New microdata support for seperate company phone numbers

Jazajay

Active Member
Hi All
I know this is a bit dated now; but, those of you that don't know Google has recently released new support for a new mircroformat support that allows you to mark up different types of phone numbers.

Today, we are launching support for schema.org markup to help you specify your preferred phone numbers using structured data markup embedded on your website. Four types of phone numbers are currently supported:
  • Customer service
  • Technical support
  • Billing support
  • Bill payment
Cite: Web Master blog

Read more about this microformat support

So how do you think this will impact you / is this something you should be taking advantage of?

Jaz
 
Isn't this just another 'term' for schema....

Already having 'fun' trying to implement schema etc but as I only have one number this makes no difference to me :)
 
Levi, Levi, Levi,
When we post, I feel it goes along the lines of a pupil (Levi) and teacher (Jaz) relationship. I'm still debating if your the rebellious student who is a badass at the back of the class and just wants to cause trouble, or more a uni student who wants to push the master in a genuine move to become more brillant in the process. :D

You have several specifications which are set out to provide machine readable data - Schema.org, Microformats, RDFa.

Schema.orgs, approach is more of a set of predefined vocabulary -

A shared markup vocabulary makes it easier for webmasters to decide on a markup schema and get the maximum benefit for their efforts.
Cite: https://schema.org/

Were as the Microformats approach - in my opinion - is more robust, as it allows you to go outside the predefined markup and mark up more data to be machine readable; but, also based on standards.

Designed for humans first and machines second, microformats are a set of simple, open data formats built upon existing and widely adopted standards.
Cite: Microformats.org

A microformat is a web-based approach to semantic markup which seeks to re-use existing HTML/XHTML tags to convey metadata and other attributes in web pages and other contexts that support HTML such as RSS.
Site: Wikipedia.com

So my favourite is: Microformats (which I spelt wrong in the thread title :()

TBH: As my personaly choice is Microformats, I don't really know much about RDFa.
Anyone use it?
What do you reckon?

Anyway back to the lesson......

Now this is where I should add a cautionary notes section.

Google's official line is they don't really care which one you use; but, you should only use one as it may confuse their parsers if you use several.

Personaly, I would check your Webmaster tools semantic markeup section if you use multiple specifications. This section detects if you have set this up correctly and lets you know of any problems. If it does - or doesn't show in their - then look into using just one / removing the one that has issues according to that tool.

Now, I open it up to the floor.....Levi any questions. :D

Jaz
 
Hi Levi / mods
As this is now going to bug me - can you change the title of the thread to:

New microdata support for seperate company phone numbers

As this is more accurate. :)

Would appreciate it, Jaz
 
Well I know there are more than one microformat (fixed title by the way), but like I said isn't this a new 'sub section' within schema rather than a whole new way of working.... term might have not been the best word in the last post... I meant term as in sub section term rather than describing a schema

Any questions... yeah what would you do minimum in the header/in body text etc :p

From what I've seen it looks like you stick og and twitter in header (along with a few other bits and bobs) and then schema goes in the body text....

And does anything cross over like schema takes notice of og or vice versa.

See this is me pushing the tutor, might as well make use of him while he's around, he seems to miss class A LOT :)
 
My questions, how long before the majority of 'professionals' responsible for building website are going to become aware of information like this? And, by setting this up or not setting it up, is it likely to ever have a positive or negative influence on your page rank/search optimisation efforts?
 
Hi Levi
I haven't forgotten about this - just got an exam I am preping for, for tomorrow.

I'll try and contribute this afternoon - unless anyone else can in the mean time. :)

Chat in a bit mate.

Jaz
 
@Levi
No, not exactly, think of it more like this.

- Making data machine understandable / readable
- -> Schema
- -> Microformats
- -> RDFa

Similar to:

- JavaScript
- -> Dom Scripting
- -> Jquery
- -> Mootools

So when Google say limit the use to just one because it may confuse their parser. That is the same as saying stick to either Mootools or the JQuery framework - don't use both to create interaction on the same page. :)

So for example, in Microformats you could have some thing like this anywhere on the page - be it in the footer, header, body or a combination there of.

a -
<div class="vcard">
<span class="tel">01324 879 0912</span>
</div>

No the differance between that and this:

b -
<div>
<span>01324 879 0912</span>
</div>

is: b could be anything to a search engine. A is clearly a phone number and should be treated as such in the knowledge graph, google maps etc....


@ Sean
I know; but, these aren't new they have been out for years. The mad thing is most CMS's still don't use them effectively. Think if they all did, then the web would be a far more interesting place.

More Rich Snippets, more events from the SERPs, reviews, richer knowledge graphs etc....a higher up take as well would mean more real world application uses as well which would bring about a far more intelligent world IMO. :)

Jaz
 
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