@J Murphy… T
The question you pose is very complex as it addresses a multitude of disciplines within SEO, requiring an overall knowledge of what things effect organic search results.
But let me try to sift through some of the issues.
The question of what type of meta tags you should be adding depends entirely on the objective you wish to achieve. Generally, it’s is a good idea to verify a site through the Google Search Console and then add that meta tag.
If the SEO objective to be ranked globally…then adding a website schema markup is a good idea. But if you want to rank specifically for local SEO, then a local business markup would be better.
You state "most of the businesses I work with aren’t as concerned with high rankings as they are with trust / validation - - meaning they want to show up in google maps and on google my business (which is easy), and they want searches for their business to be returned with sitelinks ."
You have 2 contrary questions in this statement. So let’s talk about SEO based sitelinks (not Adwords sitelink).
There is no direct way to get Sitelinks for your website. You can’t just log into Google’s Search Console , flick a switch and get Sitelinks.
There is no direct way to get Sitelinks for your website. You can’t just log into Google’s Search Console , flick a switch and get Sitelinks.
These include:
- Make sure your sites name is unique
- Ensure your websites structure and navigation are perfectly clear
- Rank #1 for your brand in search results (I know this is extremely difficult)
- Add and update your sitemap.xml in the Google Search Console account
- Build positive backlinks
- Cross-check you page titles
- Raise the sites brand awareness
As you can see, there is no way to separate “high rankings” from sitelink creation. One is dependent on the other and the other assists the first.
You state, “And ever since Wix introduced the new advanced SEO tab, a few of my sites have lost their sitelinks.”. This is a bit confusing to me but since the creation of sitelinks is exclusively in the hands of the Google algorithms, if this is indeed a fact, it is co-incidental.
Remember for Google to create and maintain your sitelinks you need to pay close attention to the 7 items I listed above. I hope this gives you some clarity and thought of how to manage your clients’ SEO.