Structured Data Part : The Course Schema

The Course markup is specifically designed for structuring the data of Courses for Google to understand their content and display them over search engines as SERPs. Example: When you search for Spanish courses in Mumbai, you are presented with a list of SERPs for you to choose from. The data in those SERPs is structured by using the Course Markup. This markup like its Carousel sibling markup, uses the JSON-LD format. Tis markup is used for data structuring of learning content like educational courses, language learning courses that maybe offered at different locations, at different times or through various media outlets or modes of study.

Course Markup Properties:

A distinct and important entity of the Course markup is the Course entity. This property contains two important elements:

1. description: a description of the said course. The character count should not exceed more than 60 characters.
2.  name : the course title.
3. provider: The organization publishing the source content of the course. For Example: The Cambridge university.

ItemList is another crucial entity of the markup. This is similar to the carousel markup however the definitions change :

1. itemlistElement : this item explains a single item page.
2.  ListItem.postion : the systematic position of the item page in the list.
3.  Listitem.Url : the authourized URL of them item page.

The below listed properties are crucial as adding them would make your website or webpage a part of Google’s SERPs and also make it a contender to be for rich results pages.

1. Course Instance:  The time, place or said media and the specific sections of students the course is conducted for.
2.  Instance Name: the name of the instance offered.
3.  Instance Description: a short description of the course example adding a part of the course page content.
4.  Course Medium: The channel through which the course will be conducted. Example:  online, part-time, full-time, etc.
5.  Images: an image OG the featured course.
6.  Course Status:  with this property, you can add to the snippet.
7.  Course attendance mode: The place/location where the course will be conducted.
8.  Start Date: The date of the beginning of the course.
9.  End date: The date when the course will end
10.  Course Organization URL: The Url of the instructor or organization hosting the course.
11. Location Name: the course venue.
12. Location Address:  address of the location.
13. Price: the price of the said course
14. Currency: the mode of currency in which payment will be done.
15. Valid from: the date from which the course will start
16. Offer URL: the link from where the course users can avail of their offer link.
17. Availability: the various discounts and offers related to the course.
18.  Reference Link: a link that refers to the course like the Wikipedia page of the course or an official website.
19. Rating: The rating of the course.

Guidelines:

Since this markup is a sibling of the carousel markup, the general guidelines to follow for the correct data structure remain same.  

There are additional Content and Technical rules to be followed for a properly structured data.

Content Guidelines:

These recommendations specify what is Course and what is not one. Educational content like lectures, lessons, or subject modules of a particular subject or topic is termed as educational content. The said course should be lead by an instructor or professor and must have a list of students. Furthur, What a course is and what not is also specified. Example: How to make a cake is not a course but learning Spanish is a course.

Technical Guidelines:

1. Every course and course name must have a logical name and title. Frivolous content like:
2. Promotional phrases and content :
3. “Best Spanish Courses”
4. Adding the course price in the title:
5. “Learn Spanish in 6 months for RS 5000”.
6. And Adding discounts or purchase of opportunities like  
7. “50% discount on Lessons by Yoga Experts”.

PRO TIP: The troubleshooting problems can be fixed using the same methods mentioned in the previous Carousel markup post.

By using the course markup correctly one can create professional course structures that can be easily understood by Google and can be displayed as Rich Results. 

The next post of the All About Structured Data Series will throw light over The Data Structure Process related to CO-VID19 Announcements.