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
-
How to optimize my website with new Google Feature snippet fuctionality?
Recently I have interacted with Google's new Feature Snippet Functionality. Please refer to the link shared. https://www.google.com/search?q=family+health+insurance&rlz=1C1CHBD_enIN893IN893&oq=family+health+insurance&aqs=chrome.0.35i39l2j0l3j69i60l3.4692j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 I'am looking for the way to optimize my website for the same? If anyone has any clue then please help me with this. search?q=family+health+insurance&rlz=1C1CHBD_enIN893IN893&oq=family+health+insurance&aqs=chrome.0.35i39l2j0l3j69i60l3.4692j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
On-Page Optimization | | adlift0 -
Star snippet not work
Hi I write a json+ld script for star snippet in my website but not work in my first page. you can see it in this URL https://www.alibaba.ir when I googled my keyword "بلیط هواپیما" my competitor show with star snippet in SERP but my site doesn't show.
On-Page Optimization | | tohidpolymer4 -
Advantage of using LocalBusiness rich snippets?
I am working on a website that has company profile pages. What are the advantages of using LocalBusiness rich snippets for profiles?
On-Page Optimization | | calf0 -
How can I make google display rich snippets when searching for my domain?
My domain is www.phraseexpander.com If I search for phraseexpander in google, I'm in the first position (as it should be) but google is not giving extra space to my result as it happens, for example, if you search for "fogbugz". Is there any way I can hep google index my contents (I currently have a site index that is created by Yoast SEO). Thanks a lot. Andrea
On-Page Optimization | | nagar0 -
Local SEO - Rich content and list of towns enough?
I'm working on creating pages to target local SEO. I've created pages for example 'wedding band london' with useful content and optimised them with title tags, alt tags etc and will continue to do so for major cities and queries where there are significant search volume. However, I also want to pickup longtail local search queries such as 'wedding band camden' etc... Will adding a list of towns somewhere on the page for each city or county help drive traffic to the site from such queries? Is so what's the best way to structure the page?
On-Page Optimization | | SamCUK1 -
What should I put in the image ALT and title text for blogger?
Hello, I wanted to know what should I put in the image ALT and title text for blogger. I've read so many damn articles about ALT text and Title text for blogger; nothing explained what I put in it though. What am I supposed to put in it that will help me with my on page optimization? (Stuff like do I use spaces or dashes, do I put my keyword in there, how many characters should I not exceed, do I put one word or two words?) If I have a picture of a backpack, what should the alt text be? What if I have 10 different pictures of backpacks on 1 page? How about if I had a backpack next to a tv in an image? A specific answer or a detailed one is nice!
On-Page Optimization | | 6786486312640 -
How long can rich snippets be?
How long (how many words) can a description tag of a rich snippets code?
On-Page Optimization | | seoflorida0 -
Keyword rich domains - Which are the best domain extensions for ranking in the UK other than .com or .co.uk
Hey there, In the absence of getting a keyword rich .com or .co.uk domain am wondering how influential .info, .org, .net domains (or any others) are in comparison? Does anyone have any comparison info to share please?
On-Page Optimization | | Wallander0