What’s this about?
This is an extract from TWIS SEO News & Updates w/e 18 August 2017.
Read about the structured data spam manual actions Google has been issuing, and what you can do to recover, if you have been affected.
Contact me if you would like to discuss implementing structured data properly on your website to maximise exposure in search (or recover from a spam manual action).
#SEO #StructuredData #WebSpam #GooglePenalties #Reviews
Google Issues Structured Markup Spam Manual Actions
Summary – Structured Markup Manual Actions:
- Google has been issuing a bunch of spammy structured markup manual actions.
- Webmasters / site owners have been receiving emails from Google Search Console.
- If received, a manual action is in place and remedial work needs to be undertaken before submitting a reconsideration request.
- The majority of actions appear to be for spammy review markup.
- Note that this only applies to “rich” listings, it does not apply to normal SERP results.
Actions to take – Structured Markup Manual Actions:
- If you have received one of these notifications, it is time to review your structured data implementation.
- Note, it is also best to double check your Google Search Console installation, as there is always the chance that the email did not make it through.
- Review Google’s Structured Data Guidelines to check for obvious issues.
- Fix the issues, and submit the Reconsideration Request.
- Contact me if you would like to discuss implementing structured data properly on your website to maximise exposure in search.
Discussion:
Structured data is the new wild west of spam. And reviews are those fearsome border towns where there’s a shootout every 10 minutes, and gangs of outlaws roam the prairies (so to speak).
In most instances it seems these websites have been using review markup to carry across to non-product pages – eg “this website / business as a whole has a 5-star review”, rather than “this product has a 4 star review”. As is usual, there was a degree of wailing and gnashing of teeth at the injustice of Google running its search product the way it wants. Unsurprisingly as well, there is a good deal of fake reviews in the mix.
Webmasters who want to use a whole of business review rating need to find al alternative way of showing trust and quality to end users.
More info:
The State of SEO Mid-2017 Released
TL;DR
- Google has been busy issuing Structured Data Spam manual actions.
- This appears to revolve mainly around misuse of review structured data markup.
- Or, that’s the area where the most spam occurs.
- Read The State of SEO in mid-2017.
- Read about how Google’s Mobile First Index is not Mobile Friendly.
Thanks for reading. If you would like to discuss what these changes mean for your web property, or would like to know how to implement them, please feel free to contact me.
