Featured snippets play a vital role in improving our SEO and CTR on SERPs.
In case you are unfamiliar with structured data and featured snippets, here’s an introduction.
A few years back, Google rolled out its structured data card snippets. These results, when shown on Google, are highly effective in gaining instant attention.
A featured snippet with appropriate schema markup looks like this:-
The start ratings are shown along with the name of the reviewer. However, this isn’t limited to reviews. Places, recipes, bio, etc. are also served as structured data.
This is made possible by adding the latest schema markup data into our posts which helps Google to understand what we want to show the users.
This helps the front-end users in better comprehension of what they are going to read. Hence they end up making better judgments.
Adding this markup into your post is an easy task if you are using WordPress. It might sometimes happen that Google won’t show any ratings under your posts.
Below mentioned are a few reasons that may affect and deprive you of getting any structured data in your SERPs snippets.
#1 You are using the wrong plugin.
You are using a schema.org plugin that inserts JSON-LD or JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data, which is completely different from what we are talking about.
JSON-LD is responsible for showing profile or knowledge graph when you or your organizations’ name is searched:-
A popular plugin that shows up when schema keyword is entered is “Schema plugin.” You don’t have to use this plugin. Read this post to correctly optimize your posts for showing proper results.
#2 You are not using the plugin properly (input Mistakes)
If you are using the author hreview plugin, the possibilities are you are screwing up the settings. Follow this up:-
Step 1: Open your editor and write a new post
The post should be eligible to show any kind of structured data. For example, a post about a review, comparison, price list, places, recipe, book, etc.
Step 2: Enter accurate data.
Now when you are writing a review of a product you are affiliated with, you should enter “author” into the type field as demonstrated above.
If that is a book by, let’s say, Salman Rushdie or Stephen Hawking, you should enter the book name in the name section and “book by” in the type section and so on.
This will make sure you get appropriate results. Don’t use review by or reviewer words in the type section. It won’t work that way.
Once you are done publishing the post, test your post with the structured data testing tool. This will indicate any errors or warnings about your page. You can also seek a preview of your post in SERPs.
#3 You don’t have enough review type posts
A very vital sign of showing Google you deserve stars in SERPs is by providing it with surplus relevant posts.
For instance, you cannot get the starts or any other schema markup output for your first post.
A good number to have is 10. Write at least 10 posts that can be considered review types and add schema mark-up to them.
Don’t worry if your blog is fairly new. It will take time for Google to render, analyze and justify your site completely. Trust is built with time.
Let your domain age a little bit so it may gain some DA and trust. New domains are often taken as spamming and unstable. Write detailed posts to build your existence faster.
Google focuses on serving its users the best experience and providing it with the proper data. Structured data is important for SEO, and you shouldn’t neglect that.
Don’t give up if you are not getting any results. Focus on your mistakes and revamp your strategy.
Conclusion
Make sure you are not misusing the schema markup validation. You should use them where you genuinely feel they should be.
You should read this post from Google on why sometimes schema snippets won’t appear for your website and web pages.
Follow the above-mentioned steps and look for the errors you have made. Correct them and let google crawl your site, and in a few days, you may see the results in your favor. Make sure you are using the Google search console.
If you see anybody asking this question on a forum or social media, don’t hesitate to ping them this post.
If you are facing any problems, ask me through the comments section below.
Aayush Bhaskar Verma
Glad to hear that
Robert Madleniak
Hello, I am reading your post about improving seo. I want to ask you if you can advise me on how to properly set it up and not just squeeze money. I have already set it up twice and have had bad experiences. The last one had it done by an external company, which I found out later and had the other company refresh the page and sent it to me slowly in Hungarian. ???? I have no problem paying for the results I want to see. Thanks in advance for the advice. Sincerely . Madleniak