We’re going to change things up a bit for this month’s Tech Trends post. Instead of quickly discussing a handful of new trends in technology, the focus now will be on a single important topic. This month that topic is a hidden gem in HTML5 called Microdata. When we hear about the capabilities of HTML5, we typically see things like Geolocation, CSS animations, mobile-compatibility, native audio/video support, or even 3D WebGL experiences — but rarely is there any discussion about how HTML5 can help drive more traffic to websites via search engines. This is where Microdata comes in and it’s going to fundamentally change the way we discover and consume content on the web.
Microdata is a component of HTML5 aimed at adding more semantics and contextual information to existing content on a page. By doing so, Microdata provides others, like search engines or browsers, with more information about the contents of a page. This allows them to handle data in new and interesting ways. For example, a product detail page may list out a product’s SKU, pricing, reviews and availability — but there’s no real way for Google’s search engine crawlers to know exactly what that information means. With Microdata, we can explicitly tell Google how much our products cost and what rating our users gave it. But why would we want to do this?
Introducing Rich Snippets
Have you ever used Google to find a tasty roast turkey recipe for the holidays? Or maybe you wanted to find some concert tickets at your favorite venue. You might notice Google’s not just giving you a list of blue links and descriptions for your search results — you’re seeing enhanced search results that Google is calling Rich Snippets.
For recipe searches, Google will try to give you an estimated total cook time and user rating for that recipe. Not only that, but Google will let you refine recipe results by ingredients, total cook time, and even total calories. For events like concerts, Google might list out the next few upcoming acts under a search result. Often times, this extra information is being powered simply by Microdata. It’s also very important to mention that if a user does refine their search results based on Microdata (such as a recipe by ingredients), only sites using Microdata will likely appear in the results. More simply put, if you’re not using Microdata, you might not show up in a search results.
So how important is this Microdata content in search results? Very important according to an eye-tracking study posted on the SEOmoz blog. In the study, eye-tracking software was used to see where users’ attention was spent most on a given search result page. The subjects of the study were asked to perform a handful of pizza-related queries on Google while the eye-tracking software tracked which search results the users’ eyes were focused on the most.
The study concluded that users were much more interested in the enhanced results as opposed to the typical plain blue link and description result. Users focused on things like pictures, videos, maps, and local place results. While the conclusion might not sound surprising, it was quite dramatic to see that, for once, the number one result was not always the most relevant result for most users. Instead, users were much more interested in these enhanced results. After seeing this, it was pretty clear: Microdata will soon become an integral piece in any digital experience on the web.
Implementing Microdata
The first question I get about Microdata is “how much is this going to cost me to implement?” This is the beauty of the simplicity of Microdata: the cost of implementation is almost nothing. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but not completely. Implementing Microdata on a new or existing page consists of adding a few extra bits of HTML, and that’s it! There’s no need to completely re-architect a page’s content to allow for someone like Google to pick up on this extra data. All that’s needed is some code that calls out certain pieces of content as being Microdata. There’s not much else to it than that.
The next obvious question is “what types of Microdata can we implement?” Recently, all of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo! and Bing) have partnered together to develop Schema.org which defines dozens of “vocabularies” (or types of Microdata) that may be eventually supported by these search engines. For the time being, however, Google has stated they only support a handful of these Microdata types which include: reviews, people, products, businesses and organizations, recipes, events, music, and video content. If your website has any of these types of content, you’re eligible for a Microdata implementation.
What’s the Catch?
It’s important to note one caveat with Microdata. Just as we’re used to with search engines, we don’t control how our content is ranked or displayed. That is to say, just because Microdata is implemented on a page doesn’t guarantee Google will display that content in its search results. However, I think it’s safe to assume a search engine like Google would be more inclined to show its Rich Snippets rather than not.
Beyond Search Results
Over the next few years, we can anticipate Microdata support to become more expansive by allowing more types of data to be crawled and surfaced in search result pages. But that’s just the beginning. Imagine having the power to query this type of data with just our voices and a smartphone. With technologies like Android’s voice search or Apple’s Siri, we might soon begin to see Microdata affecting the display and relevancy of the results these technologies provide. In addition to mobile, we could begin to see desktop browsers begin to acknowledge certain pieces of Microdata. For example, a browser viewing a site using the “Event” Microdata could add a concert to your calendar with a single click of the mouse. Or maybe add a person to your address book if they’re using the “Person” Microdata.
This is all a part of the Semantic Web movement or “Web 3.0” as coined by Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web. That’s to say, the creator of the web views technologies like Microdata as being the future of the web itself. Although, with all of the more flashy demonstrations of HTML5, Microdata is a technology your’e not likely to see discussed widely. But I can say with confidence that its significance over the next few years will soon prove its value. So why not get ahead of the curve while we still can?
