You might have heard about Structured Data, Schema.org and JSON-LD.
Search engines read structured data and use it to enhance search engine results. Structured data helps search engines to understand and categorize page content.
This structured data, in JSON-LD format, describes a simple Article.
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{ "@context": "http://schema.org", "@type": "Article", "author": "John Doe", "interactionStatistic": [ { "@type": "InteractionCounter", "interactionService": { "@type": "WebSite", "name": "Twitter", "url": "http://www.twitter.com" }, "interactionType": "http://schema.org/ShareAction", "userInteractionCount": "1203" }, { "@type": "InteractionCounter", "interactionType": "http://schema.org/CommentAction", "userInteractionCount": "78" } ], "name": "How to Tie a Reef Knot" } |
Schema.org is a collaborative, community activity with a mission to create, maintain, and promote schemas for structured data on the Internet. But not all structured data endpoints are actually used by Google, Bing or other search engines yet.
Google provides a detailed overview of structured data allowed and used for search results.
There are basic enhancements you can use, like the Article structured data above. There are also many other more specific uses, like Video, LocalBusiness, Events, FAQ, Job Postings, Recipe and so on. Bing also provides a basic overview, but their documentation is scattered and feels incomplete.
If you use a modern CMS, many structured data endpoints are already integrated out of the box (Article, Website, Logo, Person …).
Also modular content management systems often offer additional functionality through plugins, those help integrate structured data directly. Some do it better than others!
But if you really want to dive deep and integrate all those little things, structured data is still far more powerful when added manually. Especially things like events, products, job listings, courses, Q&A can greatly be enhanced by hand.
Alex@portalZINE
Google and Bing offer validation tools for structured data. Both integrate it into their Webmaster Tools. You can also use the JSON-LD Playground to validate the JSON-LD itself or RDFa Play, Structured Data Linter, Facebook Debugger, Schema.org Generator and many other tools.
I am a huge structured data fan and have been working with it for years now. I am constantly looking for new supported structured data endpoints, to enhance my own or customer websites & data.
Google constantly updates their documentation and highlights experimental structured data endpoints. Like Speakable for example, that highlights sections of a websites that are best suited for audio playback.
Fresh structured data helps to promote your content and enhance SEO, directly enhancing your discoverability and your search engine position. Your content becomes more meaningful for search engines, making it easier for them to promote it to the right potential user. It also ties into the GO GREEN concept, as you are reducing bounces of your website for users getting offered the wrong content.
Things like recipes and how-tos are already pushed to the top of the search index. A perfect way to promote your website and get noticed.
I signed the Sustainable Web Manifesto a couple of weeks ago. The manifesto perfectly reflects how I have been handling my business and my projects.
I created a special „GO GREEN“ subsection to talk about the topic in more detail and give you some more context about the areas I can help you with.
We all share and use the web, just as we all share and live on this planet. This manifesto is a public declaration of a shared commitment to create a sustainable internet.
https://www.sustainablewebmanifesto.com/
„If we embrace sustainability in our work, we can create a web that is good for people and planet.“
Together with my partners in crime (Dorit & Micha), we have finally opened our own personal online store.
We have been selling our single origin coffees (1st Single Malt Whisky Coffee, Basic – Single Origin Arabica, Kill me Quick Espresso -Single Origin Robusta), teas (Kräuterschorle – Kräutertee, Feuerkieker – Schwarztee) and rum (Fortune Teller – Double Aged Barbados Rum) using the Amazon Marketplace for the past 2 years.
GreenApe has been a side project for the past years and I never wanted to deal with the maintenance of our own store. But its time to move on and do our own thing. Amazon has removed so many useful features over the years or added a new fee on top of other fees. Even though Amazon provides access to a large amount of customers, for small companies the fees build up quickly.
With our own store we can finally do bundles, coupons again and better optimized shipping. It will also allow me to better testdrive some new interesting features for my customers ;) Yeah its kind of my new toy or shopping lab! Its fun being able to work on untested new SEO features, structured data, merchant tools, shopping ads and tracking of all of those.
We have been selling in Germany for the past 2 years, but that might be changing in the future depending how well the new store shapes up :)
If you live in Germany, love good coffee, tee or rum … say Hi!
GreenApe – Makes Your Life Better
Homepage
Shop
Contact us
Since I started in 2002, all iterations of portalZINE have been pure english content websites. You can read about the why on my services page.
I had potential customers in Germany complain about that a lot over the past few years. But your own website often suffers, while your customers get all the attention. That is how it is and how it should be!
Creating Multi – Language websites has been part of my services & portfolio for years, with an extreme application setup handling 13 languages in 2014 for the soccer world cup.
Multi-Language setups have come a long way and it was time to showcase that on my own setup as well. Not only to calm those potential customers, but to testdrive new functionality and possibilities on my own setup. portalZINE has always been my testlab for stability and new feature sets.
Most of my static pages are available in English and German now, the blog itself will remain pure English.
Need help setting up a multi language website, get in touch!
Cheers
Alex
After some downtime, GreenApe is breathing again. I revived the brand with a good friend of mine and we will be reopening shop options shortly.
Michael and I have been friends for a long time. We have been working on many different projects over the years.
He launched GreenApe in 2011 and I helped him with his first steps. A couple of months ago we decided to merge our competences and expand what GreenApe offers and stands for.
From the website: „The GreenApe brand was established in 2011. GreenApe’s career began with the 1st Single Malt Whisky Coffee.
As the first of its kind, our coffee is refined with Original Single Malt Whisky. To this day, he pampers many connoisseurs and gourmets with his unique taste. Now there is another reason to rejoice.
From now on, we are continuously expanding the GreenApe product world with several stylish gadgets and useful accessories. For you this means that you will be able to discover even more beautiful, special or practical things in the future.„
GreenApe is all about lifestyle & leisure products, fun gadgets and unique food & drinks.
„RIPS is a static code analysis tool to automatically detect vulnerabilities in PHP applications.
By tokenizing and parsing all source code files RIPS is able to transform PHP source code into a program model and to detect sensitive sinks (potentially vulnerable functions) that can be tainted by user input (influenced by a malicious user) during the program flow.
Besides the structured output of found vulnerabilities RIPS also offers an integrated code audit framework for further manual analysis. “
IFTTT is a free web-based service that allows users to create chains of simple conditional statements, called „recipes“, which are triggered based on changes to other web services such as Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. IFTTT is an abbreviation of „If This Then That“.
Buffer is a new and smarter way to share what you want to share on Social Media. You add updates to your Buffer queue and it will be posted for you well spaced out over the day – and at the best times.
{{EntryTitle}}.{{EntryUrl}}<br>@now . Remove the @now, if you want to add new feed items to the Buffer queue and not send them imediately.
As I said before, Learning Management is really taking off and I get many client requests to do some kind of integration or custom solution for them.
What is a LMS?
A Learning Management System (LMS) is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, or learning and development programs.
It is used by organizations to manage and deliver their internal training programs and can be used by schools and universities for managing online courses as well. An LMS typically includes features such as creating and delivering content, user management, tracking progress, assessments, reporting, and collaboration tools.
In one of my latest articles I started listing solutions for WordPress, WordPress and the LMS universe.
But those solutions might not always be the best fit for your project. Many of them actually try too hard to be everything. The amount of cross linked functionality is getting insane and increases the point of failure.
In some cases a trimmed down solid solution might be the better way to go. SaaS (Software as a Service), part of the cloud trend, is providing more and more options, this includes the LMS arena.
A SaaS solution refers to software that is delivered to users over the internet, typically on a subscription basis. Instead of installing and running the software locally on individual computers or servers, users access it through a web browser or a thin client. The service provider manages the infrastructure, maintenance, and upgrades of the software, allowing users to benefit from the latest features and improvements without having to manage the underlying technology themselves.
Stop worrying about the software and concentrate on your content again. The SaaS provider takes care of functionality, support, updates and delivery.
This is nothing new, solutions like TalentLMS or Litmos LMS offer this for some time now.
TalentLMS is a cloud-based Learning Management System (LMS) designed for small to mid-sized businesses and organizations. It offers features such as creating and delivering online courses, tracking progress and performance, reporting, and integrations with other tools like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Zapier. TalentLMS also includes mobile learning capabilities, allowing users to access courses on their smartphones or tablets. The platform is easy to use and offers a range of customization options for branding and layout. It also includes features for creating and managing certificates and badges for learners upon completion of courses.
Litmos is a cloud-based Learning Management System (LMS) designed for businesses and organizations of all sizes. It offers features such as creating and delivering online courses, tracking progress and performance, reporting, and integrations with other tools like Salesforce, Marketo, and Google Drive. Litmos also includes mobile learning capabilities, allowing users to access courses on their smartphones or tablets. The platform is easy to use and offers a range of customization options for branding and layout. It also includes features for creating and managing certificates and badges for learners upon completion of courses. Additionally, Litmos offers features for automating course assignments, tracking compliance with regulatory requirements, and providing personalized learning experiences for individual learners based on their performance and progress.
Modern SaaS solutions provide Public APIs, that allow you to seamlessly integrate them with your current solution. So in case of a LMS, that part of your project could be handled by the SaaS provider, while e-commerce, social and other content areas remain under your full control.
We are looking at a very crowded LMS market, but always nice to have options :)
In the past 2 years, the e-Learning market has been exploding. Online Learning Management Systems (LMS) have become very popular, to build e-learning platforms.
They not only offer text based content, quizzes, assignment management, course evaluation, social features, but also allow the integration of video, audio and other linked content. Many support SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model), allowing the exchange of learning content and results.
Over the past few years, I have been helping clients to build or transform their e-learning platforms. Sometimes its better to build a customized LMS solution from scratch :), than tweak or customize an offered solution. It all depends on the features you want to see integrated and on the budget available ;)
In this article I want to share current solutions offered for WordPress.
I will divide them into themes and plugins for now. In the future I plan do some feature comparison as well :
These are standalone plugins, that provide LMS functionality and integrate into your WordPress themes. Ease of integration and options differ.
These themes mostly dependent on one of the plugins above or offer only a simple subset of LMS functionality.
Integrated solutions, that are supposed to offer a tight integration of WordPress, theme and its own plugins.
I started adding a standard preface to emails from clients asking to work with me. So here it is, for potential new clients, that think about working with me :)
Anything else about me can be read here:
http://www.portalzine.de/services/
http://www.portalzine.de/services/about-alex/
http://www.portalzine.de/services/portfolio/
If you made it so far and you still would like to work with me, we can move to step 2 :)