Microformats, as their tagline suggests, are designed for humans first and machines second. They are HTML-based formats that use specific values for class or rel attributes to mark up structured data in HTML documents. This makes it easier to publish and reuse various types of information like people, events, tags, and other relevant details found on the web.
For bloggers and website owners, this is great news as microformats offer a convenient way to make their content more structured and easily readable by search engines and other applications. Major websites like Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, and many modern browsers support and use microformats extensively. This means that there is a high chance for microformats to gain even more traction and become a widely adopted standard in the future.
In addition to improving SEO, microformats also provide several other benefits. They allow for consistent data representation and make it easier to share information across different platforms and services. Microformats are also human-readable, which means that users can easily interpret the information.
Now that we understand what microformats are, let’s explore where they can be applied and what popular microformats exist.
8 Useful Microformats You Might Want to Try
#1: hCard
hCard is a user-friendly format for displaying contact information for individuals, locations, businesses, and other entities. It works by identifying key details such as name, address, email, and phone number using specific class names. This makes it easier for applications to extract this data and display it in a structured format.
#2: hCalendar
hCalendar is a popular microformat used for marking up event information. It allows individuals or organizations to publish their events on the web in a consistent and easy manner. Similar to hCard, it uses specific class names to identify key details like date, time, location, and description of the event.
#3: hReview
hReview is a microformat specifically designed for reviews. It allows users to rate and review products or services on websites using specific class names for key details like rating, title, author, and content. These reviews can then be easily aggregated and displayed in a structured format on other websites or applications.
#4: hResume
hResume is a microformat designed for publishing resumes. It allows for displaying ten essential areas of information and enables you to showcase your resume on your blog, which can be taken from LinkedIn or other sources. This makes it easier for potential employers to find and access your resume on the web.
#5: hAtom
hAtom is a microformat specifically designed for marking up blog or article entries. It allows you to add structured data to your content, such as title, author, date published, and summary. This makes it easier for search engines and other applications to identify and display the relevant blog information.
#6: hRecipe
In today’s day and age, how else would we exchange recipes? Whenever you want to share or find a recipe, hRecipe is the way to go. It contains all the critical details on ingredients, preparation, and more.
#7: RelTag
If you’re a blogger, then you know the importance of tags. Each post needs appropriate tags to help organize the blog. Semantic placement of tags is crucial, and that’s where RelTag comes in handy. It allows individuals to add tags with a specific rel attribute, making it easier for applications to identify and organize the tags.
#8: Rel-nofollow
If you wish to instruct applications not to follow certain links, then rel-nofollow is a useful tool. It allows individuals to add a rel attribute with the value “nofollow” to specify that certain links should not be followed by search engines and other web crawlers. This is often used as a way to control spam comments and preserve the integrity of a website’s outgoing links.
To Wrap Up
Microformats are powerful HTML-based tools that enhance the structure and accessibility of data on the web. They have wide-ranging applications, from marking up contact information with hCard, organizing events with hCalendar, collating reviews with hReview, showcasing resumes with hResume, to enabling the sharing of recipes with hRecipe.
Importantly, for content creators, using the RelTag microformat can assist in semantic tagging of blog posts, while hAtom is particularly useful for structuring blog or article entries.
Lastly, the Rel-nofollow microformat offers the ability to guide applications away from certain links. Embracing these microformats can significantly optimize your online content for search engines and improve the overall user experience.
