evangelize their schemas. As these gain traction, they will be incorporated into schema.org.

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