As a financial institution, it’s difficult to stand out in organic search results with so much competition. But understanding SEO trends and building a solid SEO plan can help you better compete. Schema markup can be a powerful strategy to help search engines (and AI) better understand your content and display it in a visually appealing way. Have you noticed the rich snippets or knowledge panels that appear after you make a search on Google? Schema code can help secure your website’s spot within those popularly viewed areas. Explore our best practices to develop the optimal schema strategy for your website.
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Choose the Right Types of Schema
Not all schema codes are created equal. In fact, each code is meant for specific types of content. For instance, the Organization schema code is best suited for a website’s homepage as it conveys essential branding details to search engines. Meanwhile, the LocalBusiness schema code works better for individual branch pages to provide important location information, such as hours and addresses. There are hundreds of types of schema codes out there, so depending on your website content, the type of code to add to each webpage will vary.
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Identify Website Priorities
In order to decide which type of schema code to add to your website, you should start with your business goals and the products you wish to prioritize. If mortgage applications are a big focus for your bank or credit union, you’ll want to add MortgageLoan schema code to those related pages. Perhaps you are releasing a new mobile app and you’d like to build a landing page with all the details. The SpecialAnnoncement schema code can be a great way to share your message! Planning to expand your blog? BlogPosting schema code is available to bring more eyes to your financial articles. Importantly, when planning your website architecture, schema is another reason you’ll want to have specific pages for each topic.
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Combine Schema Codes for Optimal Performance
You don’t need to just stop at just one code. In fact, schema markup often performs best when combined with other types. For example, if your credit union or bank offers competitive credit card rates, it would make sense to combine the CreditCard and InterestRate schema codes together for added effectiveness. Additionally, as a financial institution, it’s wise to incorporate BankorCreditUnion schema with codes related to your content. For an FAQ page, this can be a great opportunity to combine the FAQ code with the BankorCreditUnion code to clarify that the questions listed on the webpage are associated with a financial institution.
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Write Schema Code
Now that all the strategy is behind you, it’s time for the hard part - writing the code, and hoping it doesn’t break! There are a few helpful tools available to help guide you on the best formatting for your code. Schema.org is a website that we highly recommend when starting out. Remember every page on your site is different and some fields that work for one page may not work for others. For example, you may have testimonials for some of your mortgage products, which can be added as a review within the schema code on that page. However, if not all mortgage products have testimonials, codes added to those pages will need to be treated differently. Most institutions have a skilled SEO agency help with this.
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Add Schema Code to Website & Test
Once your code has been written out, it’s time to add it to the website! How this is handled from a technical perspective depends on the content management system your website uses. However, no matter how the schema code gets added to the site, it’s essential you test it to ensure it functions properly. There are various schema code testers available, but we recommend using the validators from schema.org and Google. Both these tools can test from a code and page level and will display any errors that would prevent search engines from being able to read the code.
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Monitor Your Code & Update as Needed
Although schema code is often advertised as a “set it and forget it” method, search engine algorithms are constantly evolving, which can affect how these codes are functioning. So, what’s the best way to monitor their performance? If you utilize Google Search Console, you can access Structured Data Reports within that tool. This will identify if your code has any errors and track key metrics for pages that have schema added to them.
By following these best practices, you can help search engines better understand your content and boost your chances of standing out in search results. Remember, schema code is a long-term investment for your site’s visibility. So, take the time to do it right, and you’ll reap the rewards down the road! Are you considering adding schema code as part of your SEO strategy? Contact ZAG so we can assist with your marketing efforts.