{"id":7629,"date":"2010-10-12T06:00:53","date_gmt":"2010-10-12T10:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/?p=7629"},"modified":"2010-10-15T08:56:38","modified_gmt":"2010-10-15T12:56:38","slug":"google-maps-rich-snippets-for-local-faq-testimonials-to-be-treated-as-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/12\/google-maps-rich-snippets-for-local-faq-testimonials-to-be-treated-as-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Maps Rich Snippets for Local FAQ: Testimonials to be Treated as Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Google announced<\/a> support for Rich Snippets for Local 3 weeks ago, there were a number of unanswered questions. A number of these are now answered in the Rich Snippets for Local Search FAQ<\/a>:<\/p>\n

– Currently Google (FAQ #3)<\/a> only recognizes microformats (hCard, hReview) for Rich Snippets for Local Search. Thus, until Google expands support for microdata and RDFa formats, you should stick with hCard and hReview formats.<\/p>\n

-You (#4)<\/a> should only provide the actual phone number for the location and should not include call tracking numbers.<\/p>\n

-If you (#6)<\/a> provide precise geo-coordinates Google will use them but if not then address alone is okay.<\/p>\n

-Structured data (#9)<\/a>should not be used as an alternative to verifying your Places listing but in conjunction with it.<\/p>\n

The big surprise for me though was FAQ #10<\/a>:<\/p>\n

How will Google treat businesses posting testimonials with review mark up on their own site? Will these be treated as a review by the Place Page?<\/p>\n

Testimonials will be treated as business reviews on the Place Page.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This means that site owners will be able to contribute testimonials from their site to their Places page. The implications of this are profound in terms of the impact that these testimonials will have on review count. The impact that they will have on tone of the reviews, sentiment analysis and rank are yet to be seen but if they are handled exactly as current reviews are, this too will be profound. Webmasters will be busy tonight! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Here is the complete list of links to the questions answered in the FAQ<\/a>:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Will annotating my site with structured markup negatively or positively impact my ranking in search results?<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Will Rich Snippets for Local Search be recognized for non-English sites?<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Does it matter if I use microdata, microformats, or RDFa to mark up my site or do Google’s crawlers treat them equally?<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Does it matter whether I include multiple telephone types?<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. Should the <url> point to my home page or to the location specific page?<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. Do I need to specify the <geo> lat long or is it okay to only use <adr>?<\/a><\/li>\n
  7. What additional types of structured data does Google plan to recognize in the future?<\/a><\/li>\n
  8. If I annotate my site with structured markup, where may results appear?<\/a><\/li>\n
  9. Should business owners be using structured markup instead of Google Places?<\/a><\/li>\n
  10. How will Google treat businesses posting testimonials with review mark up on their own site? Will these be treated as a review by the Place Page?<\/a><\/li>\n
  11. Will Rich Snippets for Local Search be as trusted as Google Places data?<\/a><\/li>\n
  12. If I annotate my site with structured markup, how fast may results appear on the Place Page?<\/a><\/li>\n
  13. What is the optimal way of using structured markup. Should you have a separate “Reviews” page or should you incorporate them within the body of the site?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    When Google announced support for Rich Snippets for Local 3 weeks ago, there were a number of unanswered questions. A number of these are now answered in the Rich Snippets for Local Search FAQ: – Currently Google (FAQ #3) only recognizes microformats (hCard, hReview) for Rich Snippets for Local Search. Thus, until Google expands support …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-google-maps-google-local","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t