Key Points

  • Boost Your Gaming Website's SEO: Schema markup helps search engines better understand your content, like game details and reviews, leading to richer search results, better rankings, and more gamers visiting your site.
  • Essential Gaming Site Schema Types: There are many schema types, but some of the most useful for gaming websites include VideoGame and Review.
  • Craft a Winning Schema Strategy: A successful approach to schema includes identifying high-value content and user intent, choosing what kind of search results you want to target (rich snippets, knowledge panels, etc.), and then considering how you'll implement structured data based on your level of technical skills.
  • Set Goals, Track Results, and Optimize: As with any SEO strategy, schema is an ongoing process of defining your goals, monitoring key performance metrics, and using your findings to refine your schema approach to best meet your business goals.

Behind every good video game is rock-solid code. And behind every successful website is strong technical SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Part of that technical equation is schema markup.

Think of it as the secret language that helps search engines understand your website and better place you in results. Essentially, you need to add clearly defined labels to different elements of your website so search crawlers can easily read and interpret your content.

Schema markup is a powerful SEO tool. It Improves visibility in search engines and enhances how and where a search engine results page (SERP) displays your website.

While it might not be the only weapon you need, it’s essential to reaching the higher levels of the SEO game. So, if you’re hungry to get to first place, it’s time to break out the cheat codes. Well, code, at least. No cheaters here.

Let’s dive into all things schema and SEO for gaming sites and learn how gaming publishers can enhance their website's technical SEO armor.

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The Complete Guide to Schema for Website Publishers and Content Creators

Schema Markup for Gaming Websites

Whether your site hosts games or reviews them, schema markup implementation can help you reach more users. 

The fact is, that less than 1% of searchers venture past page one of their Google search. 

Schema can be a critical advantage in your SEO strategy, making it key to getting you to those top spots. When you accurately define unique elements of your site with schema, you’re giving search engines a deeper look into how you want your content displayed. 

Even more importantly, it can get you placed in Rich Results like snippets — SEO gold. 

Now that we know the why, let’s dig into the how.

Types of Schema Markup to Consider

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of different schema types. A schema type is a specific category or classification of content or information. 

Schema.org is a great resource to explore different schema types. 

Here is a page specific to games. At this link, there are tons of schema types available. But, to help you better understand common types you might need and their purpose, let’s review a few of the most useful ones.

First, let’s explore VideoGame schema, which displays essential game details like genre, platforms, ratings, and release date directly in search results. This might come in the form of a rich snippet with a game’s box art, rating, and/or platform availability in SERPs.

VideoGame Schema - Talking Tom Gold Run

Here’s an example of what the VideoGame type looks like in schema code:
{

  "@context": "https://schema.org",

  "@type": "VideoGame",

  "name": "Cyberpunk 2077",

  "genre": "Action role-playing",

  "image": "https://example.com/cyberpunk2077.jpg",

  "description": "An open-world, action-adventure story set in Night City...",

  ... (other properties)

}

Another important schema for a gaming site might be the Review type, which highlights game reviews and ratings to build credibility and attract users seeking an opinion on a title. Think simple star ratings and review summaries right in search.

Review Type Schema - Talking Tom Gold Run

The Review schema type in code:

{

  "@context": "https://schema.org",

  "@type": "Review",

  "itemReviewed": {

    "@type": "VideoGame",

    "name": "Cyberpunk 2077"

  },

  "reviewRating": {

    "@type": "Rating",

    "ratingValue": "4.5",

    "bestRating": "5"

  },

  "author": {

    "@type": "Person",

    "name": "John Doe"

  }

}

Of course, this is just scratching the surface. Here are a few more Schema types you might consider:

  • AggregateRating: Showcases a game's average star rating in search results.
  • BreadcrumbList: Displays the page's location within your site's hierarchy, like a trail of links.
  • Article/BlogPosting/NewsArticle: Tells search engines your content is an article or news, potentially boosting visibility.
  • Person/Organization: Provides info about people or companies involved, building credibility.
  • FAQPage/HowTo: Shows answers to common questions or step-by-step guides directly in search results.
  • GameServer: If you're a site that allows users to play games online, you might consider using the GameServer schema to provide information about your game servers. 

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Explore the Complete Schema Resource Center

Connecting Content Through Structured Data Markup

Your schema strategy is essential to helping search engines like Google know what they are seeing. With that information, they can place you in the right spot in the results. Combined with other SEO best practices, this comprehensive approach to organic traffic growth often delivers killer results.

But, there is a lot of ground to travel from inception to execution. That’s why planning is so crucial. 

Don’t stress, though; we’re here to be your Player 2 in this game. Here is what you need to do to craft an effective schema strategy for your gaming website. It all starts with a comprehensive content audit.

Schema Markup Content Audit

Start with a basic inventory or site audit. Using whichever analytics tool you prefer to track your site’s performance, identify the most high-value, high-traffic pages and try to understand why users come to them.

That’s called search intent. 

This process will help you better understand the user journey and what information Google might need to help those users along their way. Once you have this information, consider what types of features you want to target:

  • Rich Snippets: Enhanced search results with eye-catching visuals like star ratings, images, and additional information.
  • Knowledge Panels: A prominent spot on the right side of search results with a knowledge panel that showcases your brand and key information.
  • Featured Snippets: Your content is the direct answer to specific queries, appearing at the top of search results.
  • Other Features: Additional features like carousels for articles or events, site link search boxes, and more.

Once you have this information in hand, it’s time for a technical assessment. 

Technical Assessment

Evaluate your website's technical capabilities. Do you have developers who can implement schema manually? Or do you rely on a content management system (CMS) plugin or schema markup generator?

How you implement the schema is an important decision. Be sure to choose the method that best matches your technical skills and internal resources. JSON-LD is fairly standard, which is why it’s the most common schema format and can offer a lot in terms of ease of implementation and flexibility — especially with dynamic content.

It does require manual coding, though. If that scares you, other options like plugins through your CMS or beginner-friendly tools like Google's Structured Data Markup Helper can assist here.

It's important to consider scalability, too. 

As your website grows, you want to make sure your implementation choice can easily accommodate those future additions.

Set Goals and KPIs

It’s important to set goals for what you want to achieve with your schema strategy. Pick something specific and tangible, like increasing organic traffic by 15% or achieving rich snippets for certain keywords and pages.

Once you have your goals in mind, it’s time to track metrics. Monitor key metrics like organic traffic, CTRs, bounce rates, time on page, and more.

This will help you understand how your schema strategy is affecting your website performance.

From this point, it’s all a matter of iteration and optimization. Use data-driven insights to refine your strategy and you’ll develop a schema strategy that not only helps drive traffic but will also be unique to your audience and content needs.

Level Up Your Monetization Game with Playwire

Schema for a gaming website is essential. It’s what gives search engines the information they need to accurately place your content in results. The better placements you get in SERPs, the more traffic you receive — it’s that simple.

Ensure you develop a schema strategy that fits your content and audience needs. You run a gaming website, after all, so focus on areas where you can present potential visitors and gamers with the information they need right there in Google.

Once you’ve got the audience, the next step is monetization.

Here at Playwire, our mission is to empower publishers like you with the ad tech tools they need to not only succeed in the fast-paced digital world but thrive by generating more revenue through advertising. 

Get in touch to learn more about how our comprehensive RAMP® Platform can help you optimize your content and revenue strategies today.

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