HCard/Schemer

[joshj]

Hey guys,

What exaclt are "hCard" and "Shcemer" and how do I use them/install them to benefit my local business site?

Kind regards,
J

[CatalysteMarketing]

hCard is sort of the old microformat. But it still works and is good. I still use it in certain places and prefer it for certain reasons.

Schema is the new standard that Google, Yahoo and Microsoft all agreed to. Anytime the big 3 agree to anything it's a pretty big deal. So I consider Schema the standard going forward.

The Local SEO formula I developed incorporates about 7 different types of what I call 'local hooks' including both of those microformats used in different ways and different places for different reasons, but it's really complicated to explain and not really needed for the average small business site.

If you are just delving into this I would just go with Schema. Here's a great article from Raventools AND a free Shema generator so you don't even need to figure out the coding. Just fill in the blanks.

Check out the section titled "Schema and microdata for newbs" here: http://raventools.com/blog/free-schema-creator/

Here is their Schema Creator. Just pick "Local Business" in the drop down. http://schema-creator.org/organization.php

There are other microformat and Schema generation tools out there too. Each one slightly different with it's own strengths. For instance the one above I don't think includes phone which is an important part of NAP and should be included. Phone is tricky to work into Schema and get right.

And here's the official doc about the Local Business Schema: http://schema.org/LocalBusiness

Then the really important thing is after you get Schema figured out you need to run it through Google's rich snippet tester to be sure there are no errors. http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets

Hope this helps and best of luck!

[joshj]

hCard is sort of the old microformat. But it still works and is good. I still use it in certain places and prefer it for certain reasons.

Schema is the new standard that Google, Yahoo and Microsoft all agreed to. Anytime the big 3 agree to anything it's a pretty big deal. So I consider Schema the standard going forward.

The Local SEO formula I developed incorporates about 7 different types of what I call 'local hooks' including both of those microformats used in different ways and different places for different reasons, but it's really complicated to explain and not really needed for the average small business site.

If you are just delving into this I would just go with Schema. Here's a great article from Raventools AND a free Shema generator so you don't even need to figure out the coding. Just fill in the blanks.

Check out the section titled "Schema and microdata for newbs" here: http://raventools.com/blog/free-schema-creator/

Here is their Schema Creator. Just pick "Local Business" in the drop down. http://schema-creator.org/organization.php

There are other microformat and Schema generation tools out there too. Each one slightly different with it's own strengths. For instance the one above I don't think includes phone which is an important part of NAP and should be included. Phone is tricky to work into Schema and get right.

And here's the official doc about the Local Business Schema: http://schema.org/LocalBusiness

Then the really important thing is after you get Schema figured out you need to run it through Google's rich snippet tester to be sure there are no errors. http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets

Hope this helps and best of luck!

Brilliant! Thanks so much for the great info. Will take a further look..