Schema.org Nextjs for Improved Search Engine Visibility

Schema.org markup is a game-changer for improving search engine visibility. By adding schema.org markup to your Next.js application, you can provide search engines with more context about your content, making it more likely to appear in search results.

This is especially important for e-commerce sites, as schema.org markup can help search engines understand product information, such as prices, availability, and reviews. As a result, your products are more likely to appear in search results with rich snippets, making your site more attractive to potential customers.

By implementing schema.org markup in Next.js, you can also improve your site's accessibility and user experience. For example, schema.org markup can help screen readers understand the structure of your site, making it more accessible to users with disabilities.

Adding structured data is a crucial step in making your website more search engine friendly. You can start by adding the required properties, which depend on the format you're using.

If you're using JavaScript, you can generate structured data with JavaScript. To ensure your code is valid, use the Rich Results Test and fix any critical errors. Consider also fixing non-critical issues to improve the quality of your structured data.

To deploy your structured data, add a few pages that include it and use the URL Inspection tool to test how Google sees the page. Make sure your page is accessible to Google and not blocked by a robots.txt file, noindex tag, or login requirements.

Adding structured data to your web pages can be a bit overwhelming at first, but don't worry, I've got you covered. To start, you'll need to add the required properties to your page, which can be done using a CMS plugin or by generating structured data with JavaScript.

Using a CMS? It may be easier to use a plugin that's integrated into your CMS. This can save you time and effort in the long run. You can also use the Rich Results Test to validate your code and fix any critical errors.

To deploy your structured data, you'll need to deploy a few pages that include it and use the URL Inspection tool to test how Google sees the page. Make sure your page is accessible to Google and not blocked by a robots.txt file, the noindex tag, or login requirements. If the page looks okay, you can ask Google to recrawl your URLs.

Here are the steps to add structured data:

Remember, structured data is crucial for enabling search engines to understand your web pages more effectively. The most actual vocabulary currently is schema.org. You can add structured data to a script tag that will be inserted into the page.

Breadcrumb List is a container item that holds all elements in the list. It's defined at schema.org/BreadcrumbList.

The Google-supported properties for BreadcrumbList include the required property itemListElement. This is an array of breadcrumbs listed in a specific order.

To specify each breadcrumb, use a ListItem. For example, you can define a breadcrumb list with the following code: {"@context":"https://schema.org"",@type":"BreadcrumbList"",itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem"",position":1",name":"Books"",item":"https://example.com/books"},{"@type":"ListItem"",position":2",name":"Authors"",item":"https://example.com/books/authors"},{"@type":"ListItem"",position":3",name":"Ann Leckie"",item":"https://example.com/books/authors/annleckie"}]}

This code defines a breadcrumb list with three items, each with a name and a link. The position property is also included to specify the order of the breadcrumbs.

To monitor how your pages perform in Google Search, you can use Search Console, a tool that helps you understand and improve how Google sees your site. You don't have to sign up for Search Console to be included in Google Search results, but it can be helpful to check it periodically.

Search Console is especially useful after deploying structured data for the first time, releasing new templates or updating your code, or analyzing traffic periodically. To get the most out of Search Console, check it after these events to see how your site is performing.

Here are some key times to check Search Console:

Using the DefaultSeo component is a great way to add default SEO properties to all of your pages. This saves you the hassle of manually adding properties to each page.

You can add the DefaultSeo component to _app.js and include the necessary code. This will render the SEO properties on all pages.

Inspecting the page will show you that the properties are indeed rendered. This is a convenient feature that supports blog-related SEO properties out of the box.

You don't have to sign up for Search Console to be included in Google Search results, but it can help you understand and improve how Google sees your site.

Search Console is a tool that helps you monitor how your pages perform in Google Search. This is especially useful after deploying structured data for the first time, as it can help you understand how Google is interpreting your data.

You should also check Search Console after releasing new templates or updating your code, as this can impact how your site is crawled and indexed.

Analyzing traffic periodically is another good reason to check Search Console, as it can help you identify trends and areas for improvement.

Here are some specific cases when you should check Search Console:

Structured data components are a crucial part of schema.org Next.js, allowing you to add structured data to your pages.

To add structured data, you can use a CMS plugin or JavaScript to generate it. The Rich Results Test is a great tool to validate your code and fix any critical errors. You can also submit a sitemap to keep Google informed of future changes.

For example, the App router brings a ready-made solution for structured data, but you'll still need to add it to a script tag. You can use the ArticleJsonLd component to add structured data to a page, and the DefaultSeo component to add default properties to all your pages.

To create a profile schema, you'll need to define its basic properties, including a unique name, title, and type. The name property is used to reference the schema in the query language, so make sure it's a unique value.

The title property defines what the schema type is called in the Studio UI. For example, a profile schema might have a title like "User Profile".

The type property defines the schema type, and in this case, we're working with a document type, which allows us to create new documents.

You can also add an optional icon property, which requires installing the react-icons library with npm install -D react-icons.

The fields array is where you define the individual input fields for your schema. Each field object should contain a name, title, and type property, just like the schema itself. Here's a breakdown of the fields for a profile schema:

To expose your new schema file to the Studio, you'll need to import it into the schemas array inside the schemas/index.ts file. This will make it available for editing within the Studio.