Structured Data - Best Practice?

[Crunchii]

I'm currently contemplating implementing ratings on some of our products.

Using schema.org what would be the best approach if I have several languages for a product? Can I use the same review setup on these two pages?
www.spamfighter.com/SLOW-PCfighter
www.spamfighter.com/SLOW-PCfighter/Lang_ES

Is it possible to do static structured data or does the rating system have to be present and possible to rate?

I noticed that Rank Tracker has a system where it's hardcoded and links to reviews.

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[Crunchii]

Bump

I thought you all were so intelligent and helpful

[Tom-Anthony]

Hi Philip,

I am not sure I understand this part of your question "does the rating system have to be present and possible to rate?".

You don't need to have anything on the page that enables someone to leave a rating/review in order to use structured markup on those ratings/reviews.

I would recommend using an approach combined with rel-alternate-hreflang to link the various product pages in different languages together.

My approach would be to give the star rating (marked up with http://www.schema.org/AggregateRating) gathered across all reviews for that product (in any language). Then on each different language page I'd show the reviews that are in that language (http://www.schema.org/Review).

I have never handled this exact situation, but that feels like the right way to approach it. What do others think?

-Tom

[gfiorelli1]

Hi Philip,

I'd invite studying what a site like Booking.com does, because it can offer you the answer you are looking for.

For instance, we have the hotel Residence Michaela in Milano Marittima, and it is listed in the Italian and English version of the site:

• Italian;
• English.

If you, then, use the Structured Data Testing Tool by Google, then you'll see how both have the aggregate rating (you must be logged in Google to see the links here below):

• Italian;
• English.

Those Booking's pages of the Residence Michaela have a link to the Review pages (click on the "Good 7.3"):

• Italian;
• English.

The two reviews' pages work differently. The Italian one presents first the reviews in Italian, which are the big majority of them. The English one, instead, presents first the ones in English, and just after the ones in Italian or in a language different from English.

Substantially they are doing what Rank Tracker does, somehow, and what Tom Anthony suggested in his answers.

The use of hreflang in the reviews' page is essential if you are going to present the same reviews, even if ordered differently.

I hope this helps you.

[Crunchii]

Thank you for that well explained and documented approach. I'll begin to see how this most effectively can be implemented.

The use of hreflang is as you say an essential part and actually hadn't given it that much thought (shame on me).

Again thank you!

[Crunchii]

Hi Tom

You understood it perfectly, I'm aware that some are taking advantage of this system and I'd prefer not to be targeted as one of those as Google will strike down on these down the road.

Good idea with with native reviews on specific language and a combined rating across with hreflang.

Thank you for your help it's greatly appreciated.