Local Search: Technically optimised for Reviews & Stars, but not showing in SERPS
-
Hi,
for over a year now we actively use schema.org into our yellow pages platform.
Simultaneaously we managed to set up a review platform to attract more users to write reviews.We also monitor closely local search experts like (blumenthal and co ). So I learned in this post http://blumenthals.com/blog/2013/07/19/how-many-reviews-to-get-the-star-treatment-somewhere-between-4-and-5/ that it takes you 4-5 reviews to get the star treatment by Google.
But at this moment, I cannot find any star treatment. For example on this listing http://www.goudengids.be/hollywok-kortrijk-kortrijk-8500/1/ you can notice the presence of 6 review (http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.goudengids.be%2Fhollywok-kortrijk-kortrijk-8500%2F1%2F) but in Google itself it is not displayed as such.
So my question is: in your experience, are there any other parameters that will trigger the stars to appear?
-
Basically I learned that you cannot put schema markup in tags, everything is fixed now.
-
Hi,
I received an answer from the Google Rich Snippets Team. For the moment I cannot fully understand what this all means. Seems I'm hiding content, but not clear yet how. If any of you experts can help me out. I'll try to get an answer at google.
This is the mail i received this morning:
Hello Pieter,
Thank you for your interest in rich snippets for your site.Google can’t display rich snippets for your site goudengids.be because of the following issue(s):
Your content is marked up for rich snippets. But all the values of the attribute has been marked up under the content attribute. We allow the use of content attribute only when we need values in the machine readable format such as for currency. Please markup the actual content on the webpage.
Example URL:-http://www.goudengids.be/mort-subite-a-la-brussel-1000/#sayso-reviews
Markup Type: Review-aggregate
Hidden content:
http://schema.org/CafeOrCoffeeShop">http://schema.org/PostalAddress"> http://www.alamortsubite.com" />http://schema.org/AggregateRating">http://schema.org/Review">http://schema.org/Rating"> http://schema.org/Review">http://schema.org/Rating">
Once you have fixed your markup, run your pages through the rich snippets testing tool <http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets> to check for errors. When you’re all set, use the rich snippets submission form <http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/request.py?contact_type=rich_snippets_feedback>
to resubmit your site.
Thanks again,
Google Rich Snippets Team
-
Hi Goudengids,
Thank you for explaining that! I think some members may have assumed you were a local business owner hoping stars would show up from your single business website, but now you've clarified this. I have never worked with a YP site, hands on, but I think two things would be at play here.
-
That you've got correct markup on your individual pages. Use: http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets to check if your markup is correct.
-
The authority of your pages, in Google's mind. Could there be any issues going on with duplicate content between goudengids.be and goldenpages.be? Typically, I see YP sites have a single domain with sub-sections for different languages, so the structure you are using is not what I'm used to seeing.
Also, how well you manage your review base may be a factor. For example, on a page like this one, I see 3 identical reviews: http://www.goudengids.be/qn/business/detail/en_BE_YP_PAID_248495_0000_76551_7575_2013000536113021/
You know how strict Yelp is with their filters and quality controls. Your YP might consider implementing stricter quality controls, too, in order to influence Google's 'trust' of your product.
Just some suggestions, and I do hope you will get a helpful answer at Google's support forum.
-
-
Hi Miriam,
we are the official belgian yellow pages website www;goudengids.be, with platform i was referring to our website.
-
Hi Goudengids,
Can you explain this in a little more detail:
"for over a year now we actively use schema.org into our yellow pages platform."
Do you mean you are running a yellow pages-type website? Or something else? More detail would be helpful, and it's good you've started a thread in the Google support forum. Some very smart folks there, for sure!
-
Hi, thx for the link to the support page.
I believe our markup is according the guidelines, no errors in the rich snippets tool, so therefore i posted the question on https://support.google.com/webmasters/contact/rich_snippets_feedback
I'll keep you posted if I receive any feedback.
-
In addition to Bereijk's answer, have you tried testing it with the Google Structured Data Testing Tool? http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets
-
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Page Replication on Search
Hi. We recently created a Christmas category page on our eCommerce website (christowhome.co.uk). Earlier today, I Googled ‘Christow Christmas Silhouette Lights’ (Christow being the name of our website and Christmas silhouette lights being one of the sub-categories we recently created). I was curious to see how the page appeared on search. Bizarrely, the page appeared multiple times on search (if you click on the link above, it should show you the search results). As you can see, multiple meta titles and descriptions have been created for the same page. This is something that is affecting a number of our Christmas category pages. I don't quite understand why this has happened. We recently added filters to the category. Could the filters be responsible? Any idea how I can prevent this from happening? How I can stop Google indexing these weird replica pages? Many thanks, Dave
Technical SEO | | Davden0 -
Only Images Show Up in Log Files
Has anyone ever seen a log file analysis return only images and no actual page URLs?
Technical SEO | | LoganRay0 -
Sitemap & noindex inconstancy?
Hey Moz Community! On a the CMS in question the sitemap and robots file is locked down. Can't be edited or modified what so ever. If I noindex a page in the But it is still on the xml sitemap... Will it get indexed? Thoughts, comments and experience greatly appreciate and welcome.
Technical SEO | | paul-bold0 -
Redirects & 404 Errors
Hi everyone, I'm probably missing some GLARING error here, but I'm hoping you can help me! We recently built a new website on Wordpress and attempted to use a redirect plugin to take care of some old pages. The issue we are having though, is that when you click an old link you are not automatically redirected and instead are given a 404 error page. Then, when you try to view another page (by clicking a navigation item), every pages shows a 404 error. I implemented a redirect plugin, however it seems to start to work then still throws the 404 page. I believe this has something to do with the htaccess file which has the standard WP rewrite info in there... The way the old site was setup was kind of janky, so wondering if it's on that side or if I'm just going crazy. An old URL example would be http://orchards inn.com/index.php/specials and the new page is http://orchardsinn.com/special-offers. Sometimes the redirect seems to work, and others it actually throws a 404 page, then every other page in the navigation is 404'd as well. Your help is GREATLY appreciated!!
Technical SEO | | marisolmarketing0 -
Different serps
Hi, I seem to be making progress in recovering from penguin/panda. (maybe) However I get vastly different results if I search google in different ways for example if I specify the geographic location as US (I am in the UK) for prom hairstyles ie http://www.google.com/search?q=prom+hairstyles&gl=us (which I believe gives the SERPs for the US or at least it used to) my site (prom-hairstyles.org) comes in at number two or sometimes on the second page. But if I just search google.com it comes in at 450 or so. My question is do you get the same and why such a big difference? Thanks, Ian
Technical SEO | | jwdl0 -
Mobile SERPS: how to optimize for call button
Hi, I have 2 questions about the "call" button on mobile google serps when doing a business name search: -since when is this button available in SERPS -is there anything specific you can do to actually have google display that call button (schema.org, ...) Kind regards Pieter
Technical SEO | | TruvoDirectories0 -
Optimising multiple pages for the same search term
We were having a discussion on title tags and optimising multiple pages for the same term. We rank well for the phrase 'chanel glasses' which points to our Chanel brand page. The Chanel brand page is optimised for this term, and has the phrase 'Chanel glasses' at the front of its title tag. Previously, the title tag on our home page had the words 'Chanel glasses' at the start in an attempt to rank twice for the term (as one of our competitors has managed). This never worked (though at the time, our DA/PA was lower than it is now). For this reason I switched the title tag on the homepage to try and rank for 'designer glasses'. My belief is, given we already rank highly for the term on a more relevant landing page, trying to rank for it again on the home page is not the best use of a title tag on our highest PA page. We may as well use it for something more generic like 'designer glasses' (though this term does not convert nearly as well, nor does it currently rank as well for us as we've not been attempting to get 'designer glasses' as anchor text. Plus it's more competitive. Another generic term maybe be preferable). My colleague's view is we should attempt to do what our competitor has done and try and rank twice on page one for this term. I like the idea of dominating the top results, but I feel that since attempting to get double-listed hasn't worked for us so far, we should use the homepage for optimising for a different term ( ideally something that we don't already rank for elsewhere on the site). I see his point of view - if we were ranking nowhere for the search term then, yes we should concentrate on getting one page to rank, not two. But since we already rank well for the term, perhaps his strategy is preferable? Just for clarity, the title tags are not duplicate, but the idea was to share many of the same keywords between the two title tags. What are your thoughts SEOmoz?
Technical SEO | | seanmccauley0 -
Javascript funtion as link? Why not show up?
We joined our Chamber of Commerce for the "link" as much as anything. After 9 months of having a link from our local chamber it has never showed up anywhere. You can see the link on my Chambers page, and you can click on it and it works. But it does not show up anywhere else....Not in any backlink checker, not in SEOmoz, not in Google Webmaster Tools. When I hover over our link on their page I see "javascript:encodeclick........my url" Is this link worth anything? What is a javascriptencodeclick? Does Google know it exists and give me credit for it? Our Chamber is clueless... they hire someone to do their website. Their webmasters response to my question was: Hi, These links look like this because this is just the way our system parses URLs that are entered into the membership directory so they can be clickable when displayed in the lister. These links will not have a negative effect on Google or SEO indexing purposes if that is what you are concerned about. They are not encoded or encrypted, this just happens to be the name of the Javascript function.
Technical SEO | | SCyardman0