Local Search: Technically optimised for Reviews & Stars, but not showing in SERPS

[TruvoDirectories]

Hi,

for over a year now we actively use schema.org into our yellow pages platform.
Simultaneaously we managed to set up a review platform to attract more users to write reviews.

We also monitor closely local search experts like (blumenthal and co ). So I learned in this post http://blumenthals.com/blog/2013/07/19/how-many-reviews-to-get-the-star-treatment-somewhere-between-4-and-5/ that it takes you 4-5 reviews to get the star treatment by Google.

But at this moment, I cannot find any star treatment. For example on this listing http://www.goudengids.be/hollywok-kortrijk-kortrijk-8500/1/ you can notice the presence of 6 review (http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.goudengids.be%2Fhollywok-kortrijk-kortrijk-8500%2F1%2F) but in Google itself it is not displayed as such.

So my question is: in your experience, are there any other parameters that will trigger the stars to appear?

[TruvoDirectories]

Basically I learned that you cannot put schema markup in tags, everything is fixed now.

[TruvoDirectories]

Hi,

I received an answer from the Google Rich Snippets Team. For the moment I cannot fully understand what this all means. Seems I'm hiding content, but not clear yet how. If any of you experts can help me out. I'll try to get an answer at google.

This is the mail i received this morning:

Hello Pieter,

Thank you for your interest in rich snippets for your site.Google can’t display rich snippets for your site goudengids.be because of the following issue(s):

Your content is marked up for rich snippets. But all the values of the attribute has been marked up under the content attribute. We allow the use of content attribute only when we need values in the machine readable format such as for currency. Please markup the actual content on the webpage.

Example URL:-http://www.goudengids.be/mort-subite-a-la-brussel-1000/#sayso-reviews

Markup Type: Review-aggregate

Hidden content:

http://schema.org/CafeOrCoffeeShop">http://schema.org/PostalAddress"> http://www.alamortsubite.com" />http://schema.org/AggregateRating">http://schema.org/Review">http://schema.org/Rating">                                         http://schema.org/Review">http://schema.org/Rating">

Once you have fixed your markup, run your pages through the rich snippets testing tool <http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets> to check for errors. When you’re all set, use the rich snippets submission form <http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/request.py?contact_type=rich_snippets_feedback>

to resubmit your site.

Thanks again,

Google Rich Snippets Team

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Goudengids,

Thank you for explaining that! I think some members may have assumed you were a local business owner hoping stars would show up from your single business website, but now you've clarified this. I have never worked with a YP site, hands on, but I think two things would be at play here.

1. That you've got correct markup on your individual pages. Use: http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets to check if your markup is correct.

2. The authority of your pages, in Google's mind. Could there be any issues going on with duplicate content between goudengids.be and goldenpages.be? Typically, I see YP sites have a single domain with sub-sections for different languages, so the structure you are using is not what I'm used to seeing.

Also, how well you manage your review base may be a factor. For example, on a page like this one, I see 3 identical reviews: http://www.goudengids.be/qn/business/detail/en_BE_YP_PAID_248495_0000_76551_7575_2013000536113021/

You know how strict Yelp is with their filters and quality controls. Your YP might consider implementing stricter quality controls, too, in order to influence Google's 'trust' of your product.

Just some suggestions, and I do hope you will get a helpful answer at Google's support forum.

[TruvoDirectories]

Hi Miriam,

we are the official belgian yellow pages website www;goudengids.be, with platform i was referring to our website.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Goudengids,

Can you explain this in a little more detail:

"for over a year now we actively use schema.org into our yellow pages platform."

Do you mean you are running a yellow pages-type website? Or something else?  More detail would be helpful, and it's good you've started a thread in the Google support forum. Some very smart folks there, for sure!

[TruvoDirectories]

Hi, thx for the link to the support page.

I believe our markup is according the guidelines, no errors in the rich snippets tool, so therefore i posted the question on https://support.google.com/webmasters/contact/rich_snippets_feedback

I'll keep you posted if I receive any feedback.

[PurpleGriffon]

In addition to Bereijk's answer, have you tried testing it with the Google Structured Data Testing Tool? http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets

[Gijsbert]

Checklist: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1093493