by Claudia Bruemmer

Many wholesalers and general merchandise vendors have heard of Microdata, a markup language provided by Schema.org and supported by Google, Bing and Yahoo. Microdata are markup attributes (tags, code) that give semantic meaning to product pages or any X/HTMLweb page. These tags allow all product details such as price, image, reviews, manufacturer, etc., to be accurately understood by search engines. As a result, they can display complete, accurate information about your products in the SERPs.

The example shows how an enhanced listing looks in the SERPs with structured markup, in this case, a rich snippet. The listing contains a photo, reviews and cooking time for a recipe. Google started using rich snippets in 2009 and now supports more extensive structured markup with Schema Microdata.

Rich Search Listings. Search engines can serve rich search listings with more detailed information when you have Microdata markup attributes on your web page content. This is a major advantage over your competitors because your listings will get more clicks and conversions for the products and services exhibited online. Right now, most wholesalers don’t know about Microdata, or how to implement it, so it’s a good time to learn more and get ahead of the competition in Google.

The ability to put structured markup on your product pages is good for suppliers and their buyers, as well. Structured markup attributes on your static and/or dynamic pages can increase traffic and conversions for suppliers, while making sourcing faster and easier for buyers. Google likes structured markup because it helps classify information on web pages through the use of tags that break down individual content elements. That allows the googlebot to serve more relevant results, which is what propelled Google ahead of Yahoo and Microsoft in the first place.

Schema Microdata. You can find out more about Microdata at Schema.org. Basically, Microdata schemas are broken down into different “types” that are categorized. The types follow a hierarchy with the most general type named “Thing.” The more specific types under Thing are: Creative Work, Event, Intangible, Organization, Person, Place and Product. For example, Creative Work attributes can be used to describe books, movies, photographs, software programs, and so forth. Event attributes are used to describe an event that’s happening at a certain time and location, like a trade show. It’s amazing what a little code can do to make your content machine-readable by search robots. The end result is a richer search listings and possibly higher rankings.

WordPress Microdata Plugin. You can get a WordPress plugin called Schema for WordPress, which lets you insert markup consistent with schema.org to enhance your blog’s search results on the major search engines. The plugin requires WP 3.1 or higher. Tell your webmaster about it because it may require a little technical expertise.

Conclusion. Wholesalers and general merchandise vendors can gain competitive advantage with Microdata markup provided by Schema.org. These markup attributes give your product pages semantic meaning and a rich product listing in search results. You can act now to get Microdata markup on your content with a WordPress Microdata Plugin.