Search Engine Optimization through Microformats
Microformats are sets of open data formats used on web pages to describe a specific type of information. These sets of data are known as entities and they have their own properties. For example, a person has properties like name, age, gender, or email address. Likewise, a product has properties like price, color, weight, etc.
The most common way of embedding microformats standards into HTML, XHTML, RSS, or XML is by using a hCard, which are small, simple, open and distributed patterns of HTML used for representing properties and values in semantic HTML or XHTML.
Several microformats have been developed to enable semantic markup of particular types of information:
- hAtom – for marking up Atom feeds from within standard HTML
- hCalendar – for events
- hCard – for contact information; includes:
- hNews – for news content
- hProduct – for products
- hRecipe – for recipes and foodstuffs.
- hResume – for resumes or CVs
- hReview – for reviews
- rel-directory – for distributed directory creation and inclusion
- rel-enclosure – for multimedia attachments to web pages
- rel-license – specification of copyright license
- rel-nofollow, an attempt to discourage third-party content spam (e.g. spam in blogs)
- rel-tag – for decentralized tagging (Folksonomy)
- xFolk – for tagged links
- XHTML Friends Network (XFN) – for social relationships
- XOXO – for lists and outlines
It is easy to understand why Search Engines will find content in websites structured using microformats to be most indexable, and why those websites will enjoy a distinct advantage when it comes to search results, specially those that advertise sets of products categorized based on their properties (price, weight, type, brand, etc).
Search Engines are already pulling data from microformats found in companies websites, online maps, calendars, tables, spreadsheets, etc. Facebook and Twitter are among the growing number of social media sites supporting various microformats, a trend that can only increase even further over time.
Please do not hesitate to Contact Us for more information on how to semantically restructure your website using microformats.
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abucabal
There’s also an alternative semantic implementation called Microdata, a proposed feature of HTML5 intended to provide a simple way to embed semantic markup into HTML documents.
“Microdata can be viewed as an extension of the existing microformat idea which attempts to address the deficiencies of microformats without the complexity of systems such as RDFa.”
http://www.whatwg.org/
Everything You Wanted To Know About MICROFORMATS
[…] Search Engine Optimization through Microformats […]
Sally Enfields
I should really be working on Search Engine Optimization through Microformats, but I’m kind of lazy, and besides I have tons of other things to do.
Is it really worth the effort?