Google Data Highlighter is an easy way to tell Google the structured data on your webpage.

It allows you to highlight pieces of your website with some simple clicks of your mouse so that you can show them in a more attractive way in the search results: Google will use your structured data to provide better search result snippets.

You can only tell Google about the structured data on your site by adding microdata markup to HTML or by using Google Data Highlighter as an alternative. This is a point-and-click tool that allows anyone to show Google the pattern of structured data on your webpage without modifying the pages themselves, making the whole process super easy.

Let’s get started!

How to use Google Data Highlighter, Step by Step

First, log into Google Search Console . If you haven’t done it yet, you’ll have to verify the ownership of your site.

Google Search Console is not just necessary for Data Highlighter: it helps you improve the search presence of your website in many important ways.

In Google Search Console, underneath Search Appearance, you will find an option for Data Highlighter. Click “Start Highlighting”. You will have the chance to input here the URL of a typical page on your website which contains the structured data and the type of information that you want to highlight.

Data Highlighter: tell Google easily your webpage's structured data

 Types of information you can highlight with Google Data Highlighter:

  • Articles,
  • Book reviews,
  • Events,
  • Local business (one of the most commonly used choices),
  • Movies,
  • Products (an important choice for an e-commerce),
  • Restaurants,
  • Software Applications,
  • TV episodes.

You will be given the option to tag just this page or similar ones within your site. Make your choice, according to the structure of the site. If you chose to tag a blog post and the others share the same structure, you can choose to tag the similar ones, as well.

Once you’ve chosen, the page will be loaded and displayed within the Google Data Highlighter window.

In the very common case of an Article, that is the choice of many bloggers for their posts, you will be going to highlight, assigning to it the relevant values for:

  • Title
  • Author
  • Data published
  • Image published
  • Category

that you will see appearing on your right side.

You will then click Publish; the data will become available as soon as Google recrawls your site and that’s pretty much all you have to do!

If you wish, Jack Menzel, Product Management Director at Google, will tell you more about how to use Google Data Highlighter in the video below:

Being Google Data Highlighter such an easy tool to use, we definitely suggest everyone give it a try. Then, let us know if your impressions and any doubts in the comments!

Contact us if you wish to provide your website with Structured Data and Rich Cards in a professional way, that will definitely improve your chances to rank in SERPs, as part of a Search Engine Optimisation program for your website!