SearchCap: Google Maps App Revised, Social Links In Knowledge Graph, Google Structured Data Updated
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
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Google Events Knowledge Graph Adds Ticket Links, Delegated Events, Comedian Events & Venue Events
Google makes four updates to the events knowledge graph after launching the markup back in March 2014.
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Ability To Share Ads Via AdWords Shared Library Is Going Away
Feature will be eliminated on February 11th.
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Google Updates Their Structured Data Testing Tool, Documentation & Syntax Support
Google has unleashed a new and improved Structured Data Testing tool, updated their documentation and guidelines, while adding more markup support.
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Upcoming Events In The Knowledge Graph
Last year, we launched a new way for musical artists to list their upcoming events on Google: schema.org markup on their official websites. Now we’re expanding this program in four ways:
1. Official Ticket Links
For artists: if you mark up ticketing links along with the events on your official website, we’ll show an expanded answer card for your events in Google search, including the on-sale date, availability, and a direct link to your preferred ticketing site.
As before, you may write the event markup directly into your site’s HTML, or simply install an event widget that builds in the markup for you automatically—like Bandsintown, BandPage, GigPress, ReverbNation or Songkick.
2. Delegated Event Listings
What if you can’t add markup or an event widget to your official website—for example, if your website doesn’t list your events at all? Now you can use delegation markup to tell us to source your events from a page of your choice on another website. Just add the following markup to your home page, making sure to customize the three red values:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{"@context" : "http://schema.org",
"@type" : "MusicGroup",
"name" : "Your Band or Performer Name",
"url" : "http://your-official-website.com",
"event" : "http://other-event-site.com/your-event-listing-page/"
}
</script>
The marked-up events found on the other event site’s page will then be eligible for Google events features. Examples of sites you can point to in the “event” field include bandpage.com, bandsintown.com, songkick.com, and ticketmaster.com.
3. Comedian Events
Hey funny people! We want your performances to show up on Google, too. Just add ComedyEvent markup to your official website. Or, if another site like laughstub.com has your complete event listings, use delegation markup on your home page to point us their way.
4. Venue Events
Last but definitely not least: we’re starting to show venue event listings in Google Search. Concert venues, theaters, libraries, fairgrounds, and so on: make your upcoming events eligible for display across Google by adding Event markup to your official website.
As with artist events, you have a choice of writing the event markup directly into your site’s HTML, or using a widget or plugin that builds in the markup for you. Also, if all your events are ticketed by a primary ticketer whose website provides markup, you don’t have to do anything! Google will read the ticketer’s markup and apply it toward your venue’s event listings.
For example, venues ticketed by Ticketmaster, including its international sites and TicketWeb, will automatically be covered. The same goes for venues that list events with Ticketfly, AXS, LaughStub, Wantickets, Holdmyticket, ShowClix, Stranger Tickets, Ticket Alternative, Digitick, See Tickets, Tix, Fnac Spectacles, Ticketland.ru, iTickets, MIDWESTIX, Ticketleap, or Instantseats. All of these have already implemented ticketer events markup.
Please see our Developer Site for full documentation of these features, including a video tutorial on how to write and test event markup. Then add the markup, help new fans discover your events, and play to a packed house!
Posted by Justin Boyan, Product Manager, Google Search
New Structured Data Testing Tool, documentation, and more
Structured data markup helps your content get discovered in search results and across Google properties. We’re excited to share several updates to help you author and publish markup on your website:
- A new Structured Data Testing Tool to better reflect Google’s interpretation of your content
- Improved documentation and policy guidelines for Google features powered by structured data on the web
- Expanded support for the JSON-LD markup syntax
Structured Data Testing Tool
It provides the following features:
- Validation for all Google features powered by structured data
- Support for markup in the JSON-LD syntax, including in dynamic HTML pages
- Clean display of the structured data items on your page
- Syntax highlighting of markup problems right in your HTML source code
New documentation and simpler policy
We’ve clarified our documentation for the vocabulary supported in structured data based on webmasters’ feedback. The new documentation explains the markup you need to add to enable different search features for your content, along with code examples in the supported syntaxes. We’ll be retiring the old documentation soon.
We’ve also simplified and clarified our policies on using structured data. If you believe that another site is abusing Google’s rich snippets quality guidelines, please let us know using the rich snippets spam report form.
Expanded support for JSON-LD
We’ve extended our support for schema.org vocabulary in JSON-LD syntax to new use cases: company logos and contacts, social profile links, events in the Knowledge Graph, the sitelinks search box, and event rich snippets. We’re working on expanding support to additional markup-powered features in the future.
As always, we welcome your feedback and questions; please post in our Webmaster Help forums.
Posted by Pierre Far, Webmaster Trends Analyst, Tatsiana Sakhar, Search Quality Analyst, Zach Clifford, Software Engineer
Google Maps Update Makes Cities More Searchable
Google’s latest update to its Maps app will help mobile users to better search for restaurants on Android and iOS and will also allow businesses owners to better control their listings.
Google Replacing City Experts with Local Guides Program
Google announced today that as of February 16, the City Experts program that encouraged G+ users to become active reviewers will be upgraded and now called Local Guides. The new Local Guides program implements a multi level approach with benefits accruing based on the total number of reviews written. There is even a code of … Continue reading Google Replacing City Experts with Local Guides Program →
Search Is Number One Content Discovery Tool For Mobile Users
Yesterday the IAB released a report that seeks to “rehabilitate” the mobile web. Based on a Harris survey of 2,000 US mobile internet users, it argues that despite the gap in time spent, mobile users value and heavily utilize the mobile web. Interestingly survey respondents perceived…
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Five (5) Under-Appreciated Sources for Local Link Building Success
The original Google algorithm of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s didn’t prioritize local intent and geography when ranking websites.
Smartphones Account For 40 Percent Of US Search Ad Spend In Q4 [Marin]
Desktop’s influence, while still dominant, continued to wane in the fourth quarter.
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Smartphones Account For 40 Percent Of US Search Ad Spend In Q4 [Marin]
Desktop’s influence, while still dominant, continued to wane in the fourth quarter.
The post Smartphones Account For 40 Percent Of US Search Ad Spend In Q4 [Marin] appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full ar…
Last Call for Lowest MarTech Conference Rates – Register Now, Save $400!
MarTech: The Marketing Tech Conference will help you get the most from marketing technology. Attend for strategies and tactics that: delight customers while achieving business objectives; get the most from your marketing stack investments; secure the organizational buy-in you’ll need to succeed….
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Last Call for Lowest MarTech Conference Rates – Register Now, Save $400!
MarTech: The Marketing Tech Conference will help you get the most from marketing technology. Attend for strategies and tactics that: delight customers while achieving business objectives; get the most from your marketing stack investments; secure the organizational buy-in you’ll need to succeed….
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Oh SEO, Where Did You Go (Wrong)?
Columnist Jenny Halasz loves the SEO community enough to administer a slap on the wrist when she thinks things are going awry.
The post Oh SEO, Where Did You Go (Wrong)? appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Please visit Search Engine Land for the f…
Oh SEO, Where Did You Go (Wrong)?
Columnist Jenny Halasz loves the SEO community enough to administer a slap on the wrist when she thinks things are going awry.
The post Oh SEO, Where Did You Go (Wrong)? appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Please visit Search Engine Land for the f…
Spammy Google News Publisher Complains About Exclusion…
Sometimes you read these threads in the Google help forums and just want to give up and here is one case. A Google News Help thread has a publisher at boxingdispatch.com that is complaining they received an email from Google News about being removed a…
Googler Says He Does 20% Time, Not 120% Time As Former Google Executive Claimed
Business Insider reports that former Google executive, and now CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer claimed 20% time really didn’t exist…
Google Wants Webmaster Feedback On Web Search & Webmaster Tools
Here is your chance to give feedback to Google in order to improve both Google Web Search and their Google Webmaster Tools product. Don’t miss out on sharing your two-cents.
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Google Knowledge Graph Now Showing Social Profiles For Brands
The social profile links within the knowledge graph box on Google now is supported for corporate brands.
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