Semantic car markups will change automotive industry presence on the web
The real-world benefits of the newly adopted schema are far ranging. Automotive manufacturers will be able to implement them internally to better track assets across national borders and reconcile car parts that begin life under names that change as they travel to their assembly point.
Just this alone leads to:
The good news does not stop there. With the ability to add detailed, accurate description to web pages detailing cars and car parts, manufacturers now increase visibility of their products in search in response to car queries and help make sure that apps and search engines can correctly display comparison statistics across different cars from the same manufacturer or similar cars from different manufacturers.
In a study that took into account the car purchasing behavior of people in 13 different countries Google released figures that showed that while 63 percent of new vehicle purchasers begin their search with a specific brand in mind, only 20 percent purchase the vehicle they first researched online. This provides a unique opportunity for car manufacturers who are able to provide detailed, clear, compelling information on their websites through search, to capture audience attention and begin the process of swaying their decision.
Google calls the opportunities created by these instances through search “brand moments” and they represent points in a consumer’s purchasing journey at which a car manufacturer with the right information can begin to close a sale. The key here is being able to present the “right information” at the right time and the only way this can happen is through search. The search interface is the point where consumer intent is divined and accurate information designed to satisfy it is presented.
Semantic markup helps search create structured content out of web pages that is a lot more likely to surface in relation to relevant search queries, even if specific keywords are not part of the search. It is this close match between content on the web and the intent behind a searcher’s query that delivers value for everyone involved in the chain. Searchers find what they want quickly and with greater ease. Search has a greater degree of confidence in the web pages it indexes and their content in relation to search queries. Car manufacturers have increased opportunities to make a sale as their products surface in direct response to very specific customer queries.