Should I put on a black hat and abuse Rich Snippet ?
-
What do people think about abusing rich snippets?
I have a competitor who has started using the author tag on product pages. I guess this will be giving them an unfair advantage in the SERP. I had considered doing the same but was a bit worried about getting banned in the future.
Should we go down the same path and is it likely that Google will eventually hit us with a ban?
-
Good work Cyto.
-
Cyto, I don't get any of the structured data in Bing/Yahoo. At least in Google, I get the star ratings.
Just as an FYI, I also don't see the image in the Rich Snippets Structured Data Testing Tool, although I've been over and over the specs for the images, and the code (at least to my knowledge) is correct. This, along with other posts that I've read elsewhere, tells me that Google simply hasn't implemented the image aspect of the code yet.
-
Okay some findings.
Been reading this blog entry by cpcstrategy.com and they have a great example
Take the keyphrase "Nike Men's Air Rival golf shoes overstock", now search on Google, Bing and Yahoo
As you can see, Yahoo displays a product image. It seems each search engine has it's own way of displaying content.
Gentlemen, my suggestion is to tag it with the product image and corresponding URL. If Google so wishes to change it's algorithm to display the image more prominently, then it would kick in and work.
I wouldn't omit it or use recipe's as a product page tag. If Google goes more aggressive with schema, you'll just have another work on your plate to figure out which pages had the recipe image.
-
Darin, how does your link look in Yahoo or Bing. Do they display the image?
-
I think you guys have stumbled onto something. Here's a link someone advertised as showing product images in search, but reviewing the link again gives nothing.
Did google remove the functionality for products and kept it for authors, recipes? Maybe to not dilute Google Merchant Center?
I can't find a working example to analyse in 'Structured Data Testing Tool'
-
I had considered using the recipe image snippet for this instead of the author tag.
-
I haven't seen images for product snippets working yet. I have had that part of the Rich Snippets product code in place for a few months and other aspects of the snippet are showing in Google, but not the images yet (at least not for me or any of my competitors as far as I can tell).
-
Exactly.
You can view the schema codes here, here's the product page one with examples. You can see image highlighted
Hope that helps.
-
Cheers Cyto. It is short term reward vs long term pain.
btw: What is the snippet for showing the product image in the SERP?
-
There is no doubt in my mind, search engines will get smarter and punish those who abuse the system.
It's been the norm since the beginning, from keyword stuffing to exact match-domains. Eventually search engines will catch up and punish. When this happens, you'll be in the deep hole trying to recover rather than strengthen.
My advice would be to go down the correct route for tagging product pages. I don't think an author tag is right for a product page, but introduce breadcrumbs, prices, ratings and product images. Last thing you want are users clicking on your page and leaving.
If I wanted to buy a laptop and saw the face of an author who wrote that page, that's a WTF moment for me. Instead, show me a screenshot of a laptop, the price range, number of reviews and the breadcrumb structure...yeah, I'm clicking that.
What i'm trying to say is that, rather than focusing on the competitor and mimicking, focus on your customer and what best would turn them from newbie to a returnee.
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
-
Review snippets not shown on google search results
Hi, In Moz it shows that we have a review snippet for a keyword/page, but it is not shown on google SERP. Can anyone explain why it isnt shown on Google search results, and what we should do in order to get it shown ?
On-Page Optimization | | jensatlieto0 -
What Do You Put For Key Words On A Home Page?
Hello, I am a physical therapist and own the company Back In Motion Physical Therapy. We specialize in orthopedic, sport, and spine injuries in Fort Myers, FL. My question is for your home page do you put the keywords of the surrounding city and cities such as Fort Myers, Cape Coral, etc? Secondly, should I have a keyword of physical therapist and physical therapy as well? Lastly, do I need to use those words on my home page for it to become relevant from google? Check out my site here: www.backinmotionsspt.com
On-Page Optimization | | gray06201 -
SEO Onpage (where I need to put the H1/2/3)?
Hi everybody, I'm working on my new website, and I have a few questions about the Headers (<h 1="" 2="" 3="">)
On-Page Optimization | | JohnPalmer
please see the attached image, I create a mock-up for you, please tell me which H I have to put on the title.
(** most of the articles will be without sub-titles so...it will be dynamic, but try to take a look on the "sidebar" and "menu link".</h> 6ER0EpK0 -
Rich snippets for multiple breadcrumbs
Hey there,
On-Page Optimization | | Supertramp
I have been playing around with rich snippets for multiple breadcrumbs for quite a bit now - without any success. It would be great if someone could point me to an example where this has been implemented correctly. I followed the Google recommendation but it doesn't seem to work for me. See also: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2335753/Matt-Cutts-If-You-Have-Multiple-Breadcrumbs-Google-Picks-the-First-One Thanks for your help. Cheers,
Jochen0 -
Is it better to put all your CSS in 1 file or is it no problem to use 10 files or more like on most frameworks?
Is it better to put all your CSS in 1 file or is it no problem to use 10 files or more like on most frameworks?
On-Page Optimization | | conversal0 -
How long can rich snippets be?
How long (how many words) can a description tag of a rich snippets code?
On-Page Optimization | | seoflorida0 -
How to "rich-content" optimized!
Hi mozzers! How to optimize really a rich index.php of a page,with a keyword example: " mobile " what kind of things to include,video,comments,images,how many words,manually meta-descriptons or to leave it empty to take automatically the googlebot a snippet! Tell us more on this, because we forget sometimes the rich-content-optimized and only concentrated on the link-building. Thanks,
On-Page Optimization | | leadsprofi0 -
Redirecting to a keyword-rich domain URL
It's best practice to choose a domain that has keyword in it. But if someone has just launched a website and the domain name does not have keyword, is it better to purchase a new domain name that has a keyword in the name and redirect existing domain to the new domain? Will that help SEO? (This just launched website does not have any traffic or links yet.)
On-Page Optimization | | Amjath0