Your B2B audience is full of avid TV watchers. In the days of linear television, it was nearly impossible (and very expensive) to target them accurately, which meant the TV screen was virtually off-limits for B2B marketers. Now, Connected TV has entered the scene, with digital roots and third-party data providers that allow for precision targeting of B2B audiences.
You can now reach them whether they’re unwinding after work with reality television or streaming their favorite films on the weekend.
Google has filed a lawsuit against a company that allegedly was charging business owners money for free Google Business Profiles, selling fake reviews and promising first-page rankings.
Why we care. If anyone claims they are calling on behalf of Google and demands that you pay money for a free service, just don’t. Protect yourself. Do your research. Never pay such demands. It’s a scam.
G Verifier promised first-page rankings on Google. G Verifier, which Google’s suit alleges was run by Kaushal Patel of Ohio, threatened business owners that if they failed to pay (typically $99), their Business listings would be deactivated or marked as “permanently closed” and their positive reviews would be hidden – resulting in lost visibility and revenue.
The G Verifier Websites also make false promises regarding search prioritization and ranking. For instance, G Verifier tells business owners that they will “[g]et the first page on Google search” and that “[i]f you buy the service from us, your Google Maps business location will come first in Google search.” These statements, which imply superior placement among organic search results, are false and deceitful. No service can guarantee that Google’s search engine, which uses a complex algorithm, will place a particular webpage on the first page of results, much less that it will be the very first result.
Google said “hundreds and hundreds” of Business Profile users contacted Google to report the scam since December 2021.
G Verifier also sold fake reviews. Google’s lawsuit noted that in G Verifier’s FAQ section, one question was: “Why should I buy Google reviews from you?” Also, G Verifier discussed its usage of Virtual Private Networks to get “reviews from the country or place of your choice.”
The website also allowed for the purchase of negative reviews, which could be used to harm competitors.
What Google says. In its blog post announcing the lawsuit, Google said:
“We are filing a lawsuit against scammers who sought to defraud hundreds of small businesses by impersonating Google through telemarketing calls. They also created websites advertising the purchase of fake reviews, both positive and negative, to manipulate reviews of Business Profiles on Google Search and Maps. This practice exploits entrepreneurs and small businesses — and it violates our policies on deceptive content.
This is not the first company to impersonate Google, nor will it be the last. So always beware of anybody who claims they are from Google demanding any money for first-page rankings or for 100% free services.
Cyber Monday in the US this year brought in over an 8% increase in sales since FY21. Globally, sales hit $46.2 billion, a 2.4% increase YoY. Black Friday also saw an increase this year of about 12%. This brings total sales for the weekend to around $68 billion. The figures are not adjusted for inflation, which plays a big part in the cost of goods also increasing.
Record numbers for Shopify. Shopify reported that 52 million consumers globally spent $7.5 billion on Shopify merchants, a 19 percent increase over last year.
“Consumers voted with their wallets over Black Friday and Cyber Monday by shopping with independent businesses,” said Shopify President Harley Finkelstein. “The future of commerce is on any surface, whether that’s shopping online or in store.”
Toys topped the most popular items shopped. The most popular toys shopped this year were:
Pokémon cards
Legos
Hot Wheels
Disney Encanto
LOL Surprise dolls
Cocomelon and Hatchimals toys
Gaming consoles PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X
Games FIFA 23, God of War Ragnarök, Madden 23, NBA 2K23, and Pokémon Scarlet & Violet
Highest spending items. The average selling price during cyber week increased about 3%. Not surprisingly, the total amounts spent on the most popular items this year also increased, some as much as nearly 700%!
Toys, 684% increase
Electronics, 391% increase
Computers, 372% increase
Sporting goods, 466% increase
Appliances, 458% increase
Books, 439% increase
Jewelry, 410% increase
Honorable mentions. Other products topping the list of popularity were:
Smart TVs
Apple AirPods
Apple MacBooks
Tablets
Smart watches
Instant pots
Air fryers
Other factors weighing in. Aside from inflation and higher-priced items, this year we also saw an increase in trends surrounding discounts and chatbots.
Average discount rates hit 30%
The use of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) and other payment options rose by +5% YoY, while the average order value for BNPL went down by 5% in the U.S.
Chatbot messages increased 53% on Cyber Monday compared to 2021
Dig deeper. You can read the full articles from MediaPost here and here.
Why we care. Sales aren’t over yet. If you’re an ecommerce brand or advertiser, you may want to keep your ad campaigns or discounts running until after the holidays to capitalize on the upward trends.
In a recent survey led by Yelp and conducted by Material, 2,000 Americans were asked to reveal what they consider to be trustworthy reviews. The respondents said they read, on average, five reviews about a business to inform their spending decisions, and 77% say they’re reading more online reviews now than they ever have before.
Key findings. In their survey, Yelp found the following:
Respondents say they research and consider online reviews more for restaurants (67%), household repairs/work (57%), car repair/services (55%), medical needs (51%) and professional services (42%).
When respondents think they’ve spotted a fake online review, they will read other reviews to gather additional opinions (49%), ignore the potentially fake review (34%), find another business (27%) or report the review (24%).
Only 28% of respondents are looking out for incentivized reviews, but 71% say they would no longer visit a business if they learned the business has fake or compensated online reviews.
85% of respondents trust reviews with written text over only a star rating.
Yelp requires that ratings be accompanied by actual review text.
88% of respondents say it’s important that they understand how online review platforms determine which reviews are reliable and which are less trustworthy.
79% of respondents would prefer to see all the reviews for a business or product, including those that the review platform believes are fake or untrustworthy.
Combating fake reviews. The survey also revealed that or respondents who think they’ve spotted a fake review, 49% will read other reviews to gather additional opinions about the business. 34% ignore the potentially fake review, 27% find another business, and 24% report the review to its respective platform.
85% of those surveyed trust reviews with written text over only a star rating.
Extortion controversy. In the blog article, yelp goes on to mention a Google Reviews extortion scheme that affected numerous restaurants in major cities. These restaurants experienced an influx of one-star Google reviews without any review text, as scammers tried to extort the restaurants for $75 Google Play gift cards to remove their fake reviews. This did not occur on Yelp because of our mandatory review text policies.
But similarly, Yelp also dealt with an extortion controversy of its own several years ago, as well as inconsistencies with its review solicitation rules.
Dig deeper. You can read the full Yelp study on their blog.
Why we care. Local businesses on Yelp should use ethical and legal tactics when asking for reviews. Alternatively, businesses can use paid ads to show higher in the search results, respond to any negative reviews, and keep their pages updated to optimize their business listings.
Digital content creation and management seem to be more complex than ever. Workflows now need to accommodate remote workers and resources, worldwide offices, and security and privacy concerns, not to mention the growing pressure on content and creative teams to produce more content in less time and with fewer resources.
So how are the most successful teams currently executing production and managing their workflows? To answer this question and find out the best practices for improving efficiency, Canto surveyed nearly 650 professionals in the United States and the United Kingdom involved in the production, management and/or strategy for content and creative assets at their organization.
Tune into thiswebinarto learn the results of the survey and take an in-depth look at the content strategies, workflows and technologies that have made these organizations successful. You’ll take away valuable tips on how you can revamp your own content programs in 2023 and dive deep into the five areas to improve content workflow and strategy, including:
Running a content audit for all relevant and current content
Centralizing your content into a single location and applying metadata
Building a technology stack that is optimized for collaboration
Prioritizing your content workflows
Focusing on brand consistency and speed to market
Planning and creating content is much harder than it used to be, with disconnected teams and a broken digital content supply chain. Watch this webinar so you can plan, create, manage and deliver your best content program in 2023.
There are many questions about content length in SEO and what ranks the best.
While Google says there’s no specific word count they recommend, some studies have shown that long-form content tends to rank higher than short-form.
If you’re interested in writing long-form content, you probably want to make sure it’s going to rank, get read, and convert so you create an ROI for your effort.
What is long-form content?
Most consider long-form content to be over 1,000 words. It’s a content piece that goes in-depth, offers extra value for the reader and includes more research, insights, and information than a quick read.
Long-form content should leave the reader feeling comfortable with the subject and as if their questions have been answered and they know what to do with the information or how it applies to them.
What should you include in long-form content?
You want to create content that helps your reader. Think about them and what they need or want to learn from this piece. What questions do they have?
It’s your responsibility to anticipate their questions and answer them in your work. If you’re unsure what questions they have, then think about what you want to ensure they know.
Use the following guide questions to identify which information is most important to help them get to the next stage:
What do they need to know?
Why do they need to know it?
What can they do with the information?
What baseline information should they know to make this make more sense?
What if they don’t have that baseline knowledge already?
How does this information impact them?
What’s their next step?
Don’t write a bunch of unnecessary fluff to try to hit some word count.
You must ensure you’re providing value and helping your ideal customer so they want to consume more of your content.
If you get them to the site but find nothing of value, they’ll be less likely to stay or return another time.
Write to tell a story and provide value rather than writing to an arbitrary word count. Your content will be better in the long run.
Where do you start when creating long-form content to rank, get read and convert?
To start, make sure there’s a conversion path for your reader. Your content pieces need to tie to your products or services to drive revenue and conversions.
If you’re answering questions for your potential customer and providing helpful information, they’re more likely to convert if you offer a solution to their issues. Be helpful, and link to additional information that might help them move to the next step.
If you have an opt-in that ties to this content piece and is the next step for them, offer it in your work. You’re helping them and building your email list at the same time.
If you want your content to convert, you need to make sure there’s a conversion path. Everything you write needs to somehow tie to your core products and services.
I teach my students to choose content pillars that link to their products and services and write about topics related to those subjects.
Creating a long-form content piece and ranking at the top of Google is great, but if it drives irrelevant traffic, it won’t convert, and that’s a waste of your efforts.
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How do you make sure your long-form content ranks?
We all know we have no control over the Google ranking algorithm, but we also know how it works and what’s most important from an optimization standpoint.
First, verify there’s search demand for your topic idea, choose a keyword (or keywords) you can rank for, write for your audience, and finally, optimize your content piece.
Make sure there’s interest in your topic
Start by making sure there’s an audience for your content piece.
It may seem like a great idea to you. However, if no one is searching for information on the subject, it’s unlikely that you’ll get much traffic due to low demand.
That said, search volume is not the most critical factor in choosing a keyword, and we’ll talk more about that.
Brainstorm the topics you think you want to cover, and then go to Google and see what’s there today.
Who’s written on the subject you’re considering using for your content piece?
Is there already information on the topic?
Do you have a new angle, new insights, or something more to add to the conversation?
If not, this might not be the best topic. Search the topic and see what shows up in Google Suggested Search.
Is there something closely related to your topic that Google suggests, or are there questions related to it in the People Also Ask section?
If you see your topic idea in either of those places, that’s good because it means there’s interest in your potential topic.
Research keywords
Once you know your topic is viable, use your favorite keyword research tool to identify the keyword or keywords you want to target for this new long-form content piece.
Long-form pieces can rank for multiple keywords a bit easier than short-form pieces just due to the length of the content piece.
Choose your keywords wisely. Look for a primary keyword with good search volume and the ability for your website to rank on Page 1.
Choose your keywords
Go to Google and see who’s currently ranking on Page 1 for the keyword you’re considering using as your primary one.
Are the websites similar to yours?
Are they more prominent brands or companies?
How in-depth are the articles?
Can you provide additional insight or value (not just more words) than the sites currently ranking?
If you see other websites similar to yours and content pieces that you feel aren’t as in-depth or are missing information on the topic you want to write about, then you’re probably making a good choice in your keyword selection.
Choose the keyword with the highest search volume that your website has the best chance of ranking for and is the word your Ideal Customer uses when searching for information on this subject.
How to make sure your content gets read
Now it’s time to write. Go back to your brainstorming notes.
What information do you need to include to answer your readers' questions?
Be sure you have that information. Sort it in a way that it’s easy to follow and understand so your reader wants to continue.
A long-form content piece is a time commitment for someone to read.
Thus, you must provide value, insights, statistics, and things that are unique from something else they might have read on the subject before – or they won’t continue reading.
Format your piece in a reader-friendly way. This is especially important with longer pieces. Consider:
Using bullets and lists – white space is your friend.
Using headers (suitable for SEO and your reader).
Breaking your text up into small, easy-to-read chunks.
Keeping your sentences and paragraphs short.
It’s better to have many small paragraphs broken up with bullets and numbers than big blocks of text.
People will shy away from reading a piece if the content isn’t formatted in a reader-friendly way.
Your final step is to optimize your content piece
Use your keyword in all of your SEO elements. Make sure it’s in the first paragraph of the copy, which it should be since your keyword is closely tied to your content topic. In most instances, your keyword will be in the title of your piece.
Add your keyword to your URL, image file name, and header tags, and use it throughout your copy.
Focus on providing value, being helpful, and offering information your ideal customer needs rather than how often you use your keyword. You’ll use it naturally by concentrating on your reader.
Done right, long-form content is worth the investment
Long-form content can be a significant time investment. It takes longer to write in-depth pieces than quick bites or short-form.
However, the payoffs can be great. Long-form pieces often rank higher in the search results than short pieces.
And if you’re creating content with an audience, you can rank for and tie to your business, bring relevant traffic to your website, and hopefully, get the conversion.
It’s worth testing long-form content if you haven’t done it yet. Not every piece you write has to be long, but those most important to your business should be longer and more in-depth.
As 2022 winds down, marketers are being asked to focus on efficiency and “do more with less.” The most successful have leveraged tools such as calculated metrics, artificial intelligence and real-time insights.
In this webinar, learn how a financial institution with over 21 million active customers connects its customer data, segments audiences faster and delivers personalized experiences in real time.
Join Salesforce in this free webinar and learn real use cases on finding success and business results by sending fewer communications that are more relevant and targeted.
Yahoo has just finalized a 30-year exclusive advertising partnership in Taboola, which would secure a 25% stake in the company. This deal will allow Yahoo to use Taboola’s tech to manage its native ads.
Taboola’s native edge. Taboola specializes in native ads which can be found on popular sites like CNN and MSN. The ads typically look like part of the website and can be informative or entertaining.
However, shares of Taboola have fallen nearly 80% since last year. In January, it merged with a special purpose acquisition company and was valued at $2.6 billion.
The deal with Yahoo gives Taboola the exclusive license to sell native ads across Yahoo’s sites, and the companies will share revenue from those ad sales. The companies did not disclose the terms of the revenue split. The deal will make Yahoo Taboola’s largest shareholder.
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Meta and TikTok weigh in. Executives at companies like Meta and TikTok have warned that advertisers skittish about the economy have pulled back on their spending. But Jim Lanzone, the chief executive of Yahoo, said in an interview that the deal with Taboola puts both companies in a good position for when the ad market revives, the NY Times said.
“I’m thinking, you know, five, 10, 30 years,” Lanzone said. “Digital advertising has huge wind at its back over the long term.” He added that while the company will continue to try to bring in money in other ways, such as expanding its subscription business or investing in e-commerce, “we have hundreds of millions of people consuming news and sports and finance on market-leading properties that are heavily monetized through advertising — and will continue to be.”
Dig deeper. You can read the full article from the NY Times here.
Why we care. Advertisers who run native ads may now have another option to expand their reach. Yahoo also commented that they were attempting to "build up each of its products within its mini-media empire and capitalize on its audience." If this happens it will give advertisers and brands a more competitive edge in choosing which platforms to spend their marketing dollars.
Inflation and “sagging consumer sentiment” accounted for relatively muted Black Friday in the US this year. However, the numbers show that shopping centers are making a comeback, as people are enjoying brick-and-mortar shopping experiences again.
Adobe Analytics said online sales rose 2.3% to $9.12 billion. The company’s initial projection was $9 billion, (for perspective, this percentage increase lagged far behind the country’s inflation rate, which is running at almost 8%).
Shopping statistics. Brick-and-mortar retailers, who for the last two Black Fridays contended with Covid-19 outbreaks and restrictions, saw in-store visits tick up this year by 2.9% compared to 2021, according to a report by Sensormatic Solutions. Interestingly, visits to physical stores on Thanksgiving Day increased by 19.7% compared to last year.
Enclosed mall traffic increased 1.2%, and traffic to non-malls, such as strip centers and standalone stores, increased 4.7% compared to Black Friday 2021, Bloomberg reports. Some reports indicate that though the crowds were smaller, shoppers waited in line much longer due to many stores experiencing staffing issues.
Shopify merchants break records. Shopify announced a record-setting Black Friday with sales of $3.36* billion from the start of Black Friday in New Zealand through the end of Black Friday in California.
Peak sales per minute: $3.5 million USD on Black Friday at 12:01 PM EST
Top selling countries and cities where shoppers made purchases from: United States, United Kingdom and Canada, with the top-selling cities on Black Friday including London, New York, and Los Angeles
Top product categories: Apparel & accessories, followed by health & beauty, and home & garden, with trending products including Snocks GmbH (Boxershorts), rhode (peptide glazing fluid), and Brooklinen (Luxe Core Sheet Set)**
Average cart price: $102.31 USD or $105.10 USD on a constant currency basis
15%:Cross-border orders worldwide on Black Friday as a percentage of total orders
27%: Growth in POS sales made by Shopify merchants globally over last year’s Black Friday
Economic uncertainty drove many to alternative payment methods. For example, buy now, pay later (BNPL) orders jumped 78% the week of November 19 compared with the previous week. BNPL revenues rose 81% over the same period
What Shopify says. “Black Friday Cyber Monday has grown into a full-on shopping season. The weekend that started it all is still one of the biggest commerce events of the year, and our merchants have broken Black Friday sales records again,” said Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify. “Our merchants have built beloved brands with loyal communities that support them. This weekend, we’re celebrating the incredible power of entrepreneurship on a global stage.”
Dig deeper. You can read the entire article from Bloomberg here.
Why we care. Consumers are still spending. Ecommerce merchants and advertisers who promote online should still prioritize and continue to run ads, even after the BFCM holiday. Though many are still facing supply chain issues, testing different discounts and offers should be top of mind going into the Christmas season.
Microsoft is looking to double its ad business from $10 billion a year to $20 billion in revenue. Leadership didn’t specify a timeframe, but if their goal is reached, it will become the sixth-largest digital ad seller worldwide.
Microsoft’s multiple ad properties. Microsoft’s ad properties include Bing search, Xbox, MSN and many other websites that use Xandr to sell digital ads. Microsoft also introduced vertical ad formats, credit card ads, and expanded its audience network into 66 new markets.
Search and news revenue up 16%. Microsoft reported their FY23 Q1 ad revenue is up 16%. But CFO Amy Hood told analysts during the earnings call that “reductions in customer advertising spend, which also weakened later in the quarter, impacted search in advertising and LinkedIn marketing solutions.”
But the search and advertising bump was “driven by higher search volume and Xandr.” Nadella says Microsoft has “expanded the geographies we serve by nearly 4x over the past year.” Microsoft Edge may also be helping out with Bing search and advertising revenues. “Edge is the fastest growing browser on Windows and continues to gain share as people use built-in coupon and price comparison features to save money,” says Nadella.
Rob Wilk, corporate vice president of Microsoft Advertising said that he intends to make buying ads across assets easier for partners. “We have a lot of plumbing work to do,” he said in an October interview. “Microsoft also needs to differentiate itself from competitors that have similar properties but have far more mature advertising businesses, like Google. Wilk said Microsoft is more “partner oriented” than Google.”
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Netflix. The new Netflix partnership was launched this month and allows advertisers to purchase ads through the demand side platform Xandr. Microsoft will take a reseller fee, and experts predict that the partnership will be a huge revenue driver, easily clearing $10 billion in ad sales or more.
Gaming. Another great revenue driver for Microsoft is gaming. The acquisition of Activision Blizzard is still pending, but in-game ad revenue could be a unique selling point if the ads can be bought through Xandr.
Dig deeper. You can read the full article from Business Insider here.
Why we care. As Microsoft's ad business grows, it means greater opportunities for advertisers who are looking to expand their reach beyond Google and Facebook. Additional options such as in-game ads, Netflix, and the demand-side platform Xandr will open doors for both publishers and brands alike.
All four: iconic duos. But only one can generate over $80k in revenue once added to your website.
On May 17, 2016, Google introduced the concept of “rich cards.” Google has revived rich cards into what SEO professionals call rich results today. Rich results were created to make a more engaging experience on Google’s search result pages.
The result of rich results is a crowd-pleasing SEO tactic that produces an average of 58 clicks per 100 queries. Rich results are a dry and smooth SEO move, with flavors of structured data sprinkled with schema markup alongside sweeter code of JSON-LD.
In the words of the 2022 Women in Tech SEO mentor, Anne Berlin:
“For my money, I’d recommend implementing your rich result strategy from the get-go with as much detail as possible to extend the window of time before a change in policy forces you to make an overhaul to return your site to eligibility for a rich result which was previously driving traffic.”
Rich results make a great eye-opener and a quick win to start a new SEO project. And our need for SEO quick wins has never been greater.
Ahead are 22 things every SEO professional needs to know about rich results.
1. Rich snippets (previously rich cards) are now officially called rich results
Let’s be honest: Google changes names almost as often as Kanye West. As of today, Kanye West’s official name is now Ye. It’s got a Cher and Madonna vibe to it.
I digress.
When Google first released what SEO professionals call rich results today, rich results were called rich snippets, then rich cards.
Rich snippets and rich cards are rich results.
If you call rich results, rich snippets, or rich cards, you might as well start talking about your troll collection from the ’90s. (Remember yesterday? We were so young then.)
2. Rich results, schema, and structured data are not the same
There is a difference between rich results, schema markup, and structured data.
Schema markup (also called structured data format)
Google doesn’t describe exactly what schema markup is because “schema” is a part of a language from schema.org.
While schema.org is helpful, Google clarifies that SEO professionals should rely on Google Search Central documentation because schema.org isn’t focused only on Google search behavior.
Google refers to schema markup as “structured data format.”
Think of schema markup (or structured data format) as the language needed to create structured data.
Schema markup (or structured data format) is required before you can move on to structured data.
Structured data
Again, in Google’s words:
“Structured data is a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying the page content; for example, on a recipe page, what are the ingredients, the cooking time and temperature, the calories, and so on.”
Ryan Levering, a software engineer at Google, breaks structured data down even further.
Rich results
In Google’s words:
“Rich results are experiences on Google Search that go beyond the standard blue link. They’re powered by structured data and can include carousels, images, or other non-textual elements. Over the last couple years we’ve developed the Rich Results Test to help you test your structured data and preview your rich results.”
3. Always use Google documentation instead of schema.org
Schema.org is often used by SEO professionals when writing schema markups.
But the reality is Google wants you to use Google’s documentation. Not surprising, right?
The most effective way to review this change is via Semrush. Filtering with instances where the subfolder ranks within FAQ rich results, we can see the uplift. This uplift correlates with other tools such a RankRanger and Moz, which show an overview of this data publicly. pic.twitter.com/ZxKjuqAwgB
So in honor of Oprah, this is your moment of freedom. Yes, you get a rich result tool. You don’t have to be a web developer to add markup to your website.
If you’re using WordPress, plugins like Yoast SEO or RankMath do it for you.
If you’re using Shopify, there are tools in the app store.
If you’re on Drupal or Sitecore (or any other enterprise website custom-coded language), I’d recommend SchemaApp.
Or, if you’re into Google Tag Manager, you can add structured data with GTM.
Just be careful. When I spoke with Anne Berlin, Senior Technical SEO at Lumar, she shared that this can backfire on very slow sites.
“Where there is an excessive amount of (particularly render-blocking third party) Javascript on a site, the schema may not be injected into the DOM before googlebot's render timeout window is hit, and it moves on from the page. So this is a commonly used method, and has multiple advantages, but important to be aware that there may periodically be detection or validation issues when this method is used on an already slow template.”
At the risk of stating the obvious, this rich result test tool is – very useful.
Mostly because now you don’t have to understand what entities, predicates, or URIs are in relation to linked data formats.
If you’re testing in a staging environment, test with the rich result test tool.
After your webpage is live, test with the rich result test tool.
15. If your rich result violates a quality guideline, it will not be displayed in Google SERPs
If you violate Google’s quality guidelines, the chances of your rich result appearing in the search results are about as good as Blockbuster making a comeback.
It’s not going to happen.
16. You can receive a manual action if your rich result violates Google’s guidelines
The only worse than logging into Google Search Console to see you’ve received a manual action is the great Sriracha shortage of 2022.
Repeat after me: I can receive a manual action if your page contains spammy structured data.
One more time.
I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve worked with that asked me to markup reviews and ratings that weren’t made by actual users.
19. Always include recommended properties when available
If Google provides recommended property options, use them.
Lucky me, I’ve had the joy of working with Berlin, fellow SEO and plant lover, who shared her thoughts on recommended properties.
“When making a play for the added SERP real estate and CTR of product rich results, it is strongly advisable to fulfill more than just the minimum required properties. With competition for online shopping clicks and the associated advertising investments heating up, product rich results have been especially volatile this year. The more properties you've populated, the more new and experimental rich results you'll qualify for as they're rolled out.
One potential pitfall – read the recommended property notes in the Google guidelines carefully.
If you're marking up online events and just scan the list and think, eventAttendanceMode is not required, you could miss that if this property isn't defined, Google interprets the event as happening at a physical location.”
20. Adding rich results on the canonical page is not enough if you have duplicates
“If you have duplicate pages for the same content, we recommend placing the same structured data on all page duplicates, not just on the canonical page.”
This step often gets skipped because SEO professionals often mistake that if you have a canonical page, you’re golden. Unfortunately, simply adding a canonical tag doesn’t mean you’re done with the page.
21. If you have a mobile and desktop version, add rich results to both versions
If you’re running an m.websitename.com and a websitename.com, you will need to add your rich results to both versions. Search engines treat these as two separate websites.
Whatever you do to the desktop version, you have to complete it on the mobile version.
22. There is no guarantee your page will receive rich results
Well… you did it. You added your product review structured data and tested it in the rich result tool, but nothing happens.
The truth is there’s no guarantee Google will reward your website with rich results.
Yes, this can result in all the feelings you felt when watching Chance and Sassy returning home at the end of Homeward Bound, waiting for Shadow to appear.
If you’re lucky, Google may limp your rich results back home. But it’s a waiting game.
Get rich results or die tryin’
Get rich results or die trying is a nod to the rapper 50 Cent and his relentless hustler mentality.
When it comes to implementing rich results, you’ve got to pull your bootstraps up and get creative to showcase a rags-to-riches story of what you can do before and after rich results.
“Depending on the type of rich result being targeted, you might need to improve a site's internal linking setup or rally the organization to define its voice and mission on an exceptional About page.”
Rich results are more than just the markup on the page.
Rich results require tact and attention to detail to reap the benefits. Just remember to pay homage to Google’s documentation shared above and “pour one out” for all rankings you’ve lost without rich results.
All four: iconic duos. But only one can generate over $80k in revenue once added to your website.
On May 17, 2016, Google introduced the concept of “rich cards.” Google has revived rich cards into what SEO professionals call rich results today. Rich results were created to make a more engaging experience on Google’s search result pages.
The result of rich results is a crowd-pleasing SEO tactic that produces an average of 58 clicks per 100 queries. Rich results are a dry and smooth SEO move, with flavors of structured data sprinkled with schema markup alongside sweeter code of JSON-LD.
In the words of the 2022 Women in Tech SEO mentor, Anne Berlin:
“For my money, I’d recommend implementing your rich result strategy from the get-go with as much detail as possible to extend the window of time before a change in policy forces you to make an overhaul to return your site to eligibility for a rich result which was previously driving traffic.”
Rich results make a great eye-opener and a quick win to start a new SEO project. And our need for SEO quick wins has never been greater.
Ahead are 22 things every SEO professional needs to know about rich results.
1. Rich snippets (previously rich cards) are now officially called rich results
Let’s be honest: Google changes names almost as often as Kanye West. As of today, Kanye West’s official name is now Ye. It’s got a Cher and Madonna vibe to it.
I digress.
When Google first released what SEO professionals call rich results today, rich results were called rich snippets, then rich cards.
Rich snippets and rich cards are rich results.
If you call rich results, rich snippets, or rich cards, you might as well start talking about your troll collection from the ’90s. (Remember yesterday? We were so young then.)
2. Rich results, schema, and structured data are not the same
There is a difference between rich results, schema markup, and structured data.
Schema markup (also called structured data format)
Google doesn’t describe exactly what schema markup is because “schema” is a part of a language from schema.org.
While schema.org is helpful, Google clarifies that SEO professionals should rely on Google Search Central documentation because schema.org isn’t focused only on Google search behavior.
Google refers to schema markup as “structured data format.”
Think of schema markup (or structured data format) as the language needed to create structured data.
Schema markup (or structured data format) is required before you can move on to structured data.
Structured data
Again, in Google’s words:
“Structured data is a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying the page content; for example, on a recipe page, what are the ingredients, the cooking time and temperature, the calories, and so on.”
Ryan Levering, a software engineer at Google, breaks structured data down even further.
Rich results
In Google’s words:
“Rich results are experiences on Google Search that go beyond the standard blue link. They’re powered by structured data and can include carousels, images, or other non-textual elements. Over the last couple years we’ve developed the Rich Results Test to help you test your structured data and preview your rich results.”
3. Always use Google documentation instead of schema.org
Schema.org is often used by SEO professionals when writing schema markups.
But the reality is Google wants you to use Google’s documentation. Not surprising, right?
The most effective way to review this change is via Semrush. Filtering with instances where the subfolder ranks within FAQ rich results, we can see the uplift. This uplift correlates with other tools such a RankRanger and Moz, which show an overview of this data publicly. pic.twitter.com/ZxKjuqAwgB
So in honor of Oprah, this is your moment of freedom. Yes, you get a rich result tool. You don’t have to be a web developer to add markup to your website.
If you’re using WordPress, plugins like Yoast SEO or RankMath do it for you.
If you’re using Shopify, there are tools in the app store.
If you’re on Drupal or Sitecore (or any other enterprise website custom-coded language), I’d recommend SchemaApp.
Or, if you’re into Google Tag Manager, you can add structured data with GTM.
Just be careful. When I spoke with Anne Berlin, Senior Technical SEO at Lumar, she shared that this can backfire on very slow sites.
“Where there is an excessive amount of (particularly render-blocking third party) Javascript on a site, the schema may not be injected into the DOM before googlebot's render timeout window is hit, and it moves on from the page. So this is a commonly used method, and has multiple advantages, but important to be aware that there may periodically be detection or validation issues when this method is used on an already slow template.”
At the risk of stating the obvious, this rich result test tool is – very useful.
Mostly because now you don’t have to understand what entities, predicates, or URIs are in relation to linked data formats.
If you’re testing in a staging environment, test with the rich result test tool.
After your webpage is live, test with the rich result test tool.
15. If your rich result violates a quality guideline, it will not be displayed in Google SERPs
If you violate Google’s quality guidelines, the chances of your rich result appearing in the search results are about as good as Blockbuster making a comeback.
It’s not going to happen.
16. You can receive a manual action if your rich result violates Google’s guidelines
The only worse than logging into Google Search Console to see you’ve received a manual action is the great Sriracha shortage of 2022.
Repeat after me: I can receive a manual action if your page contains spammy structured data.
One more time.
I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve worked with that asked me to markup reviews and ratings that weren’t made by actual users.
19. Always include recommended properties when available
If Google provides recommended property options, use them.
Lucky me, I’ve had the joy of working with Berlin, fellow SEO and plant lover, who shared her thoughts on recommended properties.
“When making a play for the added SERP real estate and CTR of product rich results, it is strongly advisable to fulfill more than just the minimum required properties. With competition for online shopping clicks and the associated advertising investments heating up, product rich results have been especially volatile this year. The more properties you've populated, the more new and experimental rich results you'll qualify for as they're rolled out.
One potential pitfall – read the recommended property notes in the Google guidelines carefully.
If you're marking up online events and just scan the list and think, eventAttendanceMode is not required, you could miss that if this property isn't defined, Google interprets the event as happening at a physical location.”
20. Adding rich results on the canonical page is not enough if you have duplicates
“If you have duplicate pages for the same content, we recommend placing the same structured data on all page duplicates, not just on the canonical page.”
This step often gets skipped because SEO professionals often mistake that if you have a canonical page, you’re golden. Unfortunately, simply adding a canonical tag doesn’t mean you’re done with the page.
21. If you have a mobile and desktop version, add rich results to both versions
If you’re running an m.websitename.com and a websitename.com, you will need to add your rich results to both versions. Search engines treat these as two separate websites.
Whatever you do to the desktop version, you have to complete it on the mobile version.
22. There is no guarantee your page will receive rich results
Well… you did it. You added your product review structured data and tested it in the rich result tool, but nothing happens.
The truth is there’s no guarantee Google will reward your website with rich results.
Yes, this can result in all the feelings you felt when watching Chance and Sassy returning home at the end of Homeward Bound, waiting for Shadow to appear.
If you’re lucky, Google may limp your rich results back home. But it’s a waiting game.
Get rich results or die tryin’
Get rich results or die trying is a nod to the rapper 50 Cent and his relentless hustler mentality.
When it comes to implementing rich results, you’ve got to pull your bootstraps up and get creative to showcase a rags-to-riches story of what you can do before and after rich results.
“Depending on the type of rich result being targeted, you might need to improve a site's internal linking setup or rally the organization to define its voice and mission on an exceptional About page.”
Rich results are more than just the markup on the page.
Rich results require tact and attention to detail to reap the benefits. Just remember to pay homage to Google’s documentation shared above and “pour one out” for all rankings you’ve lost without rich results.
