Challenge

The subject of this case study is a new dental lab in Calgary who preferred to be anonymous, providing dental products such as dental implants, crowns, bridges and veneers.

The dental lab has an offer catalog on its home page, and has a Google Business Profile.

While this lab started with Google Ads to attract most of its clients, it was struggling to get organic traffic for its target keywords.

The company approached Schemantra to transform the information on their website into structured data, in a hope to increase their organic traffic.

Upon examination we found that their website had generic unrepresentative and redundant schema markups, the usual generic that can be found on any wordpress website.

We suggested to remove the existing structured data and generate a semantic schema network where OfferCatalog is the centerpiece that connected this network across the entire website.

Semantic schema network is a method to generate a network of standards-based, machine-readable data across a website.

It allows search engines to start at one piece of Linked Data, and follow embedded links to other pieces of Linked Data that are hosted on different pages across the Website. It increases data integration, reasoning and match search intent.

In This way the offer catalog includes all the product categories this business provides, where each category is linked to a different product landing page.

However, generating an entire semantic schema network across a website, where all entities are interconnected. requires a solid understanding of schema.org and ontology construction, as well as the ability to develop dynamic schema markups that automatically modify their values.

For those interested in acquiring these skills and learning how to build semantic networks using structured data, I am building a comprehensive schema markup course that covers all of these topics and more. You can check out my waiting list.

Back to the case study!

In this case study, titled "17 Tips to Optimize Your local business Schema," I will demonstrate how to construct the most fundamental element of the semantic network, which is the local business schema.

I will be discussing the most common mistakes made by professional SEOs during this processes and the critical properties that must be used.

How to optimize a local business schema

Using Schemantra We've linked the local business schema with Google Business profile, connecting it to the product catalog on the homepage.

The product catalog, in turn, is linked to product categories, each associated and linked with an individual product landing page.

creating an interconnected semantic schema network that describes the entire website, capturing the primary entities and their intricate relationships with other entities on the platform.

If you are thinking how to do this and you want to learn how please join my structured data for semantic SEO course waiting list

By doing this, the business could effectively showcase its ratings and services on search engine results pages.

More importantly some of their target keywords jumped from the 7th page to the 1st page on Google search results, improving their search engine ranking and click-through rates while saving crawl budget, making it easier for potential customers to locate and utilize the company's services.

In this semantic seo case study we will focus on the top 17 most important aspects and the best practices to generate a local business schema type.

1. Educate yourself about local business properties

schema properties are basically all the data points that describe your entity.

If you visit the local business page on schema.org , you will find a table that contains a list of all local business properties, read those properties, what they mean, and try to choose the most suitable properties to describe your local business.

One of the most obvious properties to use on local business schema are: name, description, address, image, VideoObject, geo, openingHoursSpecifications, priceRange, review and url.

2. Avoid repeating the same local business schema on the same page, and here is how SEOs do it unintentionally

I've observed numerous websites that feature multiple forms of the same schema, such as an electric shop using Electrician, Store, local business, and Organization all together.

This only provides redundant data and can consume your crawl budget.

This is because Electrician is a more specific schema type of Store, which in turn is a more specific type of local business, which is further a more specific type of Organization.

In short each type inherits its properties from the type above it in addition to having its own properties.

Meaning you are repeating yourself, they are all the same schema because they provide almost the same information !!

For this reason only the specific schema type should be used which is Electrician in this case.

3. Avoid repeating the same schema on every page

Be mindful that you may unknowingly repeat the same schema markup on your website.

Certain WordPress plugins can automatically create markups, resulting in the repetition of your organization and local business information throughout your entire website.

It's important to be aware of this potential issue.

For this reason, try not to repeat the same schema on every page of your website.

Instead, use '@id' to reference your local business Schema without repeating all the details.

4. Pick the right local business schema type

Restaurant, Store, or AutomotiveBusiness are some of the more specific schema type options for a localbusiness.

Choose the one that fits your business description best.

Below are the types of all local businesses that are included in schema.org. If you can't find what you're looking for, you can use a general type like Organization, Store, MedicalEntity or Local Business.

More specific Types are:

• AnimalShelter
• ArchiveOrganization
• AutomotiveBusiness
• ChildCare
• Dentist
• DryCleaningOrLaundry
• EmergencyService
• EmploymentAgency
• EntertainmentBusiness
• FinancialService
• FoodEstablishment
• GovernmentOffice
• HealthAndBeautyBusiness
• HomeAndConstructionBusiness
• InternetCafe
• LegalService
• Library
• LodgingBusiness
• MedicalBusiness
• ProfessionalService
• RadioStation
• RealEstateAgent
• RecyclingCenter
• SelfStorage
• ShoppingCenter
• SportsActivityLocation
• Store
• TelevisionStation
• TouristInformationCenter
• TravelAgency

5. If you cant find the right type for your local business, use additional type

An additional type for the item, typically used for adding more specific types from external vocabularies.

For example, if you have a horse trailer business, you can use a link from Product Ontology that defines a horse trailer to indicate the  specific type of your local business.

The Product Types Ontology provides 300,000 precise definitions for types of different entities that extend the schema.org and GoodRelations standards.

This can help search engines better understand the nature and purpose of your business, improving the accuracy and relevance of your business information in local search results.

6. Connect with Google My Business

Google Business Profile is a free tool that allows you to take charge of the way your business appears on Google Search and Maps.

With your Business Profile, you can connect with customers, post updates, list your products and services, upload your business photos, share your menu, and more.

Link your local business schema with Google My Business profile to establish a stronger connection between your website and Google's search engine.

This can enhance your chances of appearing in local search results and Google Maps.

By linking your local business schema with Google Business Profile, Google and other search engines should be able to associate your local business schema markup with your Google My Business profile.

This can help improve the accuracy and consistency of your business information across Google search results and maps.

How? Get the URL of your GMB profile and use it as the “@id” of you local business schema.

7. Utilize reviews and aggregate rating markup

While a Review is a review of an item - for example, of a restaurant, movie, or store.  an AggregateRating is the average rating based on multiple ratings or reviews.

Incorporate review and rating markup to display customer reviews and ratings directly in search engine results.

Positive reviews and ratings can significantly impact your online reputation and attract more customers.

How? Enhance your local business schema with AggregateRating by linking it to your Google Business Profile. Even if your website lacks ratings, you can include the average ratingValue and reviewCount from your Google Business Profile. Don't forget to add a link for reference.

8. Use DefinedTerm to declare your keywords

DefinedTerm is a word, name, acronym, phrase, etc. with a formal definition. Often used in the context of category or subject classification, glossaries or dictionaries, product or creative work types, etc.

To specify keywords that are relevant to your business. Use the type DefinedTerm.

These keywords can help search engines and other applications to better understand the nature of the business and its offerings, and can be useful for improving the business's visibility in search results.

You can choose this “keyword” relation to link your local business with a DefinedTerm schema type, so you can then define your keyword, its description and you can use the URL and sameAs field to add a link that describes your keyword, from a high authority page.

Use the name property for the term being defined, use termCode if the term has an alpha-numeric code allocated, use description to provide the definition of the term.

9. Use the hasOfferCatalog relation to add an OfferCatalog to your local business

The OfferCatalog type is used to specify a catalogue of the products or services offered by the business.

This type can be used to provide more detailed information about the business's offerings and can be useful for improving its visibility in search results.

In this case study, the OfferCatalog was the star of the show - the centrepiece that connected the home page knowledge graph with the semantic schema network across the entire website.

But explaining this takes more knowledge than what's covered in the study. - if you want to learn structured data for semantic SEO, you can join my waiting list! Don't miss out on the opportunity to take your website to the next level. Join now and take the first step toward mastering the art of semantic SEO.

10. Use the knowsAbout property

The knowsAbout property is used to describe the topics or subject areas that a business or organization is knowledgeable about. It provides additional information about the expertise of a business or organization.

Use this field to specify your business's areas of expertise and topics. You can do that by adding the URL of a high authority page about your topic such Wikipedia.or by adding text or by adding another schema type to it.

11. Optimize for local SEO by using the address and areaServed fields correctly

Incorporate location-based keywords into your schema markup, such as city, state, or neighborhood names, to improve local search visibility. This helps search engines connect your business with relevant local queries.

address holds your location, or multiple locations while areaServed describes your business's operational area. For instance, you may have a physical location as a Plumber or a Realtor, but serve a particular part of the city or multiple cities.

For more info please watch this video: https://youtu.be/STLeSj_hc6I

12. Use the brand property to showcase your brand:

A brand is a name used by an organization or business person for labeling a product, product group, or similar.

Boost your online authority with the Brand type Showcase your brand name and logo for better recognition and trust for your local business.

13. Regularly monitor and update your schema

Review and update your local business schema regularly, to reflect any changes or updates to your business information. This ensures that search engines have the most accurate and up-to-date data.

14. Consider including a founder field

A founder is a person who founded this organization.

Add an interesting touch to your local business schema and boost domain authority by including a founder field. This works especially well if your business has a noteworthy founder or creator.

15. Connect all your entities in one schema

Image Source: Classy Schema

 

 

Generate a single, comprehensive linked schema that catters all related entities to describe your local business where all entities are connected and linked.

Instead of scattering multiple incomplete schemas throughout your website, consider using a tool like Schemantra to generate a schema that links all your entity types in one place.

This involves defining your primary entity and describing its relationships with other entities on the page. To learn this skill and find out more about this please join our waiting list for structured data training course.

 

 

16. Remove the pre-existing schemas on the page

Are you a professional SEO who believes that more schemas on a page lead to better results? Think again. Keeping the existing WordPress plugin schema while creating a new one can harm your page and even cause it to lose its rank.

That's because one schema will override the other, rendering your other schema irrelevant and wasting your crawl budget. So, before installing a new schema, disable the old one and avoid hurting your page's performance.

17. Check your local business schema with rich result testing tools

Rich result testing tools, such as Google's Structured Data Testing Tool and Schema.org's Structured Data validator, can help you verify that your website's structured data is properly formatted and includes all necessary fields.

These tools can also provide suggestions for improving your schema markup to ensure that your website is optimized for search engine results pages.

Test before publishing! Use Google's Rich Results testing tool to check your schema's requirements and ensure that it displays properly in search results.

Result

In conclusion, the implementation of the overall solution has had a significant impact on the online presence of the business, its visibility has led to increased traffic to the website, greater brand recognition, and the potential for higher conversion rates. Overall, the successful use of local business Schema demonstrates its importance in improving the visibility and success of local businesses online.