Schema and Security: The Future of SEO?

SEO is ever-evolving. That’s why some practices that were once considered acceptable are now Black Hat. Search engines are trying to reward more secure websites that have pertinent information and deliver the most reliable results possible to their users. And now, Google, Bing, and Yahoo have all joined in focusing on a way to go about optimizing your website for search: schema. Schema is a system that will make it easier for their search engines to identify what a site is all about.

What Exactly is Schema?

Search Engine Optimization is becoming more and more intricate as technology itself becomes more complex. There are now more pages online and more categories to place them in than ever before. Schema is just a tool to help search engines know which page falls under which category. Schema codes are inserted into div tags and h1 tags and span tags. So, while they aren’t metatags, it is a little piece of info inserted directly into the coding of a page. It would look something like this:

<div itemscope itemtype = "http://blog.chooseimpulse.com/">

  <h1 itemprop = "about"> Schema and Security: The Future of SEO?</h1>

      <div itemprop  = "author" itemscope itemtype="https://www.chooseimpulse.com/team">

          Author: <span itemprop="name">Chelsey Fox-Henry</span>

      </div>

  <span itemprop = "genre">SEO</span>

  <span itemprop = "keywords">Schema, SEO, Ranking Factor</span>

</div>

While this new aspect of coding does wonders to tell Google, Bing, and Yahoo what your website is about, it doesn’t tell them how legitimate you are and whether you are reliable enough to earn the top spot. That’s where another recent revelation comes into play. Google will now begin to rank HTTPS pages first, over the less-secure HTTP pages of the past.

What Exactly is HTTPS?

HTTPS refers to the use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) as a sublayer under regular HTTP application layering, which has been used on traditional websites. HTTPS encrypts and decrypts user page requests as well as the pages that are returned by the Web server. That definition is pretty technical, but all of that means that HTTPS pages are more secure for users to be on and less likely to be malicious SPAM. And Google wants to reward that kind of effort on the part of the webmaster and favor secure pages over non-secured ones. This is all part of Google’s effort to make for a more secure web.

Right now, experts are only making educated guesses on effects these two changes will bring to the world of SEO. SEO is notoriously mysterious, even for those who have worked in the industry for years. If you’re truly concerned about your business’s success online, you’ll give SEO the time and attention it deserves. To learn even more about what is considered good SEO practices in today’s competitive atmosphere, download our free eBook Modern SEO today.