Google announced support for rich snippets in local search on their blog yesterday.
Adding this microformat information may help local search rankings – let’s look at what microformats are and how to add this data to your website.
Microformats & Rich Snippets
Microformats are a way of tagging information to make it easier for machines to understand. A popular use of microformats is to help search engines understand the information on the web. Google uses this information in a variety of ways – one example is by showing rich snippets in search, such as here:
The second line (starting with a star rating) is the rich snippet. Reviews are one type of data that Google has requested website owners tag. As you can see, the search engine then pulls star ratings, reviewer information, dates, and price ranges and displays that in the result.
When used on business sites, microformat data will be used to help confirm that your business name, address, phone, etc, are all correct in Google’s database of local places. Data confirmation may help clear up problems in your listing – and may also encourage the engines to rank your business higher in the local search results.
The hCard Format
In order to add microformat information to your listing, Google mentions encoding it in the hCard format.
Here is an hCard – the code is on the left, and the way it displays on your website is on the right: (Don’t worry, I’m going to show you how to create this easily)
To create something just like this for your site, go to this hCard creator (if that one doesn’t work, try here). You don’t need to fill out all the boxes – just complete the relevant blanks, and it will generate the code for you. I would make sure to fill out all the information exactly the way it is in my Google Places account. You can copy and paste the generated code into your website, and you’ll be all set. If using WordPress, you can put it in a text widget, or paste it into the html editor.
The one caveat to these automated creators is that they don’t add geo-location data. Geo-data could be helpful, particularly if Google tends to mis-locate your business on its map. For Google’s overview on adding this information, go here (open the subheading on microformats for hCard information).
Other Possible Uses
On Google’s main rich snippets for local search page, it’s clear that their new support for the format is not just targeted at business owners.
They are also collecting local information regarding reviews, people, and events. This may help Google pull-in reviews of your business from more sources, or list events happening at your location. It also may help freelancers show up in local searches (Google shows an example of LinkedIn data being displayed).
Have one included on your new business website from Small Business Shift.
Conclusion
Adding an hCard to your website is not going to be game-changing, but could provide some benefit in the local search results. The other uses of hCard data will further enrich local search, making it that much more important to be sure that your business is properly represented. For more on that subject, take a look at my guide to Google Places.
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Rich snippets now supported by Google in local search. How to use of them on your website:
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Microformats For Local SEO http://bakn.me/cmfzkN
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For the weekend – consider adding an hCard to your website, it may help with local SEO: (a how-to)
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
RT @smallbizshift: For the weekend – consider adding an hCard to your website, it may help with local SEO: (a how-to)
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
When you are building citations by implementing the business adress and phone number on Web 2.0 properties etc., do you recomment pasting the hCard or just typing the address like normal?
Many sites like that will not allow you to enter hcard tags. If you’re filling out an address field, they may automatically add the tags in their code.
Either way, it’s not something I would normally do.
When you are building citations by implementing the business adress and phone number on Web 2.0 properties etc., do you recomment pasting the hCard or just typing the address like normal?
Many sites like that will not allow you to enter hcard tags. If you’re filling out an address field, they may automatically add the tags in their code.
Either way, it’s not something I would normally do.
Hi Chris. I’ve been having some trouble figuring out the proper solution to our phone number. We use a tracking number on our site as a way to determine which phone calls come as a result of our website. I understand that our local ranking on Google could be adversely affected if Google determines that our phone numbers are different across different places on the web (although we use our actual phone # on our Google Places listing). Since we want the customers on our website to use the tracking # for our data collection, we wouldn’t want our hCard to have another number on there that causes confusion. Any suggestions?
Thanks 🙂
Kyle –
That’s a good question. Call tracking numbers are great and terrible at the same time.
My only suggestion is to either hide the hcard with css, or stick it way down in the footer and hope people don’t see it. The biggest downside to both of these is that I’m not sure how the search engines will react – they may respect the hcard, or they might think it looks shady.
I generally only use tracking numbers on pages that are blocked from the search engines (landing pages for paid marketing) so the truth is I don’t really have an answer. Anyone else have experience with this?
Chris,
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I considered the css approach but like you, I am unsure as to whether or not that looks fishy to the search engines. I have a feeling it might. I will try to investigate further and I will respond back here if I find any useful information.
I try to respond here as quick as I can. Good luck finding some more info!
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