Schema Pro is a must-have plugin if you’re looking to truly optimize your site for SEO, and make it super easy for Google to understand all your content and its context. Help your site stand out from the crowd by adding schema markup quickly and easily with Schema Pro.

Marshall Reyher

MPR Studio

Is a good-looking website all you need to grab more traffic and create an online business? There is a lot more that goes into it.

There are several website design companies that build beautiful websites, but only a few focus on the overall performance. One of these is MPR Studio!

We have with us Marshall Reyher, the Creative Professional behind MPR Studio who will share his thoughts on how important website performance is and how tools like Schema Pro and Astra have helped him serve his clients.

Hello Marshall, thank you for agreeing to share your story! Could you please tell us a little about yourself and MPR Studio?

I am a WordPress web developer currently living in Europe. In early 2017, I decided to start writing step-by-step tutorials to help beginners learn how to get the most out of self-hosted WordPress.

I am totally self-taught, having used online guides to get started using the WordPress CMS back in 2008. At the time, I created a simple blog to showcase my image retouching portfolio.

So, have you always wanted to do what you are doing now? How did you first begin?

Yes, I’ve always wanted to run my own business. The internet is amazing and has made it possible to start and operate a business from anywhere. I greatly appreciate the flexibility I have in my life, and the fact that I can live in Europe and serve clients from all over the world. The WordPress community is amazing, and there is so much information about the CMS freely available online.

I have been a creative professional for about 15 years. This includes working as a graphic designer/desktop publishing operator, image editing specialist and photographer. While I’ve been using self-hosted WordPress since 2008, I made the switch to focus on WordPress web design a couple of years ago.

Wow! There is a lot that you have worked on!

I was just going through the introduction on your website and found that you’ve been in love with WordPress and chose to blog about it to make things easier! What is the best thing about WordPress?

The best thing about WordPress is that it is so flexible in terms of both design and functionality. There are countless free and premium themes and tons of awesome plugins for everything from SEO to speed to security and much more.

That’s true! There are lots of tools that make things easier and faster now!

What are your favorite set of tools or plugins that you cannot work without?

With all the WordPress sites I create, there are some plugins that I automatically install right away. These include,

Schema Pro
Yoast SEO
Wordfence
BackWPup
A caching plugin (either W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache).

That’s a quick list and well, some really essential plugins. 🙂

And well, I see Schema Pro mentioned there! Could you please share some thoughts about it?

I did a little research regarding the best plugins for adding structured data (aka schema markup) to WordPress sites, and Schema Pro was the best hands-down. Now, adding schema markup to my clients’ sites is an integral part of my WordPress website design offer.

There are so many business owners who still do not know the importance of Schema markups. It’s good for developers themselves to put things forward. 🙂

Have you used any other tool apart from Schema Pro earlier? What made you switch to our plugin?

Originally, I used your free All-In-One Rich Snippets plugin on a couple of my sites. Then, I wanted to be able to configure more types of Schema, and be able to easily add it to new content automatically. For these reasons, I made the upgrade to Schema Pro, and purchased the lifetime license.

Wow! So I can say we’ve been your solution for schema markups all the way! 😀

So, after using All-One-Rich Snippets, how long did it take for you to set up Schema Pro?

It only took me a few minutes to set up and fully-configure Schema Pro, which is another reason why I absolutely love the plugin. You can essentially set it and forget it.

That’s true and something we really wanted!

Could you please share some significant results post using Schema Pro on any of your websites? We’d love our readers to see some.

With a few posts on my website, I have a featured snippet for certain Google search queries. On HempToday, a hemp news and events website where I am the webmaster, we’ve implemented Schema Pro and have a bunch of rich snippets for both articles and events. In addition, our social profiles show up in our Google My Business profile at the bottom.

Wow!

Is there any other SEO plugin that you use alongside Schema Pro?

Yes, I use Yoast SEO in conjunction with Schema Pro. It’s great for optimizing on-page content, creating XML sitemaps, connecting sites to Google Search Console and adjusting page titles and meta descriptions, among other things.

Well, well, well… I think this answers some users questions as to whether they can use Schema Pro and Yoast SEO together. So, guys, yes you can!

You strive to deliver highly functional sites optimized for SEO, speed and security. How important are these for a website?

Many web developers simply focus on what a site looks like, but not its overall performance. My WordPress web design service stands out from the crowd because I look at every facet of a website to make sure it is totally optimized and performing at its very best in terms of SEO, usability, speed and security.

That is so true! It is the web developers who can actually suggest what is necessary for a website to perform well and not just look good.

According to you how does Schema Markup contribute to the performance of a website?

As I wrote in my step-by-step tutorial about adding schema markup to WordPress, it helps Google (and other search engines) understand the context of your website’s content. In addition, by adding structured data to your site, you can stand out in search results with rich snippets, resulting in higher click-through rates (CTR).

While not guaranteed, if you create awesome content and work on getting backlinks, you have a great chance of having a rich snippet.

I loved that article! You’ve written things in detail and simplified everything. 🙂

How important do you say is website speed and performance? Have you tried Astra on any of your websites? If yes, how did you like it?

Website speed and performance are absolutely crucial, as people simply will not wait for a slow site to load. Your website is a direct reflection of the quality of your business. If it performs poorly, people won’t take you seriously and will look for an alternative. Don’t select the cheapest hosting, choose a quality theme and plugins, optimize your web images and make sure that your site loads quickly on computers, tablets and smartphones.

Yes, I have tried your Astra theme, and even purchased the lifetime Astra Pro license. I love the fact that it’s coded well, lightweight and loads really fast. I’ve already used it on a few sites, and will continue to do so. I like the fact that you offer lifetime licenses, and don’t see a reason to use any other themes.

I must also point out that your technical support is top-notch. They have helped me numerous times with client projects, for which I am grateful. Keep up the awesome work!

I am glad to hear that Astra is also on your list! And the customer support - we’ll definitely continue serving all our users. 🙂

Coming back to schema markups - What advice would you like to give someone setting up schema markup? Is there anything important you wish to share?

First, analyze your site content and figure out what kinds of Schema to implement. Try to fill out all of the fields, and use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to validate the schema and make sure it’s error-free.

And… That’s exactly what Schema Pro helps one do! The steps are easy and straight!

So Marshall, you say you are a self taught professional. Can you share some resources you refer to in order to stay up with the latest marketing trends? Are there any blogs or tools you would like to recommend?

Neil Patel and Backlinko are definitely go-to resources for all things related to marketing. I highly recommend checking both of them out, as they are filled with valuable information.

I am sure our readers would want to know more about you, follow you or even get in touch! What can be the best way to do so?

I can always be reached through my website, Facebook and Twitter.

So, guys, we’ve come to the end of this wonderful question answer round!

Once again, thank you Marshall for sharing your wonderful journey with us! We are glad to see Schema Pro and Astra make a difference for you.

And, we’ve just seen how a self-taught professional built his own business, learned stuff on his own and discovered his set of tools that help him serve his clients better.

It’s great to know that developers like Marshall take a step forward to educate and help clients implement schema markups and focus on website performance more than just the looks.

Do you have a story to share? We’d love to hear that too!