Multiple Author Rich Snippets On A Q&A Forum Page
-
Hi,
I work on a site that has a robust q&a forum. Members post questions and other members answer the questions. The answers can be lengthy, often by experts with Google+ pages and almost always by multiple member/commenters answering a particular question. Much like Moz's forum here.
In order to get rich snippets results in search for a single Q&A page, what would happen if each of, for instance, 10 commenters on a page, were tagged as author? After all, the q/a forum pages have many authors, each as author of their own comments.
Or, should I pick one comment out of many and call that member/commenter the author or something else?
If it matters, the person asking the question in the forum is almost always not the expert providing a ton of detailed content. Also, a question might be 8 words. One answer might be 25 to 500 or more and their might be 5 to 10 different answers.
Thanks! Cheers... Darcy
-
The answer on this page is from someone that tested it, with 2 authors: http://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/25140/how-to-implement-rel-author-on-a-page-with-multiple-authors
You can test it as well and use the tool (http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets) to see what happens. I don't doubt that you'll end up with the same results -- the 1st instance of rel=author is going to be used.
I've come across this discussion a few times, and it always ends the same... there just isn't (currently) a way to handle multiple authors for 1 page using rel=author. On your forum, is there a "best answer" chosen? Maybe you can assign the respondent that gives the "best answer" the authorship? I'm not sure how Google will feel about that though, as it's not a clear article or blog post that is being assigned authorship. Rather, it's just a response in a discussion. Much like blog comments. Although blog comments aren't exactly like your scenario, it's similar enough, and it would be strange if a blog comment author was set as the author for a whole page.
-
Hi Philip,
Thanks for the words and illustration. As much sense as that makes, can you cite a source for the info on no more than one rel=author on one page?
Assuming you're right, which you probably are, what can be done for a Q&A forum? Just pick one, even though they might have written a fraction of the page's content?
Understood that Google can do whatever it wants - nothing could be truer about all aspects of Google's SERPs.
Cheers... Darcy
-
You can't have more than 1 author per page. If you put 10 rel=author tags on 1 page, I would assume that Google is just going to look at the first in the list. OR, Google may just entirely ignore it. They don't have to show a rich snippet, just because the rel=author code is there. It's up to them whether or not the author image shows in the SERP and if you've got 10 on 1 page, there's a chance Google might do something like this (Warning: F-bomb ahead!): http://www.quickmeme.com/img/78/788d7237ecca60d8d235cb352eab832f472264065a048fcd24adc834f0ca82f0.jpg
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
-
Why Would My Page Have a Higher PA and DA, Links & On-Page Grade & Still Not Rank?
The Search Term is "Alcohol Ink" and our client has a better page authority, domain authority, links to the page, and on-page grade than those in the SERP for spaces 5-10 and we're not even ranked in the top 51+ according to Moz's tracker. The only difference I can see is that our URL doesn't use the exact text like some of the 5-10 do. However, regardless of this, our on-page grade is significantly higher than the rest of them. The one thing I found was that there were two links to the page (that we never asked for) that had a spam score in the low 20's and another in the low 30's. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to maybe get around this? Certainly, a content campaign and linking campaign around this could also help but I'm kind of scratching my head. The client is reputable, with a solid domain age and well recognized in the space so it's not like it's a noob trying to get in out of nowhere.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Omnisye0 -
How long will old pages stay in Google's cache index. We have a new site that is two months old but we are seeing old pages even though we used 301 redirects.
Two months ago we launched a new website (same domain) and implemented 301 re-directs for all of the pages. Two months later we are still seeing old pages in Google's cache index. So how long should I tell the client this should take for them all to be removed in search?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Liamis0 -
How I can improve my website On page and Off page
My Website is guitarcontrol.com, I have very strong competition in market. Please advice me the list of improvements on my websites. In regarding ON page, Linkbuiding and Social media. What I can do to improve my website ranking?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | zoe.wilson170 -
Does it make sense to create new pages with friendlier URLs then redirect old pages to new?
Hi Moz! My client has messy URLs. does it make sense to write new clean URLs, then 301 redirect all old URLs to the new ones? Thanks for reading!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DA20130 -
Author Tag - How do you get your Author Thumbnail on more then one site?
Ive managed to set up the Rel:Author tag on my wordpress site, and the thumbnail is now showing in Google search results Each article I write on my blog has a link to me Author page, which has on it a link to my Google Plus page. So this works great. However I write articles for another few websites and would like to get my author thumbnail image showing for them articles too. How do I do this? Do I need an Author page on the other sites also? I dont think I'll be able to get an author page on the other sites, is it not possible to somehow link direct from the article to my G+ page? How would guest articles work too? Any ideas? Thanks in advance guys
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JohnPeters0 -
High number of items per page or low number with more category pages?
In SEO terms, what would be the best method: High number of items per page or low number with more pages? For example, this category listing here: http://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/90/fsx-civil-aircraft/ It has 10 items per page. Would there be any benefit of changing a listing like that to 20 items in order to decrease the number of pages in the category? Also, what other ways could you increase the SEO of category listings like that?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Peter2640 -
Removing pages from index
Hello, I run an e-commerce website. I just realized that Google has "pagination" pages in the index which should not be there. In fact, I have no idea how they got there. For example, www.mydomain.com/category-name.asp?page=3434532
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AlexGop
There are hundreds of these pages in the index. There are no links to these pages on the website, so I am assuming someone is trying to ruin my rankings by linking to the pages that do not exist. The page content displays category information with no products. I realize that its a flaw in design, and I am working on fixing it (301 none existent pages). Meanwhile, I am not sure if I should request removal of these pages. If so, what is the best way to request bulk removal. Also, should I 301, 404 or 410 these pages? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Alex0 -
Rich Snippets Displayed in SERPs?
I've recently deployed rich snippets for a site that includes reviews on individual company profile pages. We passed the Rich Snippet Testing Tool and notified Google of our pages. It's been 2 months since we deployed this and still nothing. Does anyone have any feedback on the average time it takes Google to recognize these markup and include in on the SERPs? Or any articles that reference which industries they will include reviews in the SERPs for and which ones they won't? Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DustinSEO0