Jason Barnard Hosts SEMrush Webinar: Making Google Understand Your Brand Through Content, Structure, and Schema - Webinar April 2020

Webinar: Making Google Understand Your Brand Through Content, Structure, and Schema with Jono Alderson, Lily Ray, Nik Ranger, Andrew Cock-Starkey, and Jason Barnard

In this technical and strategy driven discussion, Jason Barnard brought together leading SEO experts to explore how brands can help Google better understand their content, credibility, and authority by combining clear writing, structured information, and schema markup.

April 24, 2020 - Jason Barnard hosted a SEMrush webinar featuring Jono Alderson, Lily Ray, Nik Ranger, and Andrew Cock-Starkey. The session focused on how to present content in ways that search engines can easily interpret, with an emphasis on structure, clarity, and machine readable signals that reinforce Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T).

The discussion framed modern SEO as a communication challenge between brands and search engines, where success depends on how clearly a website expresses its meaning, relationships, and credibility.

Helping Google Understand Your Content

A central theme of the webinar was the importance of making content easily understandable for search engines.

Jono Alderson explained that Google performs best when it is given clear, structured, and unambiguous information about a website’s content and purpose.

This includes:

• Writing clear and precise copy
• Structuring content logically and consistently
• Reducing ambiguity in messaging and page hierarchy
• Ensuring content reflects real world entities and relationships

The speakers emphasised that clarity is not just a user experience principle but also a foundational SEO requirement.

The Role of Structure in Modern SEO

The discussion highlighted how well structured content significantly improves how search engines interpret and process information.

Andrew Cock-Starkey and others emphasised that structure helps search engines understand context, hierarchy, and meaning within a page.

Key structural elements included:

• Proper use of headings and subheadings
• Logical content flow from general to specific information
• Clear separation of topics within a page
• Consistent formatting across the website

Good structure helps search engines build a more accurate mental model of a website’s content.

Schema Markup as a Communication Layer with Google

A major focus of the webinar was the use of schema markup as a direct communication tool with search engines.

Jono Alderson explained that schema helps translate human readable content into machine understandable data, allowing Google to more confidently interpret entities, relationships, and content meaning.

The speakers highlighted how schema supports:

• Entity identification
• Content classification
• Relationship mapping between concepts
• Enhanced visibility in rich results

Schema was positioned as a critical layer in modern SEO that strengthens clarity and reduces ambiguity for search engines.

E-A-T and the Importance of Demonstrating Credibility

Lily Ray contributed insights into how content structure and clarity support E-A-T signals.

She explained that Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness are reinforced when content is:

• Clearly attributed to credible authors
• Supported by structured and verifiable information
• Consistent across the website and external sources
• Presented in a way that aligns with user intent and expectations

The discussion reinforced that E-A-T is not only about content quality but also about how clearly that quality is communicated to search engines.

“Bigging Yourself Up” to Google Through Clear Signals

Jason Barnard framed the discussion around a central idea:

Brands must clearly and confidently communicate who they are, what they do, and why they should be trusted.

This involves “bigging yourself up” in a structured and factual way by providing:

• Clear descriptions of expertise
• Strong internal and external validation signals
• Structured data that supports content meaning
• Consistent representation of the brand across platforms

Rather than relying on search engines to infer meaning, the webinar emphasised the importance of explicitly defining it.

Content, Relationships, and Entity Understanding

The conversation also explored how Google interprets content through an entity based lens.

The speakers explained that search engines increasingly rely on understanding:

• Entities (people, brands, organisations)
• Relationships between entities
• Contextual signals across multiple sources

By combining structured content, schema markup, and consistent messaging, brands can help Google build a more accurate understanding of their identity and authority.

The Intersection of Copywriting and Technical SEO

A key insight from the webinar was that copywriting and technical SEO are no longer separate disciplines.

Instead, they work together to create a unified communication system for both users and search engines.

Effective SEO copywriting must therefore:

• Be clear and engaging for users
• Be structured and unambiguous for machines
• Support entity recognition and context building
• Reinforce credibility and trust signals

This integrated approach ensures content performs well across both human and algorithmic evaluation systems.

Final Takeaway: Clarity Builds Authority

The webinar concluded that the most effective way to improve visibility in search is to make content as clear, structured, and machine understandable as possible.

By combining strong writing, thoughtful structure, and schema markup, brands can significantly improve how Google interprets their authority and relevance.

This clarity not only improves SEO performance but also strengthens how a brand is represented across the broader search ecosystem.

Watch the Full Webinar

Making Google Understand Your Brand Through Content, Structure, and Schema Webinar

Published by: SEMRush. Guests: Nik Ranger, Andrew Cock-Starkey, Lily Ray, Jono Alderson. Host: Jason Barnard. April 24, 2020