How may businesses profit from schema markup? In this Q&A-style conversation, learn from Schema App's co-founder and CEO.
What does it take to stay visible at the top of search results?
In a SEJ podcast episode with Loren Baker, Martha van Berkel, co-founder and CEO of Schema App, offered a definitive answer: "You must adapt your material into the language of search engines."
And the language in question is schema.org. By including this on your site, search engines will be able to better interpret your content.
However, learning a new language, much alone doing schema markup, might be scary.
That's why Martha and her husband, Mark van Berkel, created the Schema App: a tool that simplifies structured data to assist enterprises of all sizes in strategically structuring their content.
Martha talks on the benefits of schema markup for organizations, the concept behind Schema App, and her effective leadership experience in this Q&A-style conversation.
How to Begin with SEO
What inspired you to pursue a profession in SEO?
"After graduating from engineering and mathematics, I began my job at Cisco in California," says Martha van Berkel.
As my career progressed there, I progressed from technical support and project management to founding a new organization and product management, and finally directing the product management team for Cisco's worldwide support website.
When we noticed that consumers were utilizing Google to browse our site and obtain crucial support materials and resources, we introduced me to SEO.
We were surprised that no one was using our on-site search!
Our first offering as an entrepreneur was to assist small and medium-sized enterprises in managing their web presence.
I had to study all of the fundamentals of SEO while developing the product and giving services.
We determined in 2015 that our passion was semantic search marketing and structured data, and we plunged back in to become experts in how to do structured data and then how to do it at scale.
I appreciate how the job at Schema App combines a lot of my technical understanding and change management skills from my early days at Cisco."
The Schema App Journey
The Schema App has expanded tremendously. How has the procedure gone for your team?
"I am really pleased of the Schema App team," MvB says. Since 2015, when we initially released Schema App and began our quest to producing scaleable, sophisticated schema markup, we've gone a long way.
We now have a staff throughout Canada that works together to provide professional assistance and demonstrable outcomes for our scalable end-to-end enterprise schema markup solution.
The journey has been fascinating. In December 2019, I was confident that schema markup will be one of the top five SEO techniques to tackle in 2020! Since then, we've witnessed continued expansion.
Our goal is to create meaningful connections in data, as well as with our customers and as a company. We used to live out this goal at our office, but we've grown into a flexible first culture where we make important connections wherever we work."
What is your favorite Schema App feature, and why?
"I adore our Highlighter!" MvB says. Why? Because it allows you to accomplish complicated, layered markup at scale without writing code.
When the page's content changes, it dynamically optimizes the new content! Poof! Without writing code, schema markup at scale.
As someone who has built JSON-LD page by page and experienced the difficulty of accomplishing something at scale across an enterprise like Cisco, I believe the Highlighter provides the ideal blend of complexity and scalability."
How do you envision the Schema App evolving in the future to stay up with recent SEO industry developments (algorithm updates, voice search, tremendous resignation)? What impact will this have on entrepreneurs?
"Agility and ROI are two of the major values we offer our corporate clients - agility to shift/update/respond as things change." MvB:
We designed our solution and our professional assistance to help clients plan for and adapt to these developments.
For example, we frequently look at multiple sorts of rich outcomes to provide diversification in the event that one becomes volatile.
We may also change the setup of the rich result if we discover that one performs better than the others.
Regarding the massive departure, and as we approach a recessionary year, I will concentrate on demonstrating ROI from structured data to our clients. We've included Schema Performance Analytics into our solutions to show our clients the results.
As CEO of the Schema App, my priority is to provide an atmosphere in which my team can thrive, such that they are excited to come to work every day, continually learning and witnessing the value they offer to our clients.
This means that we will continue to invest in our flexible first policy, semantic technology capabilities, and culture of connecting meaningfully.
Companies that can build environments in which people can flourish will not only reap the benefits of a highly engaged workforce, but they will also be more productive, which will be evident in their interactions with consumers.
It's an exciting moment to be able to manage a team and build a workplace that is both nice and polite while still producing outstanding outcomes."
Enterprise Scaling Schema
What do you believe is the greatest underutilized enterprise SEO strategy today?
"I am astounded by how few organizations have used structured data," MvB says. Why? Because it is an area of SEO where you have some influence over how your results appear and how you direct people to your website from the SERP.
Because I grew up in business, I understand why it's difficult: a lack of IT resources, too many competing objectives for the SEO team, or the massive effort required to get it done at scale across the site/business units/stakeholders, etc.
These difficult problems (which I lived and breathed at Cisco) are what made me enjoy my position at Schema App. We created it to address these issues and to provide SEOs with results that would ultimately bring them satisfaction."
How have machine learning and AI affected organic search, and how should businesses adjust their strategy in the future?
MvB: "It was interesting to hear how Google employs machine learning to comprehend searches and then leverages structured data to augment or confirm their conclusions in the 'Search off the Record: Structured Data' podcast."
As a result, they are employing machine learning to improve the results and, as a result, the search experience. This is wonderful for organic search since inquiries will become more specialized and topical, necessitating a more surgical approach to content strategy, providing extremely targeted material for a certain audience.
At Schema App, we see the potential for machine learning to ease the transition to structured data (and more automated). We can expedite adoption if we can use ML to recommend schema.org types and/or critical characteristics.
There is also an intriguing possibility to apply machine learning and artificial intelligence to gain insights into what material generates results.
Why is enterprise concerned? So, if we can gain insights into what material is doing best for whom, then implementing that exact content strategy will be easier and more effective.
I'm particularly curious about how semantics will impact not only organic search but also how marketing will use data to make judgments.
When you appropriately organise data, you create a semantic graph with meaningful relationships. The semantic network depicts how items and information are linked, as well as their associated attributes.
As long as there is a shared attribute, these graphs may be reused to add context to additional data.
We've been investigating how you may re-use your graph created with Schema App to deliver web topic information to personalization, content platforms, and other applications.
Because Schema App is founded on semantic technology, we build these sophisticated graphs when we conduct schema markup."
Final Thoughts
What advise do you have for female SEO professionals striving to positions of leadership in the male-dominated IT industry?
MvB: "I would advise female SEOs to undertake two things: Find out what you're good at and find a mentor.
First, figure out what you're truly good at. This requires perseverance and introspection. Investigate where you find flow or the sort of job you prefer.
Once you've nailed it, lean in and look for a leadership post that allows you to use this incredible ability or talent.
One of my superpowers, for example, is to get others enthused about a new notion or idea.
So, when I got the opportunity to propose and establish an organization at Cisco, I jumped at it, and it provided me with the experience I needed to advance to my next leadership position.
Second, seek for a mentor. This mentor should see your potential and be willing to coach you as you develop.
No athlete would conceive of reaching the greatest levels of sport without the assistance of a coach, so why would you do any differently in business?
This mentor should ideally be an influencer in your organization or industry. They may then train you, get to know you as they mentor you, and open opportunities for you as you progress.
To make both of these work, you must first engage in self-reflection and then adopt a development mindset in order to learn from every good and poor event."
Thank You For Reading This Article, Good Luck
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