How does educational organization schema interact with Google's knowledge graph?

[Corbec888]

Hi there!

I was just wondering if the granular options of the Organization schema, like Educational Organization (http://schema.org/EducationalOrganization) and CollegeOrUniversity (http://schema.org/CollegeOrUniversity) schema work the same when it comes to pulling data into the knowledge graph.

I've typically always used the Organization schema for customers but was wondering if there are any drawbacks for going deep into the hierarchy of schema.

Cheers

[Dr-Pete]

I haven't seen the specific Educational Organization schema have an impact on SERPs, but they're diverging so much lately that it's hard to say. There are some specialty carousels like this:

https://www.google.com/search?q=best+colleges+in+wyoming

...that could be using it, but I suspect this is coming from the broader Knowledge Graph. Individual colleges have Knowledge Panels, but a lot of that data is coming from GMB listings, best I know.

There's no real harm, if the data is appropriate and well-structured (i.e. you're not putting a university mark-up on a sandwich shop page). The drawback is basically spending the time and energy and getting nothing in return.

I guess the other drawback is that Google could use that data to feed its own internal database but not give you anything in return. That's a drawback of basically everything in SEO right now, though.

[Corbec888]

Hi Dr. Meyers,

Many thanks for the response, it's kind of in line with what I was thinking.

If the data is structured and presented in the same clean format as the parent Organization schema then I can't see why Google would not treat it in the same way as a data point.

I don't suppose by chance you've come across any solid studies about schema, far down in the hierarchy, and the impacts it has.

The only studies I can find are of generic schema, and being very data driven I was hoping to find some evidence for using these.

[Dr-Pete]

Unfortunately, I haven't seen any studies of that nature. I typically look at it pragmatically -- is there a change in SERP features related to that schema (i.e. is there direct, measurable benefit)? So far, I haven't seen any. On the other hand, I don't see any evidence of harm, as long as the schema is appropriate and well-structured. It just comes down to where you want to put your time/effort.