Automatically Add HTML5 Microdata to WordPress

I will have to thank Aidy one of our very own @dragonbloggers for doing much of the research that allowed me to configure my site to add HTML5 Microdata to my review articles to help improve potential listings in the SERP based on the schema.org specifications that have been published.

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What is Microdata?

Microdata as it pertains to this article is the HTML 5 markup that is used to help classify information on a website/page/post with tags that break down certain individual elements on the page so that it helps Google or other search engines categorize and index that information.

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Schema.org

You can gain the scope of Microdata types and information from http://schema.org/ or http://data-vocabulary.org but basically it starts out with having an item type.

This is an HTML 5 tag that looks like this:

<div itemscope itemtype=”http://data-vocabulary.org/Review“>

This sets what type of article the post/page is that the search engines are indexing and you can find a full list of all the schema.org types here:  http://schema.org/docs/full.html

Note, there are dozens and everything from ‘creativework’ to ‘book’ to ‘TVEpisode’ and so much more.

For the purposes of this review we are assuming that most bloggers want to index their “review” articles with the type review.  At this time the only plugin my writers and I have found that can handle auto creation of “review” HTML 5 Microdata is the SEO Ultimate WordPress plugin, with the Rich Snippet Creator module.  The good news is I was already using this plugin for the Deeplinking Module and it works in conjunction with All in One SEO Pack if you just disable the SEO modules and leave only the specific modules you want.

With SEO Ultimate WordPress Plugin however it only supports the item type of Review, so if you are looking for another Microdata item type to add to your WordPress blog I don’t have another one to recommend at the moment.

If your blog doesn’t do any reviews of anything from products to movies, then you don’t really need to add the Microdata for Review.  If you have a food or recipe blog then see the helpful links below for a plugin that will add the Microdata for recipe’s to your site.

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Enable Rich Snippet Creator

Go into your SEO Ultimate Settings and make sure you enable the module for the Rich Snippet Creator.

 

After you enable the Rich Snippet Creator you have to configure it.

Now, I have read that HTML5 Microdata format <itemprop> is going to be the standard and I don’t know why “microformats” which are defined with <span class> tags are the recommended.  But I had better results when I scanned my site with the Google Rich Snippets tool when I set my Rich Snippet Creator Microdata to HTML5 format.

You also have to set which categories and tags you want to configure to use the “Review” microdata.  It will automatically set any matching “categories” or posts that use the listed “tags” to having the HTML5 Microdata for a “Review” itemtype.

This is good because this will automatically update all of your older posts that match these categories and/or tags to add most of the HTML5 Microdata you want to use.  The only Microdata you need to add manually at this point is the “rating” you set for each product, movie or game you review.

You do this by going into the WordPress edit post for the article, and under the SEO Settings module you can see under Rich Snippet Type “Review” there is a Star Rating Dropdown for reviewed item.

Select the star rating you want to assign to your product, movie, game…etc that you have reviewed and update your post.

When you view the source code of your post, you will now see some new HTML5 Microdata tags which comply with Data-Vocabulary.org specifications.

The following will appear at the top of your article (only visible in source code)

<div itemscope itemtype=”http://data-vocabulary.org/Review“>

And the following will appear below your article (again only in sourcecode)

<div><span itemprop=”rating” content=”3″></span><span itemprop=”reviewer” content=”aidyspoetry”></span><time itemprop=”dtreviewed” datetime=”2011-06-27″></time></div>

• The itemprop “rating” is going to be the rating for the product.
• The itemprop “reviewer” will be the author who reviewed the product (grabbed by getting author of post)
• The itemprop “dtreviewed” is the date and time the review was published.

Doing this will help ensure your articles are complaint with the Schema.org markup for Microdata and may help your articles get better SERP listings.

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Validate Your Microdata

Give it some time to index after making changes, then use the Rich Snippets Testing tool to validate your post/page has proper HTML5 Microdata being picked up by Google. You should see the author, and all defined items properly displayed.

Here is an example with a recent review of Cedar Rapids:

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Summary

This isn’t a complete Comprehensive article about the importance of Microdata and Schema.org formats that you should be using, but this article should help you get started and at least have your articles or posts that are “reviews” get the proper HTML5 markup so that your Microdata will be picked up by Google.

Also note that at the time of this article the SEO Ultimate WordPress plugin stull uses http://data-vocabulary.org and not the newest Schema.org for Microdata formats.   This is still beneficial and I hope sometime soon that the plugin will support Schema.org which is what is likely to be the standard for Search Engines.

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But Wait, There’s More

Here are some other great resources for learning more about schema.org Microdata and why you should be using it for your site.

• http://authoritylabs.com/blog/implementing-schema-microdata/
• http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/add-rich-snippets-reviews-wordpress-blog/
• http://seo-hacker.com/schema-big-ranking-factor/
• http://www.seodesignsolutions.com/blog/internet-news/google-updates-pagerank-on-the-heels-of-panda-2-2/

So my fellow bloggers, how many of you have implemented HTML5 Microdata into your blogs yet?

How many of you are just now determining if you should be doing this?

-Dragon Blogger