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I believe Google constantly updates its algorithms "quietly" to detect structured data. While they have listed several schema markups you can use now (https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/99170?hl=en), they are always finding new ways to detect them naturally (e.g. table/lists HTML tags in this case), without explicitly informing the users. The best way forward is to format your site's data in the most semantic way possible, which will likely increase your chances of Google picking them up when they update their structured data detection algorithms. Just my two cents

Thanks for everyone's input! Without pointing any fingers, let's just say this is happening in the wild right now. It came as a bit of a surprise to me as I wouldn't expect Google to be fooled into ranking a site better for multiple keywords based on dynamic internal anchor text. To be clear, I have no evidence this technique is helping or that the motivation is to game Google for better rankings, but I haven't come up with any other reason. If it is working, I must admit, it's pretty clever...

That's funny Ryan as I just looked at one of our account that I know has structured data and saw the same thing, a dip then a rise. http://imgur.com/nxJmzCX Sounds like a bug in Google's side, which was my first guess, I only got more interested when I read the forums and people said they also had a drop in rankings. Having looked into it, it sounds like those who got a drop in traffic are likely being impacted by updates around that time which was nothing to do with the data issue. I'm going to mark the question as resolved but I'll add any details I find out. Craig nxJmzCX

Thank you so much for reaching out to us, Ryan! This question is a bit intricate. With AJAX content like this, I know Google's Full Specifications https://developers.google.com/webmasters/ajax-crawling/docs/specification indicate that the #! and ?escaped_fragment= technique works for their crawlers. However, our system is a bit picky and isn't robust enough yet to use only the sitemap as the reference in this case. Luckily, one of our wonderful users came up with a solution using pushState() method. Click here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/create-crawlable-link-friendly-ajax-websites-using-pushstate to find out how to create crawl-able content using pushState . This should help OSE capture AJAX content. Let me know if this information works for you! I hope this helps

Marcus, Great! That confirms everything I was thinking. We certainly aren't wasting our time page rank sculpting. Rather, I just wanted a confirmation (and appropriate citation) before requesting some changes. Thanks! Ryan

No, it won't. I suggest doing as Google recommends, removing the old URL and adding the new URL to your sitemap. The sitemap only helps index your pages and optimize which pages get crawled more frequently.  It does not help with value transfer. When Google crawls the new URL through your sitemap, I believe it will also see the 301 redirect pointing towards it.

Ryan--I have to agree with you!! Check out what Starbucks did to create an April Fools caffeine buzz Great example of how social media + hillarious content combines for juicy link bait!

Thanks for the input, Barry. I like the idea of sharing exclusive content. We have considered that, but haven't ever moved on it.