Structured data for beginners: New and free training course!

Today, we’re adding a NEW and FREE training course to Yoast SEO Academy: Structured data for beginners! Want to get noticed in Google? Want your pages to stand out from the other search results? Then you need colorful, rich results that entice people to click. To show rich results for your website, search engines need to find structured data on it. Sounds difficult? Yoast is here to help you out! In this training course, you’ll learn how structured data can help you get rich results.

Rich results for everyone

The search results pages used to be filled with plain, basic search results. But nowadays, colorful and eye-catching rich search results are everywhere. And if you don’t have rich results for your site, it’s hard to compete. At Yoast, we believe everyone should have an equal chance in the search results. Therefore we’ve created the Structured data for beginners training course, which is completely free of charge. After taking this course, you’ll know how structured data increases your chances of getting rich results, and how to use Yoast SEO to help you with this.

With structured data, you can communicate with search engines and make clear what your pages are about. You can tell search engines: “This page is a news article.” Or, “This page contains a recipe.” This allows them to highlight and present your content in an enhanced way!

In this short fragment, which is part of our training course, I’ll give you an idea of the different types of rich results there are:

What will you learn in this training course?

In this course, you’ll learn the basics of structured data. It’s a beginner’s course, so don’t worry, you don’t have to know how to code to follow it. First, we’ll give you the foundational knowledge you need to get started. Then, we’ll show you how easy it is to add structured data to your site with Yoast SEO.

After the free Structured data for beginners training course, you’ll know:

• why you need structured data to improve the search appearance of your site;
• what concrete results adding structured data to your site can bring for you; 
• how to use Yoast SEO to add structured data to your site.

How is the training course set up?

In three modules, we’ve packed all the knowledge you need to get started with structured data:

1. What is structured data?
   In the first module, we explain what structured data is and show you examples of what adding structured data looks like in the search results.
   
2. The Yoast SEO graph
   In the second module, we zoom into our unique approach to structured data. You’ll understand why search engines love it and how it can elevate your site’s appearance in the search results.
   
3. Yoast SEO structured data blocks
   In the third module, we’ll show you how to use the Yoast SEO structured data blocks, a quick and easy way to increase your chance to get rich results.

These modules are divided into several lessons. Each lesson contains interesting videos, in which our SEO experts explain everything you should know. The practical lessons also contain screencasts, so you can see exactly what you should do. We’ve also created reading materials, in which we explore the topics discussed more broadly. Moreover, to complete a lesson, you take a quiz. As a result, you’ll know for sure whether you fully understand the theory and whether you’re able to put your knowledge to practice. Once you’ve finished the course, you’ll receive a Yoast certificate and a badge that you can display on your website.

When you’ve completed this course, you’ll know all the basics when it comes to structured data. And if you want to dive into the subject even more, we also have an understanding structured data training course that’s more advanced.

Are you ready to start learning?

The Structured data for beginners training course is an online and on-demand course, like every other Yoast SEO Academy training course. So, you can learn about structured data whenever and wherever you want. Are you ready to start learning?