Internet is growing that we all know, so work load of search engines are increasing more and more. Every day new invocation is require to make parsing and crawling faster. Earlier RSS feeds have made unique impact in syndication and publishing work. After RSS , Atom , IDX feeds for Real estate, common xml file for Book publishing industry. These all rich format improved parsing and data interpretation.
What is Micro formats?
A micro format is an approach to synchronize mark up and use existing html and xhtml mark up to convey Meta data and attributes of content. If you are aware of html then it is very easy to explain what micro formats are. In html there are many attributes and properties of tags which we don’t use in normal html web design. Like in <div> there is a property of title=”". If you do not have any css in this div then you do not use Class=”" property of Div. Now with use of these unused properties and attributes we can organize data very well as well as it can help whole internet to understand it better. And some time you can propel Meta data in these attributes. Which can be a great use? You may wonder how.
Let me give you an example of micro formats.
Here I am writing my friends firm’s url letsnurture.com how html would be?
Simple <a href=”http://www.letsnurture.com>letsnurture</a> Right?
And if I write in following format then?
<a href=”http://www.letsnurture.com/letsnurture” rel=”friend met co-worker neighbor”>lets nurture</a>
Here xfn Rel is used to show relationship between me and lets nurture. Friend, met, neighbor this can help anyone to understand me and lets nurture has friendship, we have met and we are neighbors. So does this format makesence? This micro formats are interpreted by all search engines also . Above example was for microformat XFN which is widely used to show physical relationship with entity. There are many other <br/> also.
hCard
hCard is a micro format which simplifies representing of people, organization, designation, places, address. hCard uses same like XFN semantics of html and xhtml. hCard is open and distributed micro formats and almost all big companies understand it.
Say for example If you are writing simple address then you will write like
<p>Affordable SEO<br/>
Affordable SEO Services <br/>
Ghatlodia <br/>
Ahemedabad <br/>
India<br/>
079-40095953</p>
But in hCard Format it will look like this..
<div id=”hCard-AffordableSEO” class=”vcard”>
<a class=”url fn n” href=” http://www.affordable-seo-services.com/”>
<span class=”given-name”>Affordable SEO</span></a>
<div class=”org”>Affordable SEO Services</div>
<div class=”street-address”>Ghatlodia</div>
<span class=”locality”>Ahmedabad</span>
<span class=”country-name”>India</span>
</div> <div class=”tel”>+079-40095953</div>
We will post more articles on Micro formats very soon. Also will explain how it can help in seo perspective…
