Your website is data. It’s also visual presentation and messaging, AND it’s data.
Google sees your site as data. You should too.
I’m not saying that website-as-data (WAD) is the top one thing in SEO. I’m saying it’s a very important thing and is widely overlooked.
On the other hand, everybody pays attention to visual design and messaging. Everybody appreciates the importance of website design and messaging. But data sounds techy and is mostly hidden, so it’s mostly overlooked.
Pay attention to design and message, AND pay attention to the data on your site. You’ll be better at specifying, managing, and publishing a website.
Start With the Basics, What You Already Know
Many people know about some important data on a site even if they don’t call it data. Examples include:
- page title:
In the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) code, this is the title element. - page description:
In the HTML code, this is the meta element with name description. - headings:
In the HTML code, these are the elements H1, H2, etc. They’re a little Important for content SEO, but they’re critical for accessibility.
There are more examples like image alt attributes, tabular data (properly published in tables), canonical URL, authors, blog taxonomies (categories, tags), and structured data. Even content (text, images, video) is data.
Structured Data Since 2011
Structured data is an opportunity to help search engines. Take advantage of it for important content.
In 2011, the world’s largest search engines collaborated on a standard for publishing data on the web. It’s called various names, primarily schema or structured data. It doesn’t replace human readable content. It is, in essence, a duplication of important content formatted to be read by computers, most importantly search engines.
Visit schema.org for details, but for now understand that you can publish structured data for lots of important things:
- organization (company, non-profit, local business)
- event
- product
- service
- person
- creative work (song, photo, video)
- place
- lots more
Where possible, publish structured data about these things. You’ll make it easier for search engines to read your site. For some things, Google has guidelines about the structured data they use.
Content is Data, Use Good Markup
Your content is data. Since the beginning of the web in the 1990s, technical standards have included HTML markup that organizes content and identifies different kinds of content and data. It’s an opportunity to make your site easier for search engines to interpret.
Follow Heading Specifications
For accessibility, headings can help the visually impaired use screen readers to navigate your content. Correct heading use is crucial for accessibility.
Search engines try to interpret your content and provide good search results. Headings organize your content for people and search engines. They might help SEO a little.
For these purposes, there’s a right way to use headings.
Organize Content with Headings
Technical standards call for content to be organized in a hierarchy with headings to mark sections at different levels from H1 to H6. The headings create a kind of outline of your content like this:
H1
content for the top level headline
H2
content for the first H2 heading
H2
content for the second H2 heading
H3
content for the first H3 under the second H2
H3
content for the second H3
H4
content for the first H4, of the second h3, of the second H2
H2
content for the third H2 heading
This goes up to H6, and levels should not be skipped going up. This can feel a little restrictive on writing styles, and it is. But you should stick to this as much as possible because:
- It’s crucial for accessibility.
- It’s helpful for SEO, but it isn’t crucial.
As much as possible, stick to the specifications. Don’t select headings based on their visual appearance. Instead, restyle the heading elements with the sizes, colors, and typography you want.
Tabular Data In Tables
Content that could be published in a spreadsheet benefits from correctly marked up HTML tables. I’m tempted to provide a thorough explanation here, but it’s beyond the scope of this post. The details are in the code, so it’s kind of techy.
The quick info: Tabular data in properly coded HTML tables helps accessibility and SEO. If you have important tabular data, have your webmaster create proper HTML tables with header rows and columns for it.
Other Semantic HTML, Elements with Meaning
Some important HTML elements have meaning (semantics) that helps search engines and screen readers. And again, it’s beyond this post to explain all the details. Just understand that semantic HTML is an opportunity to help search engines interpret your content.
Sectioning and Landmark HTML
The broad structure of a page can be identified in the code using HTML elements like header, nav, main, article, and footer. Many website systems publish these. Use these if your web design system allows them.
Text and Content Elements
Text elements identify the purpose or structure of content. Some widely known ones include headings (elements H1, H2, etc.), lists (UL, OL, and DL), blockquote, form, and strong.
The img element, in particular its alt attribute, is very important for both SEO and accessibility.
Semantic HTML References
Semantic HTML gets into the deep, wide details of content markup. Here are some places to learn more.
- Samantics in HTML on the MDN web documents site
- Semantic HTML on the MDN web documents site
Opportunities to Publish Data about Your Business, Services, Products
Every website has the opportunity to publish data formatted for search engines and accessibility. It is one of the many things that make good SEO. Some of it is published automatically by most website systems. A lot of it is not.
I’ve seen websites that publish event information but not event structured data. Or they publish company information but not company structured data. Or they publish tabular data but not properly marked up tables. These are missed opportunities for better SEO.
As you review the visual design and messaging of your site, also review your site’s code for opportunities to publish content as correctly formatted data. It’s an opportunity to make your content easier for search engines. It’s good for SEO and accessibility.
