When it comes to Google and its search engine trying to understand your content and possibly leading Google to making your search result snippet richer, structured data, structured markup and rich snippets are there to help. Google’s ultimate goal is to increase your CTR from the organic results, all the way to your page.
It’s been said by Google on many occasions that these three things aren’t used in the ranking algorithm to make web pages rank better. Something else that the company has said is that adding structured markup to your pages isn’t directly leading to a web page ranking any better in the Google search results.
It seems that time will eventually change everything. According to Googler, John Mueller in a Google Hangout on September 11th, he said that “over time, I think it [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][structured markup] is something that might go into the rankings as well.” You can find him saying this at the 21:40 minute mark.
Currently, Google doesn’t use this for any ranking reasons, but it’s possible that over time, Google could begin using it. Here’s what John said:
If we can recognize someone is looking for a car, we can say oh well, we have these pages that are marked up with structured data for a car, so probably they are pretty useful in that regard. We don’t have to guess if this page is about a car.
John added:
So I think in the long run, it definitely makes sense to use structured data where you see that as being reasonable on the Web site. But I wouldn’t assume that using structured data markup with make your site jump up in rankings automatically. So we try to distinguish between a site that is done technically well and a site that actually has good content.
Just because it is done technically well, it doesn’t mean it is as relevant to the users as content that is not done as technically well.
Check out the video below where he talks about it: