Google has released it’s latest updates to improve the Review Rich Results to:
- Enhance the User-Experience on SERPs
- Set limits to the wrong implementation of the Rich Results by the Webmasters
Rich snippets as everyone knows are Structured Data Markups added by Webmasters to their existing HTML. Rich Snippets help both Search Engines and the users to understand the information contained within the pages efficiently.
The rich snippet provides some added information in the SERPs. The information is very helpful for the user to judge the quality and rating of services or products that he or she might be searching for.
Allowed Schema Types
Google will be restricting the review markup to only certain schemas, thus making it more relevant for the user and the Search Engine itself.
As Google speaks:
“While, technically, you can attach review markup to any schema type, for many types displaying star reviews does not add much value for the user. With this change, we’re limiting the pool of schema types that can potentially trigger review rich results in search.”
Here is the list of schema allowed for adding the rich markup:
- schema.org/Book
- schema.org/Course
- schema.org/CreativeWorkSeason
- schema.org/CreativeWorkSeries
- schema.org/Episode
- schema.org/Event
- schema.org/Game
- schema.org/HowTo
- schema.org/LocalBusiness
- schema.org/MediaObject
- schema.org/Movie
- schema.org/MusicPlaylist
- schema.org/MusicRecording
- schema.org/Organization
- schema.org/Product
- schema.org/Recipe
- schema.org/SoftwareApplication
Self-Serving Reviews are a big No!!
Self-Serving reviews as defined by Google:
“We call reviews “self-serving” when a review about entity A is placed on the website of entity A – either directly in their markup or via an embedded 3rd party widget.”
In the case of Local Business and Organization, if an entity caught with self-reviewing, Google will not display it’s review results.
Adding “name” property required for items
Google has made it necessary for the Webmasters to provide “name” property for the item being submitted for review.
The reason told by Google is as follows:
“This update will help deliver a much more meaningful review experience for users, while requiring little to no changes on the part of most webmasters.”
Key Points
This update brings certain points to notice for the publishers:
- The publishers relying on Data Structure Plugins now need to update them for “name” property.
- Failure in providing the name property will not lead to any serious penalties, though the publishers can provide the “name” for items for better user-experience.