Google Stopped Displaying Rich Snippets Stars
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Background
- Google stopped displaying stars next to the website "szallas.hu" in the SERPs, eg: http://goo.gl/RXSS58
- Google used to display the stars
- there is no technical problem, since I can see the stars in the Rich Snippet Testing Tool: http://goo.gl/bQUSNr
Why did Google stop showing the stars? What can I do? I already filled in a form at https://support.google.com/webmasters/contact/rich_snippets_feedback.
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It could just be Google re-shuffling things and fine-tuning who gets stars and who doesn't. Here are a few things that have helped in my experience:
- Don't go crazy with the schema markup, especially for stars. I see people adding ratings to blog posts just to get stars, and those are all gone now. Add them where they make sense and are conventionally used (e.g. on product/place pages, not on category/type pages).
- Avoid re-using the same aggregate ratings or reviews that go into aggregate ratings on multiple pages.
- Make sure you've nested the right tags in the right orders according to the latest rules - they change sometimes. Sometimes the snippet tool will say something's correct when it's really out of order.
- Tag entities, not keywords. E.g. don't tag the entity as "The Marriottt Inn, Resort, and Spa in City, State" - tag it as "Marriott" or "Marriott Hotel" and list the location separately.
If you're doing all these things it might just be a matter of weak entity association, borderline user metrics, or insufficient site trust.
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If you check the SERP I've provided, you can see, that all the competitors actually have the stars. Some kind of quality issue may be the cause, but can't think of any valid reason.
What could cause the removal of the stars? Because szallas.hu is the biggest player in the field (in hungary), all the reviews are real without any manipulation, spam or whatsoever.
Maybe too many reviews for a few hotels? But that's ridiculous, since what can I do if we have that much reviews for popular hotels? And what about the thousands of hotels with just 1 or 2 reviews?
Can't wrap my head around this issue, I really have no idea what could make Google think that there is some spamming going on.
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Google has been planning to scale back on the frequency of rich snippets. Matt Cutts mentioned this to an extent at PubCon in October (link). Google has also recently begun going after those that have spammed and/or manipulated rich snippets in a deceptive manner (link). Your stars disappearing may just be part of the changes in the works.
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