Ultimate Guide to Microformats: Reference and Examples

If you’re not familiar with the concept of POSH (plain old semantic HTML), the first thing to know is that producing semantic code that reflects content contextually (rather than stylistically) is a critical component of the web design process. While HTML has a whole bunch of awesome elements by which to convey meaning, a slew of purpose-built microformats (conventions) have been created to better represent the kind of content that exists on the page. This guide discusses popular microformats that can enhance the semantics and interoperability of your website.

What Are Microformats?

Microformats are pretty interesting if you give them a chance. While they aren’t a component of the W3C HTML spec, they do offer a valuable and useful set of naming conventions (using class, id, rel and rev attribute values) that identify points of interest on the page, such as calendar events, links to the content’s license agreement, and even quirky things such as cooking recipes.

While microformats are not a W3C standard yet–though many microformats either have been recommended to the W3C as standards or are in draft form–the level of support browsers and web services have for them explains their utility.

Simply put: microformats are worth learning about and implementing into the websites you build.

official microformats websiteThe official microformats website has a community wiki, discussion board, and tools for you to use.

You might already be using microformats if you use a CMS like WordPress, because it has built-in support for some simpler forms of data, such as the rel attribute.

If you’re new to microformats, then you’re probably wondering why you should bother using them. Well, they have a number of pros and cons, but anything that would help our websites be better understood by external machines–such as web spiders that index our web pages–is worth the extra effort.

Of the many microformats, rel="nofollow" is probably the best known.

Because microformats use conventional HTML syntax and attributes, you can use them in XHTML. Even XML pages (such as in RSS and Atom feeds) can leverage microformats (and they do, if you use a service like Feedburner). This dramatically increases their potential use. They also combine well with RDFa and other meta data.

Benefits of Using Microformats

  1. They will improve the semantic value of your content.
  2. Web apps can use them to discover data about your website; they can use them to interface with data on your site.
  3. Social networks are implementing them in user profiles so third-party web services can interoperate with them.
  4. Browser extensions exist to give users access to microformat data. For example, Michromeformats is a Google Chrome extension that discovers embedded microformats on a web page.
  5. Web spiders like Googlebot make use of them in site indexing.

Drawbacks of Microformats

  1. They require additional HTML markup.
  2. They’re yet another thing you’ll have to learn and maintain.
  3. Microformats exist for relatively few data types.
  4. They draw attention to your data (which can be mined).
  5. Web browsers do not support them uniformly.

Operator add-on for Firefox The Operator add-on for Firefox detects microformats code and makes them human-readable.

The hCard microformat allows Firefox add-ons like Tails Export to discover and interface with a person’s virtual business card.

Microformats Reference Table

Each microformat has a unique purpose for presenting a certain type of information, and they could all be potentially useful depending on your needs.

While extensive details can be found in the specifications on the microformats website, below is a quick reference listing of what exists.

ADRMarks a street address
FOAFDescribes a relationship to another website
GeoMarks a geographic location
hAtomAdds syndication-friendly content
hAudioDescribes audio or a podcast
hCalendarMarks up event or date-based content
hCardFor business and personal contacts
hListingListings of goods and services
hMediaLists media references
hNewsUses hAtom for journalistic news
hProductEmbeds extensive product details
hRecipeMarks up recipes and cooking data
hResumeTo showcase a CV or resume
hReviewReviews and ratings of products and services
hSlicePops up internal or external subscription windows in IE8
relThe rel attribute is a microformat for HTML elements; some popular examples:
Robot Exclusion ProfileGives web crawlers instructions
VoteLinksProvides options to like or dislike a link
XFNDescribes a relationship to a website
XFolkLists favorite links
XMDPAdds resources to the page’s profile
XOXOOutlines a document or list of items

rel Attribute Values

To expound on the table above, here are descriptions of the rel (which is short for "relationship") attribute values:

Using Microformats: Examples

Recommending microformats does little good without providing illustrations on how to use them. So, here we’ll go over examples of each microformat that can be implemented into your website.

First, the key concept to understand is that a microformat is identified by a piece of data contained in the class or id value of an HTML element.

The element could play a role in the type of data being displayed (such as with anchor links), but if no semantic alternative exists, you could use a div or span to wrap the name around the content. Although using span might seem inelegant, it adds special meaning in this case.


<ul class="adr">
  <li class="street-address">123 North Street</li>
  <li class="locality">Manchester</li>
  <li class="postal-code">MX43 991</li>
  <li class="country-name">UK</li>

Root name: adr

Attribute values:


How to create a FOAF profile:

  1. Visit FOAF-o-Matic and create your basic profile.
  2. Save the document as foaf.rdf (so that you know what it’s for) in a directory (perhaps named something like misc).
  3. Use the link tag to reference your FOAF profile inside the <head> of your HTML documents, for example: <link rel="meta" type="application/rdf+xml" title="FOAF" href="foaf.rdf" />
  4. Upload all of the FOAF-related files to your website. It’s now ready to be used and indexed!


<p class="geo">

Root name: geo

Required attribute values:


<div class="hAtom">
  <div class="hentry">
    <h3 class="entry-title">I Love Microformats</h3>
    <abbr class="published" title="2010-08-28T13:14:37-07:00">Aug 28, 2010</abbr>
    <p class="category"><a href="/category/rdf" rel="tag">RDF</a></p>
    <p><a href="#" title="Post a comment">What do you think of this post?</a></p>
    <div class="entry-content">
      <p>Place your content right here for maximum impact!</p>
      <dd><a href="/tag/standards/" rel="tag">standards</a></dd>
      <dd><a href=" /tag/microformats/" rel="tag">microformats</a></dd>

Root name: hAtom, hFeed

Attribute values:


<p class="haudio">
  <em class="fn">Bohemian Rhapsody</em>
  by <span class="contributor vcard">
  <em class="fn org">Queen</em></span>
  found on <em class="album">A Night at the Opera</em>

Root name: hAudio

Required attribute values:

Other attribute values:


You can use the hCalendar Creator instead of writing the code manually.

<p class="vEvent">
  <a class="url" href="">MySite</a>
  <span class="summary">New website launch</span>:
  <abbr class="dtstart" title="20091202">December  2</abbr>-
  <abbr class="dtend" title="20091204">4</abbr>, at
  <span class="location">Google College, London, UK</span>

Root name: vCalendar, vEvent

Required attribute values:

Other attribute values:


You can use the hCard creator instead of writing the code manually.

<ul id="hCard-John-Doe" class="vcard">
  <li class="fn">John Doe</li>
  <li class="org">Special Stores</li>
  <li><a class="email" href=""></a></li>
  <li class="adr">
      <li class="street-address">44 Semantic Drive</li>,
      <li class="locality">Markup City</li>,
      <li class="region">World Wide Web</li>,
      <li class="postal-code">BP33 9HQ</li>
      <li class="country-name">Internet</li>
  <li class="tel">01234 56789</li>

Root name: hCard

Required attribute values:

Other attribute values:


<div class="hlisting">
    <span class="item fn">Office space</span>
    <span class="offer rent">to rent</span>(<abbr class="dtlisted" title="20100202">2/2/10</abbr>)
  <p class="description">50-square-foot space available in local tech office at:
    <div class="location adr">
      <span class="street-address">123 Microland Road.</span>
      <span class="locality">Cyberspace</span>, <span class="region">XD</span>
      <span class="country">Mars</span>
    Available during <abbr class="dtexpired" title="20100401">April 2010</abbr>
    for <span class="price">$1500/qtr</span>
  <div class="lister vcard">
    <span class="fn">John Doe</span>
 at <span class="tel"><span class="value">(01) 12345-678900</span>(<abbr class="type" title="cell">C</abbr>)</span>

Root name: hlisting

Required attribute values:

Other attribute values:


<div class="hmedia">
  <h3 class="fn">Introduction to the Open Media Web</h3>
  <object class="player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="">
    <li><a rel="enclosure" type="video/mp4" title="Download the movie" href="">Video.mp4</a></li>

Root name: hMedia

Attribute values:


<div class="hnews hentry item">
  <h4 class="entry-title">Microformats are awesome</h4>
  <p class="author vcard">
  By <span class="fn" >John Doe</span>,
  <span class="source-org vcard dateline"><span class="org fn">Associated Press</span></span> -
  <span class="updated" title="2010-04-19">19 April 2010</p>
  <p>News story</p>

Root name: hNews

Required attribute values:

Other attribute values:


<ul class="hproduct">
  <li class="brand">MySite!</li>
  <li class="category">Software</li>
  <li class="fn">Microsoft Office 2007</li>
  <li class="description">The world's most popular office suite.</li>
  <li class="url"></li>

Root name: hProduct

Required attribute value:

Other attribute values:


<div class="hrecipe">
<h3 class="fn">Quick noodles</h3>
  <p class="summary">Noodles are quick and easy, like this example!</p>
  <p class="ingredient hcard"><span class="value">2.5</span><span class="type">kilogram</span>bag of instant noodles.</p>
  <ul class="instructions">
    <li>Put water on to boil,</li>
    <li>Add the powder for the sauce,</li>
    <li>Add the noodles, and stir till ready.</li>
  <p>Enough for <span class="yield">1 adult</span>.</p>
  <p>Preparation time is approximately <span class="duration">5 <abbr title="minutes">mins</abbr></span>.</p>
  <p class="nutrition hcard">Noodles have more than <span class="value">500</span> <span class="type">joules</span> of energy.</p>

Root name: hRecipe

Required attribute values:

Other attribute values:


You can use the hResume creator instead of writing the code manually.

<div id="hResume">
  <p class="summary">I have been producing microformatted data for years</p>
  <ul class="vcard">
    <li class="fn">Jane Doe</li>
    <li class="adr">
      <span class="street-address">44 Broadband Street</span>
      <span class="locality">Microland</span>, <span class="region">Internet</span>
      <span class="postal-code">QW11 ER4</span></li>
    <li>Phone: <span class="tel">+44 12345 67890</span></li>
  <ol class="vcalendar">
    <li class="education vevent"><a class="url summary" href="http://example/">Example</a>(<abbr class="dtstart" title="2007-02-11">2007</abbr> - <abbr class="dtend" title="2009-03-22">2009</abbr>)</li>
  <ol class="vcalendar">
    <li class="experience vevent"><span class="summary">CEO</span>, <span class="location">Microland</span>, <abbr class="dtstart" title="2006-09-01">May 2006</abbr> - <abbr title="2009-05-22">present</abbr></li>
  <ul class="vcard">
    <li><a href="/jdoe/index.php" class="include" title="Jane Doe"></a></li>
    <li class="org">MicroLand</li>
    <li class="title">CEO</li>
  <p>I have skills in
    <a class="skill" rel="tag" href="">HTML</a> and
    <a class="skill" rel="tag" href="">CSS</a>.

Root name: hResume

Required attribute value:

Other attribute values:


You can use the hReview creator instead of writing the code manually.

<div class="hreview">
  <p><span class="rating">5</span> out of 5 stars</p>
  <h4 class="summary">Noodle Hut</h4>
  <span class="reviewer vcard">Reviewer:
    <span class="fn">John Doe</span> - <abbr class="dtreviewed" title="20070418T2300-0700">April 18, 2007</abbr>
  <p class="description item vcard">
    <span class="fn org">Noodles Hut</span> is one of the best little places out there!
    <li>Visit date: April 2007</li>
    <li>Food eaten: Instant noodles</li>

Root name: hReview

Required attribute value:

Other attribute values:


<div class="hslice" id="news">
  <h2 class="entry-title">Recent News</h2>

Root name: hSlice

Required attribute values:

Other attribute values:


<a rel="license" href="">Some rights reserved.</a>
<a rel="nofollow" href="">World Wide Web consortium</a>

Attribute values:

Robot Exclusion Profile

<head profile="">
<p><img src="exclusive.png" class="robots-noarchive" alt="Exclusive image" /></p>

Attribute values:


<a rev="vote-for" href="" title="Vote yes!">Vote Yes!</a>
<a rev="vote-abstain" href="" title="Vote maybe!">Vote Maybe!</a>
<a rev="vote-against" href="" title="Vote no!">Vote No!</a>

Attribute values:


You can use the XFN creator instead of writing the code manually.

<a href="" rel="me">My Site!</a>

Attribute values:


    <ul class="xfolkentry">
      <li><a class="taggedlink" href="" title="Google">Google</a></li>
      <li class="description">The home page of the world's biggest search engine</li>
      <li class="meta">Tags:
        <a rel="tag" href="">google</a>

Root name: xFolkEntry

Required attribute values:

Other attribute value:


<head profile=””>

Root reference: profile


<ol class="xoxo">
  <li>Subject 1
      <li>item a</li>
      <li>item b</li>
  <li>Subject 2
      <li>item a</li>
      <li>item b</li>

Root name: XOXO


Plenty of microformats already exist, and the community is always looking for ways to use existing elements to convey more information about our web pages. They benefit not only search engines and social networks, but the users that traffic our site.

Related Content

About the Author


This was published on Dec 20, 2010


Joshua Chase Dec 20 2010

Bookmarked. This is the best explanation of micro formats I have seen thus far. We will definitely be pointing to this as a reference for clients. Great detailed post.

adatapost Dec 20 2010

Excellent post! Thank Alexander.

Thanks for the article.
Am I summing it up correctly by saying that microformats take the hierarchal contextual concepts from XML, mix it in with the CSS, for use in the HTML?

gavinmatix Dec 20 2010

Very informative. Clear and concise. This article will definetly serve as a jumping off point for me when I present new technologies and trends to clients. Thanks

I’ll be honest, I had a hard time figuring out what microformats were from the article alone – I expected your paragraph under the heading of “what are microformats?” to provide those answers, and it didn’t. Upon reading the Wiki on their site a little bit, it seems like a cool concept, except I don’t feel that the syntax is all that intuitive, considering how much they seem to emphasize human readability. With acronyms like XOXO, XMDP, XFN, and FOAF, is it really that semantic? What’s the advantage of this over XML? They also boast that it’s “not a new language to learn” but with all these acronyms, it might as well be, in my opinion.

Excellent guide! I think microformats can be a very good way to give search engines a little more information about specific elements of a web page. In addition, I’ve experienced that using microformats within websites gives a bit of an SEO boost for location-based searches specifically. That’s not a fact, but it has been my experience.

Wow, didn’t even know these existed. Thanks!!

There is really nothing microformats can do one my website except on the contact page. They are focussed on cantact data and events. The geo-formats can be used to format geo-coords only, but it is not possible to use them as attributes of images. I cannot tell the machines where this places is that is depicted on the image. Because they are so poor, their success is poor.

Alexander Dawson Dec 20 2010

Thanks for the comments everyone! Hope the below helps…

@Sean: Microformats allow us to apply extended semantics on the top of traditional HTML. For example, if you wanted to markup a series of contact email addresses, you could use the address microformat to instinctively break apart work from home contact details. It’s about added context and meaning, so yes it is like XML in many ways. :)

@Young: At it’s core, microformats exist to define types of data which HTML otherwise wouldn’t. They add a bunch of recognisable naming conventions to give it added value (when recognised by browsers or social networks). With stuff like hCard, if a browser see’s an element with hCard and it recognises the convention, it knows an address is there (and can therefore attempt to use that data). Yes it’s more stuff to learn, but think of it like CSS3 where you add extra optional stuff that gracefully degrades for when it’s not supported. It’s not a new language, but it’s giving existing ones added value!

@Helen: Sorry but you’re wrong. Microformats CAN be used in attributes for any element to dictate relationships and context. As images can use rel (or other) attributes, they can use microformats (and geo data). As for your claim that they are only useful in contact pages, I can assume you didn’t read the article (as clearly half of those listed would never appear on such a page). Finally, proclaiming their success as poor is just silly, the evidence states otherwise. Major CMS tools like WordPress have microformats built in, social networks recognise them and Google and Bing use them. If you think their success rate is low, I can only assume you’ve never heard of rel=nofollow.

Alexander Dawson Dec 20 2010

[Edit] Just a clarification, marking up email addresses would use the hCard microformat (not the address one which is for street addresses) – so you could structure contact details with more than just <p> or <li>. It’s late and my brain isn’t functioning at 100%! ;)

PS: The benefit of microformats over XML are that you can use your existing site structure (HTML), just adding an extra class, ID, rel, rev or role value rather than having to re-purpose your site in another language. It’s clean, flexible and cross-compatible.

Michael Tuck Dec 20 2010

Awesome article, Alex. Bookmarked for future reference.

Sankar Datti Dec 21 2010

Microformats matter a lot in upcoming days

Christophe Certain Dec 21 2010

excellent guide ! Unfortunately, in french, Google seems to be unable to detect micro-formats, and don’t show them in the search results. It’s extremely embarassing because there is non information about that. I’m not the only persone to have fingered this problem in our country. Anybody knows about that ?

Alexander Dawson Dec 21 2010

@Christophe Certain: Conventions like microformats only work when people use the standardized name references to refer to them. Just like HTML has to be written in US English, microformats are the same. You can however use any language as the content of the reference (such as a phone number, name or other variable), it’s just the named reference like “street-address” in ADR which needs to remain in English.

Andries Dec 21 2010

Awesome reference. I’ve been looking for these things for a while now. Now I can microformat my entire site :)

Christophe Certain Dec 21 2010

@Alexander Dawson, I did that… with the very examples delivered by Google himself in his guide about microformats, RDS and so and, but as the page is taken by Googlebot and I can see in the search result, I can see that Google didn’t noticed the microformat…

Michael Dec 21 2010

If you promote a website, learn standard Microformats. We have discovered a lot of promotional benefits to their use. Its worth the time. Trust me!

Brian Ryckbost Dec 22 2010

Great overview Alexander! Being the man behind Michromeformats, thanks for including it in the article.

Hope everyone finds it useful while browsing the web. If nothing more than using it to test your formatting, it’s fun to see what sites are embedding on the page.

Sarven Capadisli Dec 26 2010

FOAF ( ) is an RDF ( ) vocabulary, described using W3C RDF Schema and the Web Ontology Language. It has nothing to do with microformats.

hSlice is not created by the microformats community

A microformat vocabulary materializes by a centralized process in the community

Relations are majority of the time taken to be the whole page

microformats provide 80% of the solution to the problems it wants to solve
