Google Introduces Data Highlighter

Google sometime last week announced a new tool called the Data Highlighter. The purpose of this tool is to help webmasters add structured data to their websites in the most hassle free way. You need not write any codes nor do you need any coding knowledge to add structured data to your website any longer. Google encourages website owners to include as much structured information as possible in their websites so that the search engine will be able to improve its search results. Google has already been making several efforts to make the search data more engaging to the users in the form of knowledge box. Adding rich snippets and other structured data to the websites can prove to be a complex task for many website owners, as they do not have the required in-house expertise.

The data highlighter tool saves you all the trouble. You will be able to add structured data to your site in a matter of few clicks using the point and click data highlighter tool. Google announced this new tool on 12 Dec. the initial version of the data highlighter is available only for structured data on events. If you website features or lists sporting events, concerts or exhibitions you will be able to make use of the data highlighter tool to include structured data so that Google will pick these events and give a special listings in the search results. Google says that it is just a first step and the company will extend its support to structured data to the other formats and data types too in the following months. Currently, the tool supports only English and it is expected to extend its capabilities along these lines as well.

Getting started with Google highlighter is very easy. Users just need to log into their Google webmaster tools and they will find the new tool featured under the webmasters tools. Google suggests that if you have multiple events in a regular format then the data highlighter will pick up the information automatically in all the future instances too. As per Google report, it is enough that you have just five to ten manually tagged pages and the advanced Google highlighter tool will automatically understand similar pages in your website. When Google crawls your website it will understand the new events listings and give them enhanced events listings in the search results.

As always Google disclaimer follows this data highlighter tool as well, Google says that adding structured data does not give any guarantee to the users that their data will be displayed. However, this improves the chances of getting enhanced listings, which will improve the visibility of your brand in the Google search. Webmasters should not use the data highlighter to promote their other non-event based products or services. Google will display only genuine events based listings.

Soon we can expect the data highlighter tool to cover other search aspects such as travel information, local business listings and more. If you have events listings, you can go ahead and try the data highlighter tool for your website.

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