Is This a Misuse of Structured Data (JSON Recipe Tag on Collection Pages)?
-
I've noticed that many food blogs use the "recipe" tag to rank collection pages in carousels. For example, for the search term "Zucchini Recipe," Gaumenfreundin is in the first position in the carousel with a page that contains multiple recipes.
This makes sense if the user intent is plural (e.g., "recipes") - but in the singular?
According to Google's guidelines, the recipe tag is intended for individual recipes. Google even states that it is a misuse if only the ingredients are listed without the steps.
So, isn't it against the guidelines to tag a collection page (even additionally) with the recipe tag? This practice is already common in the US market.
Is Google aware of this and possibly tolerating it because it sometimes makes sense to present multiple recipes to the user? For example, "Zucchini Recipe" - the user might not yet know exactly what they want to cook with zucchini.
Or do you think Google will take action against this practice in the future?
-
Using structured data, like the JSON recipe tag, on collection pages can be seen as a misuse if it's not directly relevant to the content. For example, if Dutch Bros Menu pages use recipe tags without actual recipes, it may confuse search engines, impacting SEO. Ensure the tags match the page content to avoid issues.
-
Using structured data, like JSON-LD Recipe tags, correctly can enhance your site's SEO by making your content more discoverable and understandable by search engines. However, it's crucial to use it appropriately to avoid potential penalties from search engines. Here’s what to consider regarding the misuse of Recipe tags on collection pages:
What is Structured Data?
Structured data is a standardized format to provide information about a page and classify the page content. JSON-LD is a popular method for adding structured data.Proper Use of Recipe Tags:
Recipe tags should be used specifically for individual recipe pages. They help search engines understand the content and can make your recipes eligible for rich results in search.Misuse on Collection Pages:
Using Recipe tags on collection or category pages where individual recipes are not present is considered misuse. This can mislead search engines and users, leading to a poor user experience.Why Misuse is a Problem:
Misleading Information: It provides inaccurate information to search engines and users, leading to potential penalties.
User Experience: Users searching for specific recipes might end up on a collection page, which doesn’t directly fulfill their query.
SEO Penalties: Search engines like Google can penalize sites that misuse structured data, which can negatively impact your search rankings.
Best Practices:Use Recipe tags only on pages with actual recipes.
For collection pages, use appropriate structured data like ItemList or BreadcrumbList to help search engines understand the page structure.
Ensure that each structured data type is relevant to the content of the page.
In conclusion, while structured data is a powerful tool for SEO, it’s essential to use it correctly. Misusing Recipe tags on collection pages can harm your SEO efforts and lead to penalties. Stick to best practices and ensure that your structured data accurately represents the content on your pages.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
What is the best structured data for my website
We have 10:branches for our agency where we are looking to attract local businesses to use our marketing services, should each landing page have structured data for ‘local business’? Any advice would be helpful
Local SEO | | Caffeine_Marketing0 -
Should I change our main category pages to product listing pages?
With the thought of improving user experience, as well as rankings in Google, I'm considering changing our main category pages to product listing pages (with sub-categories remaining, still). These main category pages are very standard and don't link to any informational content, such as buyers guides, etc. What's driven this is the latest Google core update. I've noticed our main competitor (who we were out-ranking before... but not now) now uses this approach. I can see the benefit from a user perspective, i.e. less clicks to reach products. What's the pros/cons from an SEO point of view, please? Could the potential duplication of content be an issue? For context, we have about 2,000 products and website is on Magento 2.
On-Page Optimization | | alifeofjoy1 -
Do non-canonical pages need to worry about things like Alt Text, H1 tags, etc?
Just wanted to confirm, if we have multiple similar pages, with all of their canonicals pointing towards the prime page, does it impact SEO rankings at all if the non-canonical pages were missing alt text from their images, or shared duplicate or multiple H1 tags? Basic SEO page construction stuff? I know some will hurt user CTR but wanted to make sure that SEO crawlers don't care about them even if indexed.
On-Page Optimization | | SimonZM2 -
Site Structure question?
Hey guys, Sorry for posting this again but the last thread got a bit too wayword. I'll sum it up better here. We're producing a WordPress theme every 3-6 months. Each is differently niched (eg: ecommerce, restaurant, magazine, etc...) Which option is better for our products going forward (even the ones we've yet to launch...eg...which method will get future projects more "trust juice" from google): A: create a subfolder for each theme eg: http://bigbangthemes.net/TicketLab_WP/wordpress-ticket-system & http://bigbangthemes.net/Showoff_WP/landing-page/ **This is currently what we're doing.**B: have them all under bigbangthemes.net/wordpress-themes/ eg: bigbangthemes.net/wordpress-themes/wordpress-ticket-system & bigbangthemes.net/wordpress-themes/showoff-startup-agency-theme Thanks for the help!
On-Page Optimization | | andy.bigbangthemes0 -
Form Only Pages Considered No Content/Duplicate Pages
We have a lot of WordPress sites with pages that contain only a form. The header, sidebar and footer content is the same as what's one other pages throughout the site. Each form page has a unique page title, meta description, form title and questions but the form title, description and questions add up to probably less than 100 words. Are these form pages negatively affecting the rankings of our landing pages or being viewed as duplicate or no content pages?
On-Page Optimization | | projectassistant0 -
Is there anything wrong with having duplicate description tags if they are relevant to their pages?
I have duplicate description tags, but they make sense for the pages they're on. Is there anything wrong with this? Thanks for reading!
On-Page Optimization | | DA20130 -
View all Page for Product Overview Pages
Hi everybody! We have an ecommerce site with product overview pages, where sometimes there are hundreds of products listed. Usually, we just display 30 and have a button where users can click to see 30 more - or all products listed at once. This is the overview page (as indexed in google): http://www.geschenkidee.ch/aussergewoehnliches.html
On-Page Optimization | | zeepartner
And this is the view-all page: http://www.geschenkidee.ch/aussergewoehnliches.html#all What should I do here? The product overview page will hardly generate more traffic by listing all products (because the overview page will rank for generic keywords, while the product keyword searches will be referred to the specific product pages themselves). I was originally thinking of using rel=canonical pointing to the view-all page. But this would just lead to longer load time. Should we just leave those overview pages or is there a best practice for how to deal with such pages? Thanks for your thoughts on this!0