Microformat Reference Guide for SEO and Developers
With the latest radical change to Google’s listings, which has made some people very unhappy and convinces others that Google cares about Local, Google pushes Place Pages to a higher level of importance.
As far as I’m concerned, first and foremost, it’s their way of forcing more companies to get Place pages, so that millions of new pages will exist where Google can display more AdWords ads. Pure profit motive.
Except in doing so, Google has given new life to Microformats. So I figure I would provide an overview of various forms of Microformats, followed by a long list of links to various Microformat resources that will hopefully help YOU implement Micforoformats.
MICROFORMATS JUST GOT TOP BILLING
Whether this latest Google move flies or not, it clearly shows why sites that use Microformats can have a major impact on search. LinkedIn uses Microformats. So do Yelp, CitySearch, and many other local directories use Microformats for reviews, among other things. And they dominate Google Place Page content.
STRONG SEO AND GOOGLE PLACE PAGE RANKING
Very early and preliminary testing to see how the Google Place listings appear and how individual sites rank within those appears to show, at least for some listings, that sites with stronger SEO are doing better in place pages. I also see that sites with lots of reviews are showing up higher than sites without them, though if you click through the Place page listings, it ends up being a mixed bag regarding the reviews factor.
LOCAL SEO IS NOT DEAD
But as far as the SEO factor goes, it makes sense that this would be a signal to Google. After all, the core of their algorithms has always been SEO as a factor. So this tells me that no, SEO is NOT dead. And even LOCAL SEO is NOT dead. Think about it. What better way to signal to Google that you deserve high placement in THEIR one page site about your company than to have a well optimized REAL site, that matches or expands upon what they’ve gleaned from Yelp or other local directories?
MICROFORMATS ARE NOT JUST A GOOGLE THING
And don’t forget – Google is NOT the only game in town. Other search engines can make use of them as well. Bing is using Microformats in their local listings, as well as in their rollover display of relevant content for individual results in the web listings… And THAT is why I think having Microformats on YOUR site can also be of serious use, now more than ever.
MICROFORMATS BEYOND REVIEWS
Okay so you don’t do SEO for a Yelp or a review site. Or maybe you do. If so, you need to be implementing Microformats (or Microdata or RDFa protocols, both being acceptable methods to achieve similar results regarding search engines and their ability to read, and make use of various types of data).
Beyond Reviews, most of us are familiar now with navigation breadcrumbs. – Sub-navigation links that help visitors quickly jump up in the organizational flow of a site. Well Microformats are a best practice method for displaying breadcrumbs, and in turn, for Search engines to evaluate your content and make use of it in the SERPs. But it goes much further than reviews and breadcrumbs…
MICROFORMAT RECIPES
MICROFORMAT EVENT LISTINGS
Here’s a SERP display for an event aggregation site with Microformats used to display upcoming events in San Francisco.
MICROFORMAT IMPLEMENTATION RESOURCES
The above examples are just that – a few examples of how Microformats can be used on web sites, and in turn, show up in search results.
Here’s a short list of some of the more common Microformat implementation methods you may find useful.
BREADCRUMBS
Google provides a quick overview for implementing Breadcrumbs
Microformats.org entry on blog post formats for breadcrumbs
CONTACTS
Here’s Google’s overview and sample code for implementing Microformats for Contact information
Microformats.org has more comprehensive information on the hCard Standard for Contact Info
And for the lazy among us, use this great Microformat Generator for Contact Info using the hCard method
Joomla Extension Directory download for porting hCard microformat data to Joomla
ADDRESS INFORMATION
Here’s the Draft Microformat Specification for Addresses
REVIEWS
Google’s Implementation Guide for Microformat Reviews
The official Microformats hReview spec
Yoast’s Guide to implementing hReviews in your WordPress Theme
And the handy lazy-way Microformat Generator for Reviews using the hReview method
Opera Developer Community article on how to Style hReviews
PRODUCTS
The official Microformats.org hProduct draft specification
Yoast’s article on implementing hProduct and hReview in Magento
EVENTS
Google’s Implementation Guide for Microformat Event listings
The official Microformats.org hCalendar Standard for Events
Joomla Extension for the hCalendar Microformat
GEO DATA
The official Microformats.org Geo draft specification for geographic coordinates
RECIPES
WordPress Plug-in for implementing Microformats for Recipes on your blog
Official Microformats.org hRecipe draft specification
RESUME’S
WordPress Plug-in for implementing hResume Microformats
Official Microformats.org hResume draft specification
ASTRONOMY
The Virtual Astronomy Multimedia Project (VAMP) project is currently defining meta data standards to tag astronomical images used for education and public outreach. Check out their Astronomy Visualization Metadata Standard draft for Microdata.
ADDITIONAL MICROFORMAT RESOURCES FOR DEVELOPERS
PHONE NUMBER SKYPE AUTO-DIALER FOR WEB SITES
Here’s a neat VOIP phone dialer Greasemonkey script you can add to your browser so when you come across phone numbers embedded in an hCard, you’ll be able to automatically call that number through VOIP.
MAC USER MICROFORMAT HIGHLIGHTER
Here’s a CSS implementation you can use in Safari that will highlight Microformats as you surf the web
MICROFORMAT PARSERS FOR DEVELOPERS
Here’s a link to the official Microformats.org parser resource page covering several programming languages, including .Net, Java, JavaScript, Sumo, Perl, HTML, XML, Swignition, PHP, XMFP, hKit, Python, Ruby, XSLT, and several others…
RUBY ON RAILS MICROFORMAT HELPER
Are you a Ruby On Rails developer? Here’s a Ruby On Rails Microformat Helper Developer Plug-in
COLDFUSION MICROFORMATS CFC
Here’s a handy Microformats CFC For all you ColdFusion developers
YOAST ON MICROFORMATS
Joost De Valk has (of course) a great article from earlier this year on implementing Microformats
RICHARD BAXTER’S ARTICLES
Richard Baxter (aka SEOGadget) has written several articles on Microformats you’ll find helpful
TESTING MICROFORMATS
If you want to test whether your implementation of Microformats works for Google, use their handy Rich Snippets Testing Tool
MORE MICROFORMAT SPECIFICATIONS AND DRAFT SPECS
Microformats can be used for much more than I’ve covered here. If you’re curious, check out the official Microformats.org Resources page.
And finally, I leave you a link to a great PDF Microformat Cheat Sheet from Brian Suda
ADD YOUR EXPERIENCE / RESOURCES
Have a bad experience with Microformats? Or a Good one? Let us know…
And if you know of any resources for implementing Microformats on Drupal, Joomla, Magento, or any other CMS platform that I haven’t covered here, or if you’ve got any other confirmed Microformat resource you think would be beneficial, please leave a comment and share!
Microformat Reference Guide for SEO and Developers…
With the latest radical change to Google’s listings, which has made some people very unhappy and convinces others that Google cares about Local, Google pushes Place Pages to a higher level of import……
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Gabriella Sannino , Alan Bleiweiss, Casse No-i, Sebastian, Alan K'necht and others. Alan K'necht said: RT @AlanBleiweiss: Just Published: Guide to Microformats for SEO & Developers (Google Local Factor) http://seoaud.it/microformats [...]
Wow, Alan…absolutely spot-on post!
Can’t wait to dig into all those links — thanks very much from up here in canuck land, eh!
Jim
Thanks Jim. I was surprised nobody had created a similar guide before this. And while everyone’s griping about Google Places, I figure I’d be the first to offer direct tips on how to get on the bandwagon.
can i use the “recipe” plugin for wordpress, to review rental services ?
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i have to reply myself, “no”, i’ve seen the screenshot and the data collection is food-centric
garethjax´s last blog ..Test: mi prenderanno su itunes
LOL thanks for saving me the time in replying to that. The whole idea of Microformats is to create a standardized method of displaying, parsing and sharing similar information across the web. It’s all about improving the quality of Information Retrieval. And increasing Google’s profit.
excellent article =)
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Wow Alan! You have really done it this time. Thanks for all of the links. You could spend days delving into it all. Perfect linkbait too because this can be used as a great reference. Wish I could be at BlueGlass in Florida to hear you and David Mihm on the local stuff. I went to the BlueGlass event in CA. It was awesome!
Thanks Stu – I do hope it helps people navigate the Microformat implementation experience.
Awesome post. Glad you went into detail about the different types of formats. I wrote a similar guide a few months ago ( http://www.dotcult.com/seo-guide-to-microformats ) and lamented over going into all that detail.
The biggest problem I have with microformats is that they currently just work one-way. Hcard especially. It seems that while every site under the sun is willing to publish microformats, no sites are willing to read from them.
I have 200 Hcards (facebook, linkedin, my own website, etc) with my information – so why can’t I just point the next registration form I fill out toward one of them instead of entering all my information again?
That’s part of what our mission at Identity.net (startup I used to work for) was a few years ago – one profile that you can update and other sites can pull from. Of course, nobody bought into that.
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Good point about the one way issue Ryan. Some sites are starting to read – lots of discussion is taking place in the developer community about the need for it. Yet given that there’s still not enough movement for adoption of Microformats as a best practice (a mistake, in my opinion), I think it’s a matter of time.
Thanks for the great resource list on micro-formats Allan. This would be a very busy reading day.
Cheers!
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Jun,
Yes, a very busy reading day for many of us in the industry, thanks to Google !
Great post Alan. One quick thought about the local SEO… The better optimized sites do better because they are merging the maps into the organics and weighing a site based on both what is in the local map and what is in the organic. If your site showed up in both you now get better map placement, but you lose your organic placent. Meaning you get one map if you where ther or one organic if you are not in the map. In some cases, say “Phoenix pest control”, the one guy who isn’t in the local map actually out ranks all the guys in the map. Lucky draw of the short stick. But in other cases, a site that was once 3rd in the map and 1st in the organic now gets one listing taken away but bumped into the top position on the page. So yes, SEO is still huge, local SEO I’d say is even bigger now. And good news for the little mom and pops, they can now compete agaist the once dominate SEOing national companies. As Matt Cutts put it, “Someone goes up and someone goes down. One guy is happy about the change, one guy is upset.”
Looking forward to chatting with more about this next week.
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Guess that thought wasn’t as quick typed as it was in my head. =)
thanks for the details on the relationship Thomas. That’s what others are starting to see is going on as well. And it actually does make the most sense. Except for the part about Google forcing people to take out Place pages. Which only makes sense from an unbridled capitalism perspective.
Great resource, Alan!
I agree, those that don’t jump on the bandwagon will regret it one day, and I don’t think that day is far off. It’s going to rewrite the way we look at ranking somewhat, but I think in the long run, it may be a good thing.
I lean more to the RDFa side, for versatility and the fact that W3C has more to do with it than Google does. In the short run, though, I think anything’s better than nothing.
Thanks for putting in the time to compile all those links!
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Has anyone tested which rich snippets get the best results – microformats, microdata or RDFa?
@LMG- I have not personally tested it, but a good friend of mine did test between microformats and RDFa. He saw no discernible difference in the ability to get them displayed, which was the main reason of his testing.
Since the information conveyed in the rich snippets would typically be about the same between microformats and RDFa, I wouldn’t expect to see a great deal of difference in CTR, either. That said, however, I think that RDFa offers more versatility in conveying information, so as snippet displays evolve, I would expect to see a better CTR from RDFa.
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I employ someone just to check all this.
Great stuff and very useful.
Thank you
[...] http://searchmarketingwisdom.com/2010/10/microformat-reference-guide-for-seo-and-developers/ [...]
[...] http://searchmarketingwisdom.com/2010/10/microformat-reference-guide-for-seo-and-developers/ [...]
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This is great. I am using microformat for breadcrumbs. Lets see if it does any justice to my rankings and user clicks.
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