Has anyone starting using schema.org?

[Seaward-Group]

On the 3rd June 2011 Google announced that they are going to start using Schema.

Do you think this will change the way search engines find content, from briefly looking at Schema I'm concerned that the proposed tags could just turn into another keyword meta tag and be abused.

Have you started using this tags yet and have you noticed a difference?

[StalkerB]

None of my sites would overly benefit from the rewrite necessary to impliment the suggestions, however I will be looking at using it on some new sites.

You are correct in that anything users can manipulate can be abused, however it would be a reasonable effort to use the tags properly across a whole site and an extra step that's not really necessary for spammers, so while I don't think it'll be abused too much I also don't think it will be given any weight but instead simply used to sort data.

One advantage may be that you can get into other verticals with your site (as in, if there's a way to show 'events' in the SERPs) but I'm not sure if or when that would be implimented/useful.

I would certainly assume it would be too early to show any changes to a site for those that have implimented it (and if they have they're ninjas) but I would also be interested to see who is using it.

[MarieHaynes]

I'm still waiting to see how other sites are implementing it.  I have an information site and I just can't see it helping.

However, I also have a real estate site and it would make sense to add it there.  I plan on doing it but I have to do more reading to wrap my head around it first though!

[AlanBleiweiss]

I believe Schema.org will be a critical aspect to SEO in 2012.  It's going to take that long for the search engines to adapt their algorithms, and for use to become widespread.  It will become widespread, in my opinion, for a couple very important reasons.

All three of the big three search engines got on board with this at the same time.  That alone is a major signal of how important this is.  People discounted sitemaps.org initially and that was only supported by Google initially.  This is all three at once.

Next - I personally have already directed my agency client development teams that schema.org implementation is required - not optional - and that they have 6 months to get with the program.  No wiggle room.  Several other seasoned industry vets I've spoken with are taking the same action.

Schema.org is going to give the search engines the desperate help they need in better understanding content/data intent as it's meant to be intended by site owners, and matching that against searcher intent.  It's going to be a way for the engines to improve the quality of their indexed sites.  And amazing as it may sound, it's actually going to help them in some ways to combat spam even more than they do now.  Because it's bringing structured consistency to the content of a site at a level they have not previously been able to achieve.

[StalkerB]

I don't know. I very much like the idea and to couple it with HTML5 elements, like

<header>and

<footer>, but (although I've not read everything extensively) it doesn't seen to cover every kind of website (specifically the gambling ones I work on).

There is a casino tag, but that's for a location rather than a site. I could mark up the promos as an offer, but that's not really what it's for. I could mark them up as articles, but again it's not a great fit either. And again same with product.

I really only think it'll be useful for categorizing pages which may be shown on differing SERPs pages. Otherwise it doesn't seem to be a particularly good idea to use it as a big ranking factor when not all sites can use it.

Certain elements like 'mainContentOfPage' and 'mainImageOfPage' and 'signifcantLinks' may count (and are the sort of thing all sites can impliment) but for every tag to carry a weight... I'm not sure.

Of course I may just be trying to convince myself of this as implimenting these tags on dozens of sites is not going to be fun.

</footer>

</header>

[AlanBleiweiss]

Barry,

You're on a good point - it's a brand new "solution" to an age old "the search engines need help determining quality content" issue.  So it's far from polished.

On the other hand, we ARE talking about gambling sites, not necessarily the lions share of important mainstream sites depending on how you look at it. 

And I appreciate you saying it could be about the pain it'd be to implement.  I believe that's going to ensure a LOT of sites don't get it, which means, if I am correct, those that do will have a significant competitive advantage by mid next year.

[AlanBleiweiss]

Here's a little tidbit. At SMX Advanced today, Stephan Weitz, Head of Search at Bing, confirmed two things I asked.

1.  He was recently interviewed by Eric Enge, owner of Stone Temple consulting.  In that interview, Stephan said that Bing is moving from how they currently interpret words in content as nouns, to where they want to understand words as they relate to actions - to understand web site intent - to then match that more accurately to searcher intent.

After I read that interview, schema.org was announced - a way to help search engines better understand the intent of the content.  And those to concepts clicked in my head - so I asked him - do schema.org and their desire to understand web site intent (as described in that interview) go hand in hand?  Are they directly related?  He said yes - schema.org is the key to it all.

2. He also confirmed that "schema.org is not a ranking factor now, but it will become a ranking factor.  THAT is huge.  Why? because people will be required to implement it because failing to do so will harm their rankings.  Adopting a microdata solution is no longer a "it would be nice if you did".  it's going to be a standard practice.

The search engines, in one shot, with schema.org, drew a new line in the sand.  Either get with the program, or suffer.  Not today, but it WILL happen.

My experience with other evolving changes to this industry over the 10 years I've been involved with SEO is that when a major shift occurs, it's usually about a year before it's critical for best practices SEO.

When May Day happened, I saw the writing on the wall back then - and spent the next six to 9 months helping various clients change their site architecture accordingly.  None of those clients lost rankings when Panda happened.  Several clients I got who came to me AFTER panda, who were seriously harmed by Panda, saw a plunge as a result of May Day.  It was the advance writing on the wall for Panda in many ways.  At least in my experience.

So that's why I am now more confident than ever that people in this industry have a year to generally get on board.  Those who can do it within six to nine months will have a competitive advantage.