How to set up Schema Markup for Web Design service?

[Lorel]

I'm trying to set up Schema markup for a web design service. It appears that this thread is the most appropriate:

Thing > Place > LocalBusiness > ProfessionalService

I'm confused by this because the web design service is not "local". It's international.

However when you go to a schema creator tool they only list the main categories like this:


Person
Product
Event
Organization
Movie
Book
Review

How do you get to Professional Service from the list above. As usual, Google only provides instructions that a Programming Geek can understand.

And do web design services even need Schema?

[graeme_p]

If there is no specific category that fits, fall back on the main category.

I am not sure you do need schema.org markup - at least I cannot see what the likely benefits are, given that you do do want to be local (if you wanted to market to local clients, it would be different). I would have thought semantic HTML5 tags and general good practice would be more important.

Have you looked at the documentation of schema.org?

[aristotle]

I spent some time looking at schema.org markup once. It's clumsy, inflexible, badly-conceived and badly executed with horrible redundant code bloat..

[Lorel]

@graeme I've been seeing SEO experts saying having Schema helps ranking (or will in future)
@aristotle my thoughts exactly.

[Leosghost]

I've been seeing (so called*..and usually self styled** ) SEO experts saying having Schema helps ranking (or will in future)

Clickbait..
Subscriptionbait..

*My addition..based upon reading what many of these "experts" say / have said..and the number of things that they missed, until after they had happened..at which point they claim to have known all along..some of us have better memories than others..and take screen caps ;)

*Or hailed as experts by their friends, who, in return, get "reciprocal mentions" saying that they too, are SEO experts..

[not2easy]

If your business might be considered as "authorship" - creating designs - you might take a look at one of our free tools: Schema for "Person" - [freetools.webmasterworld.com...]

The other types listed are for books, movies, events, products (Design Package?) or in-depth articles or reviews and there are tools for each type.

[Lorel]

@leosghost -- the SEO expert I was referring to was Barry Schwartz (searchengineRoundtable). He quoted Google's John Mueller and they confirmed that they might use structured markup and rich snippets in future. I hope it's ok that I post the link to the article (if not please remove it). Google:Structured Markup May Become a Ranking Factor. It was dated Sept 11:
[seroundtable.com...]

@not2easy I have written several in-depth articles/tutorials and think I can figure that out but don't you have to set up the home page too, or just certain pages?

[Leosghost]

John says "might"..not will..Google likes seeing how high we might jump when they say maybe frog..and Barry makes his living out of reporting what Google and others say....SEO is about doing <=Raising positions of sites in SERPs..not reporting on what Google's people say..( Google want people to buy adwords..not to be successful at raising sites positions, without buying adwords, in "organic" SERPS..) ..what Aristotle says about "schema" is totally true..

Why is there no a category for "services" in Google's schema ?..

Because "Schema" is designed to make it easier for Google to scrape your content and later put it into the knowledge graph, rather than send you the traffic directly..and they don't put "services" into knowledge graph..

That goes into "local"..and when people search "local"...The most prominent sites shown ( and the ones that get the click throughs ) are those who have paid to be there ..via adwords..

If all of these "SEO experts" were so good, they'd be getting highly paid for raising the SERP positions of other non SEO businesses,
( you know like shops, manufacturers, non SEO service companies ) rather than promoting their own SEO sites, subscriptions, videos, packages, deals etc and those of their friends on each others blogs and SEO specialist sites..

Experts ( in any walk of life ) get on and do "it", and get well paid for doing "it", they have experience in actually doing "it", and can show you actual satisfied clients that they have done "it" for, , they don't write about their friends doing "it" or others doing "it", nor is their business about telling you how to do "it" or how good their friends are at doing "it"..

[not2easy]

I have written several in-depth articles/tutorials and think I can figure that out but don't you have to set up the home page too, or just certain pages?

Sorry, but I am also a non believer and don't use Schema Markup myself, just tried to point out some tools to make the

clumsy, inflexible, badly-conceived and badly executed with horrible redundant code bloat..

process a little easier.

Google's preferences are found here: [developers.google.com...]

[Lorel]

Because "Schema" is designed to make it easier for Google to scrape your content and later put it into the knowledge graph, rather than send you the traffic directly..and they don't put "services" into knowledge graph..

Well, that explains it! Thanks.

[Lorel]

@not2easy thanks for the link to WebmasterWorld schema generator.

[graeme_p]

I interpret what John Mueller says as indicating it may help sites rank where it adds information that helps good decide whether a site is relevant to a particular search. In this case, given its not a local business, and not a category of business that is specifically covered, I do not see what useful information it would convey

[rustybrick]

@Leosghost, I don't make a living out of my SEO reporting. It is a hobby. I don't make enough to pay much off of it. Thankfully I have a day job. :)

[Lorel]

@Rustybrick Thanks for your service. At least someone is trying to figure out what (lying between the teeth) Google is doing to us.

[seoskunk]

@rustybrick
"Barry does provide hourly one-on-one SEO strategy consultations both in-person and over the phone. Barry's hourly consulting rate is $400 per hour"

Seems like a nice hobby :)

Still it's better than a seo I knew that used to charge $200 per question.....
Customer: "That's a bit expensive isn't it ?"
Seo:"Yes it is, what's you next question ?"

[Leosghost]

I actually like Barry's various sites..despite what I posted above..I find the comments sections ( and frequently the "expert SEOs" that post in them..amusing..
You are fortunate that in the U.S.A the IRS etc accept your "hobby site" as such..here in Europe they'd call it "cross marketing / cross service selling" ..and say that what they accept as "hobbies" are things like fishing and collecting stamps, hang gliding, but definitely not related in any way to the subject of one's primary business and not run by the same business entity, and not profit making in any way..

How do I know this ;)..he said ruefully ..I can't think of an emoticon for rueful ..

But on this side of the pond "hobby" is always a "non profit" exercise..another example of the differences between U.S.A English and English English..

Looking at your "day job" site..I don't see ( maybe I'm looking in the wrong place in the code ? ) any evidence that you use Schema Markup yourself for your web design site, which, on the page at your "hobby" site that Lorel linked to, you said that you were "shocked a bit" to hear John Mueller speaking about it as possibly becoming a ranking factor in the future..

I'm curious ( if you don't use it ) why not ?..not had time to implement it since your article went up, but intend to ?
or ..don't intend to ? .. because ?..

[rustybrick]

@seoskunk I maybe do a consult 3 times a year. I turn most away. Most of the time I do not charge. The $400 is to scare people away.

The SEO stuff is 100% a hobby, not a job.

[rustybrick]

@Leosghost why don't I use schema on RustyBrick? Not sure, we just never implemented it. It was never meant to be a ranking factor. Maybe we will in the future. I did move it to https, went mobile friendly and a bunch of other things when Google officially declared them ranking factors. Then I posted the ranking and indexing changes on my hobby blog so others can see the data. ;-)