Understanding Data Highlighter in SEO: an essential tool for optimising your search engine optimisation

Through our SEO Agency Optimize 360

Data Highlighter

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Data Highlighter is a tool for Google which improves the visibility and attractiveness of a website's pages. website in search results.

This technique involves highlighting certain data on a page so that it is better understood by search engines.

Let's find out how this tool works and what its main applications are.

The importance of structured data markup

To optimise the natural referencing of a website, it is essential to ensure that the information contained in the pages is clear and well-structured in order to facilitate indexing by the exploration robots. This is where the beaconing structured datawhich aims to provide a precise description of the content of a page using HTML specific.

In this context, Data Highlighter is a complementary tool to other structured data tagging methods, such as Schema.org or JSON-LD. It offers a simple and effective solution for improving search engine understanding of page content, without requiring in-depth knowledge of HTML.

The benefits of Data Highlighter for search engine optimisation

By using Data Highlighter, you can easily highlight certain information on your site, which can have a positive impact on your SEO. Here are some of the main advantages of this tool:

1. Improved visibility in search results thanks to the display of rich snippets (enriched extracts) which provide a more detailed overview of the content of a page.
2. Increase in the click-through rate, as web users are more inclined to click on a result with relevant and attractive information.
3. Reduction of bounce rateThis is because visitors who arrive on a well-structured and complete page are less likely to leave the site immediately.
4. Better understanding of content by search engines, making it easier to index and improving the relevance of results.

How Data Highlighter works

Data Highlighter is a free tool offered by Google in the Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools). To use it, you first need to access your account and select one of your websites.

Once you are in Search Console, click on the "Appearance in search results" menu and then on "Data Highlighter". You can then start to highlight certain data on your site by following these steps:

1. Choose the type of data you want to display (for example: items, events, products, etc.).
2. Enter the URL of a page on your site that contains this data.
3. Use the text selection tool to highlight the information you want to describe (title, author, publication date, etc.).
4. Add appropriate tags for each piece of information, following Google's recommendations.
5. Repeat this procedure for each section of your site with the same type of content.

It is important to note that Data Highlighter does not modify the HTML code of your pages. However, the information highlighted in this way will be taken into account by Google when indexing and ranking your pages in the search results.

Examples of Data Highlighter applications

Data Highlighter can be used to enhance the representation of a wide range of data types, including :

• Articles de blog highlighting the title, author, publication date, front-page image, etc.
• Events presentation of key information such as location, date, price, etc.
• Products detailed description including name, photo, price, availability, etc.
• Cooking recipes ingredients, preparation time, user notes...
• Opinions and comments : display of customer reviews and testimonials...

By highlighting this data with Data Highlighter, you not only increase your site's visibility in search results, but also its credibility with web users. What's more, it encourages users to interact with your content and share their experiences.

Why choose Data Highlighter over other tagging methods?

Although certain markup methods such as Schema.org are more complex to implement, they offer a higher level of customisation and are generally preferred by SEO experts. However, Data Highlighter has a number of advantages:

• • Ease of use The tool is designed to be accessible to novices, without the need for in-depth technical knowledge.
  • Speed It lets you quickly add tags to your pages without having to modify their HTML code.
  • Flexibility It offers an adjustable, scalable solution that can be adapted to the specific needs of each website.
  • Compatibility with the main search engines Although developed by Google, Data Highlighter also takes into account recommendations from other major players in the sector (BingYahoo...).

In conclusion, the Data Highlighter can be seen as an additional asset for improving the natural referencing of your website. It's quick and easy to use, and delivers tangible results in terms of search engine visibility. Don't hesitate to try it out now to optimise your content and boost your SEO performance!