How to Report Rich Snippet Spam to Google
Before telling you how to report rich snippet spam to Google, we think it is essential to tell you why reporting rich snippet spam to Google is super important:
- It discourages people and companies from abusing Google’s rich snippet guidelines
- It help keeps reviews across the web trustworthy and in effect provides an added benefit to Googler’s worldwide.
- It also takes away the unfair advantages some companies get by abusing the rich snippets on a massive scale.
At Wisevu we encourage everyone to do their part and help keep our internet clean and trustworthy, however before tattle-telling on someone to the BIG G, it is only fair you do your research and ensure that they are violating one or more of the Google guidelines pertaining to rich snippets. To read Google’s guidelines for critic reviews and review snippets, please check out the following links:
- Google’s General Structured Data Guidelines
- Google’s Review Snippet Guidelines
- Google’s Critic Reviews Guidelines
If you are certain that someone is violating any of Google’s provided guideline provided above, please report their rich snippet spam using Google’s rich snippet spam report form here – https://support.google.com/webmasters/contact/rich_snippets_spam?hl=en
and also let Google’s very own John Muller know about the rich snippet spam personally by sending him the rich snippet abuse details directly through his Google+ profile here http://google.com/+johnmueller as he himself suggested in a Google thread
“If you find more complicated cases that you can’t easily fit into that form, feel free to send them to me directly through my Google+ profile ( http://google.com/+johnmueller ).”
Contacting John Muller personally is important if the rich snippet abuse is more difficult to include in the simple rich snippet abuse form provided by Google which is really basic.
Also if you notice anyone abusing rich snippets or want to make sure they are in fact abusing Google rich snippet guidelines before reporting them, comment below with their details and we will help you identify which guideline(s) are being violated and we will also report them to Google. As with anything else, the more people complain about something the more likely it is that it will be changed.
To learn more about how to properly use Google’s rich snippets to get star ratings next to your organic Google local business listings read our article – How to Get Local Business Review Snippet Star Rating on Google Listings?
We have this problem with a competitor mis-using the schema markup.
They are reporting their Merchant Reviews on EVERY item page and tagging the listing as “local”. It’s a clear violation of what is meant for this tool. But, they have been getting away with it for almost a year now.
Example search term “cls1410”. Violating page:
https://www.twowayradiogear.com/motorola-cls-series/motorola-cls1410/motorola-cls1410-6-uhf-1-w-4-ch-radios-w-multicharger
Hello John D, it is because of rich snippet abuse and spam that many companies were engaged in that Google discontinued the star rating snippet in the organic listing for Local Businesses. We did an article on that recent update here I would advise you have a read – Google Shuts Down Organic Review Snippets for Local Business Schema Type.