Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Rich Snippets appear differently for Wikipedia, Why?
-
Hi All,
I've been doing a bit of research for a customer and whilst I was looking through the google results pages I came across this interesting rich snippet for a Wikipedia page (see screen shot attached). Its returned some extra information i.e Owner, Water Source, Number of Stills and Capacity.
Is this just Google playing around or is this something I've missed and you can markup additional information for your rich snippet?
Thanks in advance
Jon
-
Hi Jon,
The information showing up in the rich snippet has been taken from the very well-structured table that appears on the right-hand side of many Wikipedia pages. This data is very easy for Googlebot to read (because it's in a table), and regarded as trustworthy (because it's on Wikipedia). Depending on how Google interprets your intent, it may or may not borrow from this well-structured data in the rich snippet.
For example, on the Wikipedia page for Optical Express, there is again a table that lists key data about the company: the year it was founded, who the founder was, and which products it sells, among other things. When I search for "optical express contact lenses", the Wikipedia entry doesn't have a rich snippet, even though contact lenses are listed in the product field in the table. If I search for a less commercially-minded term, like "optical express founder", I do get a rich snippet with information about the company and founder (see the two images I've attached here).
So the point really is that there are no guarantees, and no direct control over the rich snippet, but you and your clients should definitely expect to see a lot more of this kind of thing in future, whenever Google is confident that a rich snippet provides a good answer.
As for what you can do: your client won't have Wikipedia's authority, but you can use structured data, such as JSON-LD or Microformats, to make the meaning of your words more transparent to Google. This will increase the chance, at least, of meaningful rich snippets with information about your client's company or products. Tymen has linked to a couple of useful resources, which you should use to ensure that you're implementing the structured data correctly.
-
Hi Jon,
Google allows several forms of structured Data which you can find on https://developers.google.com/structured-data/rich-snippets/. I just have the Reviews in place and this works very well for me. There's a handy tool to see if you meet Googles regulations on https://developers.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/
With Wikipedia's example I indeed think google is playing around. If your client is ont the Whiskey business aswell I would suggest you enrich the Wikipedia page for them :).
Good luck!
Tymen
-
What I believe you're seeing is information taken from the knowledge graph. Wikipedia is a data source of the knowledge graph (there are a lot of sources), so it's logical that Google would include that information in their results.
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
-
Text that appears when hovering over navigation tabs
Hi, I have a Wordpress website and want to delete or edit the text that appears when I hover over my navigation tabs. In my case, the text is always the same as the page title, but I don't know where to edit it separately. When I change the title of a page that is in the navigation, the text that appears changes too. So the general setting is that this text is the same as the page title. Does somebody have an idea where to edit this? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | Mat_C0 -
Star snippet not work
Hi I write a json+ld script for star snippet in my website but not work in my first page. you can see it in this URL https://www.alibaba.ir when I googled my keyword "بلیط هواپیما" my competitor show with star snippet in SERP but my site doesn't show.
On-Page Optimization | | tohidpolymer4 -
Difference in using dividers in TITLE TAG
Hi everyone, i know that dividers in title or even title tag doesnt have much of an impact on better rankings. I had great rankings for many keywords, not using dividers or using only one divider. However for better reading comprehension and usability, and also aesthetics i started to use the pipe as my main divider and other secondary dividers. I saw many pages drop in rankings vs other less competent and with less content pages. My format was as follows: Product Brand | Product description - Additional info or local info ie. Fiber Glass MBI | Insulation Batts for Home and Commercial use - Acoustic and Thermal Insulation I changed the format for a handful of pages, and saw immediate results on rankings and traffic on those pages. Product Brand with Product Description - Additional Info ie. Fiber Glass MBI Insulation Batts for Commercial use - Acoustic and Thermal Insulation. Does it sound like something i should implement page wide. I personally like the aesthetics of the pipe as it gives a cleaner look, but the better rankings on the changed pages with using only one divider makes me think. Does it sound familiar, or its just a coincidence, Regards,
On-Page Optimization | | JesusD0 -
Different title tags and meta descriptions for desktop and mobile?
Is it possible to use different title tags and meta descriptions for mobile users? For Example: In the SERP for desktop you'll see the desktop title tags and meta descriptions, but in the SERP for mobile you'll the mobile versions of the webpage.
On-Page Optimization | | alex19780 -
If I enbed the same video from my YouTube account on two different websites, will I get a duplicate content penalty?
I have a YouTube video I want to show my B2B and B2C customers. But I have a different websites for each. If I embed the video will I get duplicate content strike against me?
On-Page Optimization | | RoxBrock0 -
Are there any SEO benefits changing the default home page filename (index.htm) to a keyword rich filename
II'm a newbie. I have a website using the default home page filename: index.htm. I have total control over the web server. I was wondering whether I can get any SEO improvements for my main keyword if I change the default filename with a filename that contains the main keyword, like our-main-product.htm (doing the 301 redirect and changing the server search order, of course)?
On-Page Optimization | | Grafimart0 -
Different page for each product colour?
Hi Guys, I've just read an ecommerce article that suggests it's a good idea to have a different page for each colour that the product comes in. However surely this will mean duplicate content? What are your thoughts? Have you put this tactic into motion and how did it go? Thanks, Dan
On-Page Optimization | | Sparkstone0 -
Is there an SEO penalty for text that appears only in a pop-up box when you hover the mouse over an icon?
A client of mine wants to streamline the look of his web pages, taking some of the visible body copy and putting it into boxes that pop up when you hover the mouse over an icon. My understanding is that search engines will index this pop-up text. However, do they penalize pages that have text in pop-up boxes out of concern that those pages are spammy? In this case, the text and the page are perfectly legitimate e-commerce pages. Thanks for any insights you can offer.
On-Page Optimization | | jimmartin_zoho.com0