Schema APP and a Story About the Editorial Portal To the Semantic Web Goodies of Entity-based SEO

In 2021, Bill Slawski (may he rest in peace) wrote:

SEO has constantly been marketing in the framework of the Web.

cit. What Is Semantic SEO?

That was not the first time, Bill has been doing deep dives into semantic SEO in his own genius and thorough way by looking at  Google’s patents. A decade earlier, Bill knew what was coming. See for example: Search Based upon Concepts: Applied Semantics and Google from  03/30/2010 by Bill Slawski.

Around the time of Google Knowledge Graph, we were entering an age of SEO that would focus “more on indexing real-world objects such as entities and facts and attributes associated with those entities.” ( cit. https://gofishdigital.com/blog/what-is-semantic-seo/ 

And I remember these days,  in my own ways I had also arrived at that intersection between writing. SEO and the Web of Data. My way was through the Semantic Web portal David Amerland opened for me in his book Google Semantic Search (I very recent review by a wonderful student of mine at the Content Strategy Program: Aneta Pawlik here A Review of Google Semantic Search by David Amerland). And if you feel like the link between content, SEO, Web of Data, schema.org and KG is too abstract here’s something I wrote, hopefully in a clear way: Being Dialogic by Being Machine-Readable: Should Marketers Become Metadata Warriors? ] And allow me to disrupt a bit the format of the newsletter and add a table from the article here:

Solutions based on Semantic Web technologies	Benefit for marketing communications
Design of complex applications	Meaningful interaction through: Context-aware communication and decision-making.Automatic aggregation of content from different systemsDynamic content creation; Automated Recommended Content.
Interoperability	Continuous engagement across devices and platforms through:Platform and device independent content creation;Personalized Content; Rich experiences in cyberspace through connected digital media.
Search	Management of information flows (as opposed to manipulation of the marketing mix) through providing:Improved navigationDeeper results and more relevant information; Content Ecosystems; Precise automated content recommendation/retrieval.

These connections made, all the theoretical understanding that there is clear intersection was there, yet the tools werenn’t. At least not production-ready.

We didn’t have the tools 🙂 to act upon that understanding and to be able to talk the people I worked with into using them widely. The people from my course (which is in a strange quantum state – both still futuristic and outdated 🙂 but that’s another knowledge graph story) we asking me – okay, that’s cool, how do we do that for clients.

I didn’t have an answer. The proverbial tools talk.  Let alone build a Content KG. How can we, knowing that structured data is critical for appearing in search results, we can take the advantage of having it? And not only that but also use it to plan and execute a strategy that is rocketing us from keywords-based SEO to entity-based SEO.

Today, in hindsight, If my future self could peak into that past, it would whisper, schemaAPP 🙂

The Linked Data story of Schema APP 

Back in the days when few people saw the connection between the Semantic Web and SEO, in 2011, developing products with semantic technologies kept Mark and Martha van Berkel up at night. In 2016. having found difficulties in implementing schema.org markup they launched Schema App. Schema App is a suite of tools for embedding schema.org markup across website pages by filling out forms or creating templates that generate and expose website content in JSON-LD. Schema App automatically generates and hosts HTTPS URIs for the entities defined in the markup, resulting in a reusable knowledge graph that represents the content of a given website and any other data that has been linked through the authoring tools.

Experiencing content enhanced built Schema APP 

In the case of Schema App powering content experiences and our user Tim, Tim has the ability to access information about specific pages, content types, and topics. Because the markup is automatically embedded in his webpages, it provides information to support search engine understanding and can change the appearance of his content in the SERP – and this helps him directly get answers without having to browse or even visit a given website.

The descriptive, interconnected and up-to-date schema markup also enables Tim to use the described content through other apps and platforms paired with LLMs, for example. This makes it possible for Tim to ask questions about the business in his own words, not having to navigate predefined hierarchical website architecture trees and predetermined user paths to certain information. In other words, it enables a par excellence experience based on intent and navigation interest versus experience designed limited by keyword optimization.

Building Content Knowledge Graph with Schema App

Jasmine and team put a wonderful course: called Content Knowledge Graphs. I went through the course and find it a clear and thorough introduction to knowledge graphs, explaining everything from the basics to advanced concepts like Schema Markup and the Semantic Web with a view to publishing web content.

The focus on practical SEO and how   knowledge graphs can enhance search engine understanding of content was also a bonus.

Don’t miss it. Lot of Semantic Web vibes in it mixed with sound advance on the practicalities of entering the Web of data through content.  And we do need these if we really want to keep up the love relationship between meaningful content, knowledge graphs and easy ways to enter the Web of Data, using content well designed and marked up.

❤️Thanks for reading this story, which is an unplugged version of the Knowledge Graphs stories I present in my book Being Dialogic. I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject of webby words.