Google's search algorithm has been deepening. Many marketers are confused about Google's semantic search. Jiexin Internet Marketing Agency will provide you with specific methods to apply structured data to help search engines understand your content.
As Google further explored thesemantic search, our center of gravity must start fromKey wordsinto answering questions. Jiexin Internet Marketing Agency shows us how to apply structured data to help search engines understand your content.
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search engineis constantly evolving. Search is not only getting faster, it's becoming more predictive and conversational — more like a personal assistant.
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In the past, search engine results pages (SERPs) displayed little more than 10 blue links—the results of searches for web documents. These lists often include URLs, text summaries, or other information. Search engines are very good at identifying and displaying relevant, readable snippets.
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As search engines began incorporating search data into their algorithms, results pages changed accordingly. Results pages today feature rich content, including knowledge panels, answers to questions, solid summaries, and more. In some cases, these enhanced lists are even more actionable, such as phone numbers you can click to call from your phone or Google Hangouts.
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The shift from document searches to data searches presents some new challenges for search marketers. How can we create eye-catching, relevant content that impacts search results pages and inspires urgent action?
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The solution is to determine what kind of questions your target audience will ask and how to provide content for each type of question.
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1. What kind of questions does your content answer?
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You may come across many question types, as I mentioned earlier, there are formal, parametric, interrogative, etc.
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However, in order to illustrate the all-encompassing optimization content of answering questions, this article will only delve into some specific examples.
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Here, I will ask some questions related to contact information and product search queries, because they are closely related to Google Shopping.
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2. Types of questions to inquire about phone numbers.
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Google provides very clear instructions for using structured data markup to get your business phone number in search results.
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In the example below, you can see that Organization and ContactPoint are the two structures defined as minimum requirements.
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Connect with specific businesses using structured data markup:


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In the above example on the right, you can see how extension tags can be used to specify different types of business numbers, such as "technical support", "customer service", "bill payment" etc. There are also ways to deal with "accessibility", such as designating a separate phone number (contact point) for hearing-impaired users.
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Once you've implemented it, you can test your markup in the Google Business Contact Markup Test Tool.
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Third, use the form to present the contact information.
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Of course, there are other ways to provide Google with structured data about your contact details. For example, Google recently announced the introduction of "structural summaries", which extract relevant information from tables on web pages and display them in search result summaries.
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If you have multiple points of contact, this information should all be grouped into one well-labeled web form. Here are some examples of explicit use of this technique:
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Structural summary extracted from the table:


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4. Product search query/question.
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For retailers, this is the kind worth looking into. Google may take advantage of it in Google Shopping. Search engine marketing (SEM) is down significantly these days, not search engine optimization (SEO), because merchants now have to pay Google to be included in the results. Still, it's important to understand how Google determines relevancy.
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Although many consumers use easily distinguishable product searches when making formal queries, such as "black dresses under $X.00" and so on. Here we can read Google's U.S. Patent application 2014014325 (Google's U.S. Patent application 20140143254) https://www.google.com/patents/US20140143254 This document is called "Category and Attribute Specifications Search Query (Category and Attribute Specifications) for Product Search Queries), which describe the ways in which queries users can enter, and the ways in which search engines can determine the direct connection between those queries (questions) and the corresponding product categories.


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Each product category, once indexed (mapped), generates its own search results page, with a graphical user interface (GUI) similar to a landing page. When Google figures out what category of products a user is looking for, it offers options to narrow the search on the left sidebar. You've probably seen it on e-commerce sites, but it's provided by Google Shopping, not an e-commerce site.
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The chart below can illustrate one or two. The graph depicted on the left is from a Google patent, and the graph on the right is the result displayed for the same query on Google Shopping at the same time. It can be seen that the corresponding index (mapping) is depicted in the chart, and the two have something in common.


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In detail, the "Answer" of a "Product Query" is actually the category itself (the most detailed and specific). And as a response to this query, "category page displayed" is the above description.
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From the perspective of SEO, the product category generates a temporary page (landing page), which covers all possible future questions about this product category, and the attribute selection specified on the left (multi-faceted search) needs further study.
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This explains why Google requires the product category submitted by a merchant to be specified exactly (as finely defined as possible according to its product hierarchy).
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This also means that the "answer" to any product query is actually dictated by the product itself (assuming the product category submitted by the merchant can be properly indexed).
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Here are some excerpts from Google’s Merchant Support page to shed some light on how to look at this:
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Use the full "breadcrumbs" of the information. We recommend that you include the finer classification as it gives us a more precise classification signal. For example, Books > Non-Fiction > Sports > Baseball is better than Baseball. You must use ">" as a delimiter, followed by spaces. If you submit multiple values ??separated by commas, only the first one will be considered as the advertised "Product Type".
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Use the most specific category possible. Specificity helps improve the quality of the data, which in turn ensures that products are represented in the correct category. When viewing taxonomies, try to navigate to the most specific category that covers all submitted products. For example, if you uploaded an MP3 charger, it would fall under the MP3 charger category. Instead, use the Charger category if you are uploading multiple types of chargers.
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It’s worth noting that Google updates its category classification every three months. While it still supports the taxonomy published in the past (as of August 2011), it is more beneficial to adhere to the current taxonomy.
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5. Other types of questions.
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Google has many other types of queries, often taking specific forms, based on query templates and result presentation templates.
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Here's how to feed structured data to Google:
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Use schema.org for structured markup on your web pages.
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Structural information for tables (contains some schema.org-specific semantics)
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Information linked to open data clouds is often fertile ground for seeding knowledge graphs. Provides a strong and consistent signal by placing relevant, highly accurate information in locales such as Freebase, Wikidata and others.
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Utilize APIs, data feeds, Atom feeds, and other similar forms of programs to ensure your information is up to date and consistent in all the signals you send as they may be referenced (cross-referenced or corroborated) by search engines.
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Making full use of various forms and mechanisms may involve the presentation of structured information, such as the internal structure of HTML DOM or more specific structures in HTML5.
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Keep in mind that all of these mechanisms need to send consistent signals to search engines, including the type and quality of content you provide.
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With the transfer of file search to data search, when search engines provide answers to certain questions or some corresponding functions, they need to provide high-confidence answers by improving high-precision data from within. Make sure you provide consistent precision data in as many appropriate ways as possible.