Working With Structured Data Markup

This is the best introduction to Microdata, Schema, and Structured Data Markup I have been able to find. If you’re brand new to these practices, you might want to start here

Microdata is a form of identifier that can be combined with HTML as tags to further define your content to Google and other Search Engines. Microdata can be nested, much like standard HTML. We’ll use the example of an Unordered List and its List Items to correlate how microdata can be used.

With an unordered list, you would open and close it with the proper tags:

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And you would place your list items inside of these tags:

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The way to properly set up your Microdata is similar. You will need the proper wrapper around your individual items. Something that lets the engines know what you’re talking about. For this we will use a <div> element.

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This <div> contains two attributes that do not affect the way it’s displayed; these attributes are simply informational, the best kind of eye candy to Search Engines.

itemscope
This simply lets the engines know that it is the scope of the item. It is where this item’s definitions begin and end.

itemtype
This attribute defines the type of item that has definitions held here. For this example, we’re going to define a person, so all of the data within this scope will be a part of that person.
To continue with this item and display all of the attributes within its scope, it would look much like the nesting of an Unordered List and its List Items:

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<div itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Person">
Name: <span itemprop="name">Ken Wisnefski</span>
<br />
Site: <a href="http://webimax.com" itemprop="url">WebiMax.com</a>
<br />
Title: <span itemprop="title">Founder/CEO/SEO Expert</span>
</div>

itemprop
This tag declares the property of the item that we are declaring. For the type of item Person, we’re declaring Mr. Wisnefski’s name, website, and title.Sometimes, just like Unordered Lists, you will find the need to nest your information. You can nest your scopes within one another if needed.

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<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Organization">
<span itemprop="name">WebiMax</span>
<div itemprop="founder" itemscope
itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Person">
Name: <span itemprop="name">Ken Wisnefski</span>
<br />
Site: <a href="http://webimax.com"
itemprop="url">WebiMax.com</a>
<br />
Title: <span itemprop="title">Founder/CEO/SEO Expert</span>
</div>
</div>

What does Micro Data have to do with Schema.org?
Microdata is important information for a search engine to know. In order to display the data in a meaningful and relevant way to its users, this technique must be utilized. Schema.org is a website put together by Google, Yahoo!, and other major search engines that wanted to provide a unified process for webmasters to use to identify their information for cataloging. The site provides a collection of tags and attributes that may be used in order to identify your content to be easily indexed.

Note: This Search Engine friendly schema currently only uses Microdata.

For in-depth information and a list of scopes and properties, you can visit the Getting Started page on Schema.org

There is a new form and structure to Microdata referred to as Microdata2. There will be a follow up post to this one explaining and going into detail about this new Microdata.