Last week Google started enacting a new manual penalty for Rich Snippet SPAM.  Now for just using Rich Snippets, but for those websites which are blatantly abusing the system so to speak.  The question in most people’s minds is:  What constitutes Rich Snippet SPAM and how can I avoid getting myself and my website into trouble?

The update is aimed to target websites that use rich snippets in a black-hat, spammy manner. But the exact factors triggering the new penalty are not yet known.

And as lots of our plugin users send us worried emails, asking if their sites can get de-ranked by mistake (because they don’t know how to manage rich snippets properly), we put together this quick check list to make sure your rich snippets are in order.

What are Rich Snippets?

Rich Snippets are enhanced displays of web page results, including images and other extra information about the website.

As Google puts it, “rich snippets are designed to summarize the content of a page in a way that makes it even easier for users to understand what the page is about in our search results.”  Some people call this Schema, microdata, and even Google calls it Structured Data as well.

Obviously this extended information is likely to attract attention and stimulate higher click-through rates. Thus if you haven’t already heard of rich snippets or incorporated them in your site, you’re missing a great chance to attract extra organic traffic.

What Data Gets Into Rich Snippets?

There are types of rich snippets you can use, depending on the type of your site’s content. These types differ for various search engines. Current rich snippets supported by Google are:

Authors: Author photo, name and G+ connections (guidelines)
People: Photos, occupation, contact information (guidelines)
Products: Ratings, picture and price (guidelines)
Businesses & Organizations: Location and customer review. Some other results can also shop up here — say, for restaurants rich snippets may include price range (guidelines)
Recipes: Photo, recipe, rating, time required and calorie content (guidelines)
Events: Event date, location and time (guidelines)
Music: Lyrics and link to play (guidelines)
Videos: preview thumbnail (guidelines)

How Do You Set Rich Snippets Data for Your Website?

Rich Snippets are the result of properly implemented structured data markup. By marking up your page data, you show the search engines and enable them to show users some of the most important information on your pages.  Plus, it also allows you to communicate to Google and other Search Engines more information about your site, its content, and how it should be delivered to visitors via search.

And here’s where it gets a little more complicated, normally there is no easy on or off button inside your CMS that will implement structured data automatically, so you’ll have to apply some tech knowledge and read guidelines for the markup format you prefer (unless you use the SEO Booster Pro Plugin):

• Microdata as outlined at www.schema.org (view markup example).

• Microformats (view markup example).

• RDFa (view markup example).

One more thing you have to understand is that implementing structured data doesn’t guarantee that your site will get a rich snippet displayed in search results. It just makes rich snippets possible. Google will ultimately decide if they show the snippets for your site and this also depends on your site’s quality and rank (according to Google).

How to Avoid the Manual Penalty?

Ok, so here is the actionable checklist to make sure your rich snippets are in order, the easiest ways to validate your structured data markup and the main points to consider.

All of this should help you understand and ensure your Rich Snippets/ Structured Data is in order and meets Google’s guidelines.

Of course, since this subject is one in which we are Experts here at WPSocial.com, You can also simply use our WP Social SEO Booster Pro Plugin and You can rest assured your markup will be perfect and Google friendly.