Schema.org attributes

[uschmi]

Is there already any solution for the schema.org attributes?
This will be very important in future für SEO!
In my opinion, schema.org attributes should be automatically created for the following fields: manufacturer, product name, product id...

[jjk]

Is there already any solution for the schema.org attributes?

Not at present. I think the schema.org attributes are still in their infant stage and currently only implemented by Google etc. for creating SERPS of unstructured content like i.e. videos. In my opinion only very few of the schema.org attributes would make sense in a shop, i.e a product and a manufacturer attribute. Quite a few attributes suggested by schema.org seem to have the sole purpuse of collecting data for profiling web sites similar to facebook profiles (in other words ...used by the search engines to targeting ads)

In my opinion, schema.org attributes should be automatically created for the following fields: manufacturer, product name, product id...

I disagree with this. Since every shop would have different requirements concering schema.org attributes, I think a configurable SEO plugin can handle this much better. While generating i.e. the manufacturer attribute could be automatic, an automatic description tag would produce primarily SEO junk, which more likely would penalize your ranking than improving it. Also, product IDs doesn't help users searching for products, unless i.e. you are selling books and your ISBN is the same as your SKU (in which case it should be labled ISBN).

Currently, VM2 makes good use of rel-tags in the url already and you can use Meta tags to (manually) produce some of the more specific Meta tags named 'attributes' in schema.org vocabulary.
I do agree that schema.org is something that the developers should have a look at, but a plugin makes more sense to me than inlcuding that into the core.

...I just wonder if we can do schema.org attributes using VM2's 'custom fields'? Might be interesting to experiment with that.

A link for those who are wondering what we are talking about here: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=146750 

P.S.: A disadvantage of using schema.org attributes like 'Product' is, that i.e. Google makes it mandatory to include the 'name', 'price' and 'currency' attributes, which will probably be used for the SERPS display. In this case, if you have one or more competitors offering lower prices, you loose your potential customer already at this point.

[simbus82]

Totally disagree with JJK :-)

For my point of view microdata are useful ad a "must have" for a modern e-commerce. It will be integrated, then you can disable it if you are not sure.

i have posted some here

http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=101200.msg335357

[jjk]

I'm not against implementing schema.org and microdata into VM2. I'm against adding it into the VM2 core (except maybe itemprop="name"). However, it may happen that you will see it in form of a VM2 plugin some time in the future. 

But personally I think in the long run Google will use it to produce search results like this:
http://www.trovaprezzi.it/categoria.aspx?libera=i9100&id=7&gclid=CIqh6ae_lLACFcRF3wodFWXSrA
...and this is what I don't like.

[simbus82]

I'm not against implementing schema.org and microdata into VM2. I'm against adding it into the VM2 core (except maybe itemprop="name"). However, it may happen that you will see it in form of a VM2 plugin some time in the future. 

But personally I think in the long run Google will use it to produce search results like this:
http://www.trovaprezzi.it/categoria.aspx?libera=i9100&id=7&gclid=CIqh6ae_lLACFcRF3wodFWXSrA
...and this is what I don't like.

LOL my preferred shopping comparison site, are you italian?

Google do the same thing right now... Google Shopping  but is not "SERP" based.

But in the core we can insert all of code that identify a product, name, VOTE, some properties etc etc, with a simple ON/OFF checkbox like SEO.

[uschmi]

As long as I can see, the modifications to support schema.org attributes in core files (product details) should not be too complicated.

I can see many activities on the market to implement these attributes in web software at the moment. And, as we know of the past, usually Google´s will is law regarding the www...

[mbit]

Have you tried virtuemart goodrelations?

[jjk]

Have you tried virtuemart goodrelations?

Thanks for this hint. I wasn't aware of this extension. There is a Joomla 2.5.x/VM2.x test version available for download here:
http://code.google.com/p/goodrelations-for-joomla/downloads/list

[mbit]

Yes, there are extensions that support both old and latest versions of J & VM, does it worth? i am trying to figure out differences between schema.org , any idea? Also this extension loads mootools.js thats something i have removed from my site, is there a way we make this worth without loading mootools?

[jjk]

Just for info: http://wiki.goodrelations-vocabulary.org/Microdata

[uschmi]

The extension doesn´t works for me.
In product details I only get a blank page with the following errors:
Notice: Constant BASE_URI already defined in /www/htdocs/w00f0ad4/shop/modules/mod_goodrelations/helper.php on line 16
Notice: Constant RDFA_DIR already defined in /www/htdocs/w00f0ad4/shop/modules/mod_goodrelations/helper.php on line 17
Notice: Constant SHOP_URI already defined in /www/htdocs/w00f0ad4/shop/modules/mod_goodrelations/helper.php on line 19
Notice: Undefined variable: param in /www/htdocs/w00f0ad4/shop/modules/mod_goodrelations/helper.php on line 192
Fatal error: Call to undefined method CurrencyDisplay::getCurrencyDisplay() in /www/htdocs/w00f0ad4/shop/modules/mod_goodrelations/mod_goodrelations.php on line 270

I´m using J2.5.4 + VM 2.0.6 with SEO

[jjk]

I gave it a short try on a J2.5.4/VM2.0.7f test installation and got the same result. If I understand the notices correctly, the BASE_URL etc. have to be adjusted to your site. For example the first notice disappeard after I replaced BASE_URL with my local Joomla root name (rootname/index.php?option=com_virtuemart). But I didn't play that game any further, because I have to finish a lot of other things first.

[Stonedfury]

You shouldn't have to mess with your base url for any of the schema stuff.
for ideas and shared topic
http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=101200.0

[franzpeter]

VP MegaMart, VP ProMart templates or the shoplicious theme have those attributes implemented. Using such a template does deliver automatically those schema.org attributes without the need to hack VM source code.

[Stonedfury]

Actually it is not implemented into the vp_promart. Check their forums. I have put it into ours by hand. Not to hard either once you get the feel for it.

The megamart has it but is not a responsive template. Not sure on the shiplicious.

However these changes can be made in an override folder on a stock template very easily still and is not a hack. I do not understand why they are not a standard in VM.