Why does Google recommend schema for local business/ organizations?

[PeterRota]

Why does Google recommend schema for local business/ organizations? The reason I ask is I was in Structed Data Testing Tool, and I was running some businesses and organizations  through it. Yet every time, it says this "information will not appear as a rich snippet in search results, because it seems to describe an organization. Google does not currently display organization information in rich snippets".

Additionally, many of times when you do search the restaurant or a related query it will still show telephone number and reviews and location. Would it be better to list it as a place, since I want to have its reviews and location show up thanks?

I would be interested to hear what everyone else opinions are on this thanks.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Peter, I'm not sure I understand your question. You write: "Many of times when you do search the restaurant or a related query it will still show telephone number and reviews and location. " Do you mean when you search for the restaurant, you are seeing the local pack of results (meaning accompanied by the grey pin and link to the Google+ Local page)? If so, that has nothing to do with Schema. The local listings stem from Google Places/Google+ Local, not from whatever schema you've embedded in a website. I use schema for my local business clients and understand the point of it to be to strengthen the geographic signals the website is sending to Google regarding the client's NAP (name, address, phone number). The goal is not to have that info show up in the SERPs (unlike rel=author or something like that). Does this answer your question? If not, please provide further detail.

[PeterRota]

Hi Miriam, sorry for the confusion. So, do you not think it would be beneficial to have schema for the properties of a place, as it would allow me to show the business reviews rating/ aggregate rating in the search? Basically I want it so when someone searches something  relating to a car dealer. That if Google chooses to show my URL then it will be  accompanied by the business reviews rating/ aggregate rating in the search. I feel it would help to increase the CTR. I hope that makes sense.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Peter,

Can you find a live example of a business that is achieving what you're hoping to achieve and share it with me? I want to be sure I understand, and without seeing an example, I'm not clear on how best to advise you. Thanks!

[PeterRota]

I want something like this, so basically if someone searches Car Dealer. That this would appear after the Local Search results. Is this possible for a local business, After the local search results? Or, is it only possible in the local search results not the purely just organic results? I hope that solves it thanks.

Sorry for the text formatting, it won't let me change it.

[PeterRota]

http://cdnext.seomoz.org/1347566301_84f5cacc41479945c65eea948eb9a2d8.jpg

Here is the link its the first result.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Peter,

Thank so much for the live example. I totally get what you mean now. Okay, so the example you are showing is from TripAdvisor, and yes, Google consistently displays stars and review counts, etc., for TripAdvisor-based results, and for other large sites like Yelp. I presume (but am not certain) that these are rich snippets. Here are 2 articles from Google on this subject:

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=146645

http://maps.google.com/help/maps/richsnippetslocal/

In mid-2012, Google stopped showing stars on their own results after switching to Zagat as their provider. See:

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/06/12/google-we-can-show-stars-if-we-want-to/

The most public test case of rich snippets appearing for a small local business was Mike Blumenthal's writeup of getting stars and other data to appear for a jeweler client of his. However, this data then disappeared, only to reappear sporadically some months later. Read this:

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/08/09/are-rich-snippet-reviews-making-a-limited-comeback-in-local/

So, sometimes Google will still display this type of data for small businesses alongside their organic results, but it is sporadic. Looking at that same client of Mike's today, I don't see any stars, but who knows, they could come back again tomorrow.  Mike's opinion is that is still makes sense to mark up pages, and his advice is trustworthy.

And, of course, you do have the option of listing your local business on entities that consistently do show stars (like Yelp).

Hope this helps, and thanks again for the screenshot!

[PeterRota]

Okay thank you so much Miriam!