Stay organized with collections
Save and categorize content based on your preferences.
Wednesday, October 03, 2012
Traditional, text-only, search result snippets aim to summarize the content of a page in our
search results. Rich snippets (shown above) allow webmasters to help us provide even better
summaries using structured data markup that they can add to their pages. Today we're introducing a set of
guidelines
to help you implement high quality structured data markup for rich snippets.
Once you've correctly added structured data markup to you site, rich snippets are generated
algorithmically based on that markup. If the markup on a page offers an accurate description of
the page's content, is up-to-date, and is visible and easily discoverable on your page and by
users, our algorithms are more likely to decide to show a rich snippet in Google's search results.
Alternatively, if the rich snippets markup on a page is spammy, misleading, or otherwise abusive,
our algorithms are much more likely to ignore the markup and render a text-only snippet. Keep in
mind that, while rich snippets are generated algorithmically, we do reserve the right to take manual
action (for example, disable rich snippets for a specific site) in cases where we see actions that hurt
the experience for our users.
To illustrate these guidelines with some examples:
If your page is about a band, make sure you mark up concerts being performed by that band, not
by related bands or bands in the same town.
If you sell products through your site, make sure reviews on each page are about that page's
product and not the store itself.
If your site provides song lyrics, make sure reviews are about the quality of the lyrics, not
the quality of the song itself.
In addition to the general
rich snippets quality guidelines
we're publishing today, you'll find usage guidelines for specific types of rich snippets in our
Help Center. As always,
if you have any questions or feedback, please tell us in the
Webmaster Help Forum.
Posted by Jeremy Lubin, Consumer Experience Specialist, &
Pierre Far,
Webmaster Trends Analyst
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eRich snippets enhance search results by using structured data markup to provide better summaries of web page content.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle's algorithms determine when to display rich snippets based on the accuracy, relevance, and visibility of the structured data markup.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eSpammy, misleading, or abusive markup can result in Google ignoring it and displaying traditional text-only snippets instead.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eSpecific guidelines for different types of rich snippets can be found in Google's Help Center and general guidelines emphasize accurate and relevant data usage.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle encourages feedback and questions through the Webmaster Help Forum for any structured data markup concerns or inquiries.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Webmasters can use structured data markup to generate rich snippets in search results, enhancing page summaries. Guidelines ensure the quality of this markup, emphasizing accurate, up-to-date, and visible data. Examples include marking up concerts only for the band featured on the page, product reviews specific to that product, and lyric reviews focused on lyrics. Misleading or spammy markup may result in algorithmically ignored rich snippets or manual action. Specific guidelines are in the Help Center.\n"],null,["# Rich snippets guidelines\n\nWednesday, October 03, 2012\n| It's been a while since we published this blog post. Some of the information may be outdated (for example, some images may be missing, and some links may not work anymore). For the current guidelines, check the [general\n| structured data guidelines](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/sd-policies).\n\n\nTraditional, text-only, search result snippets aim to summarize the content of a page in our\nsearch results. Rich snippets (shown above) allow webmasters to help us provide even better\nsummaries using structured data markup that they can add to their pages. Today we're introducing a set of\n[guidelines](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/intro-structured-data#guidelines)\nto help you implement high quality structured data markup for rich snippets.\n\n\nOnce you've correctly added structured data markup to you site, rich snippets are generated\nalgorithmically based on that markup. If the markup on a page offers an accurate description of\nthe page's content, is up-to-date, and is visible and easily discoverable on your page and by\nusers, our algorithms are more likely to decide to show a rich snippet in Google's search results.\n\n\nAlternatively, if the rich snippets markup on a page is spammy, misleading, or otherwise abusive,\nour algorithms are much more likely to ignore the markup and render a text-only snippet. Keep in\nmind that, while rich snippets are generated algorithmically, we do reserve the right to take manual\naction (for example, disable rich snippets for a specific site) in cases where we see actions that hurt\nthe experience for our users.\n\nTo illustrate these guidelines with some examples:\n\n- If your page is about a band, make sure you mark up concerts being performed by that band, not by related bands or bands in the same town.\n- If you sell products through your site, make sure reviews on each page are about that page's product and not the store itself.\n- If your site provides song lyrics, make sure reviews are about the quality of the lyrics, not the quality of the song itself.\n\n\nIn addition to the general\n[rich snippets quality guidelines](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/sd-policies)\nwe're publishing today, you'll find usage guidelines for specific types of rich snippets in our\n[Help Center](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/search-gallery). As always,\nif you have any questions or feedback, please tell us in the\n[Webmaster Help Forum](https://support.google.com/webmasters/threads?hl=en&thread_filter=(category:structured_data)).\n\n\nPosted by Jeremy Lubin, Consumer Experience Specialist, \\&\n[Pierre Far](/search/blog/authors/pierre-far),\nWebmaster Trends Analyst"]]
