Earlier, Google permitted businesses to utilize review schema to display overall star ratings in the search results through a rich snippet. This helped businesses to stand out well than their competitors in search engine results. But recently, Google launched an algorithmic update that many of these rich snippets are going to vanish in the near future. Users will no longer see rich snippets on Google.
Say Goodbye to Self-Serving Reviews
Google has excluded what the company considers “self-serving reviews.” Now local businesses and organizations will not be able to enjoy rich snippets in the search results. Google specifically targeted the websites where review snippet was called to be self-serving. Therefore, businesses will no longer choose to add a markup to their own web pages about their organization. Google’s star rating feature will only give preference to third-party sites such as Yelp or Facebook where a business entity is not in control.
Not at all, there are a number of search results that will have rich snippets. You will still see rich snippets on movies, books, and recipes. Google’s update regarding self-serving is only limited to organizations and businesses. Products will continue to display reviews in the search results.
No, don’t erase reviews from your site. Reviews will always be an amazing form of social proof and showcasing a review widget on the site is a good way to deliver how much you care for your customers.
With this update, you won’t suffer from any penalty in search ranking when you have your reviews displayed. The reviews will not be displayed in rich snippets anymore.
How Does This Update Affect SEO?
This update will cause no big change in your search rankings. While rich snippets can improve your click-through-rates, they don’t lead to any direct impact on SEO. As all your competitors are affected in the same manner, you may not see any major difference in your rankings.
What do you think about this new Google update? Have you observed disappeared rich snippets in your listings yet?
Feel free to share your views in the comment section below.
