Star rating not showing in rich snippets [duplicate]

Question

We've recently been doing a lot of work on our site's SEO (www.betterthanreviews.com). We recently did a push to update the rich snippets breadcrumb, meta description, and star rating.

After giving Google some time to index the site, it has updated the breadcrumbs and meta descriptions for our review pages, but the stars are still not showing. This is currently how it appears on a Google search (link to the actual page: http://www.betterthanreviews.com/home-security/livewatch):

This is what the Rich Snippets is supposed to look like, and how it appears in Google's testing tool:

More context: As seen in our html, we are using schema.org language. We initially were using schema.org/Corporation for the site, but we now have the page labeled as schema.org/HomeAndConstructionBusiness because Google will not show star ratings for the Corporation language. However, in our Webmaster Tools, the Structured Data is still showing the Corporation language, which could be a potential issue.

Here is a look at some of the coding that we used. But it can be looked at closer by inspecting the element:

<div class="aggregate-rating" itemprop="aggregateRating" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/AggregateRating">

    <div class="review row_fluid" itemprop="review" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Review">
      <div class="row_fluid rating" itemprop="reviewRating" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Rating">
        <meta content="4.5" itemprop="ratingValue" title="4.5 out of 5 stars" class="star-rating-readonly">

          <meta content="2013-12-05" itemprop="datePublished">
          <p class="review-headline" itemprop="headline">Way better than my previous system</p>
          <div>
            <p class="reviewer" itemprop="author">Scott H. </p>
            <span class="bullet">•</span>
            <p class="created_at">2 months ago</p>
            <p class="content" itemprop="description">I love it! The experience I have had so far is extremely positive. I had another alarm system before and I didn't like it but this one is really nice. I am telling everybody about it.</p>
          </div>
        </div>

Any suggestions for how to fix this?

Answer 1

Okay. Danny, I did not mean to leave you hanging.

I tested the following and it worked but with the error, Error: Incomplete microdata with schema.org. in http://schema.org/review. I assume that the review is missing a required element and i do not know what it is. You can poke around to see if you can figure out what is missing. I am sure it is something obvious I am missing. Other than this error, the following should work okay. It gave stars in the Google Rich Snippets Tool like you wanted.

I do not know why I did not see this before, but when I was talking about nesting, in actuality, there was something missing the reviews needed to nest in. The AggregateRating and Review need to be wrapped into something. I used Product but you can certainly use something more appropriate if this is not right.

<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Product">
  <span itemprop="name">LiveWatch</span>

  <div class="aggregate-rating" itemprop="aggregateRating" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/AggregateRating">
    <span class="rating" itemprop="ratingValue">4.9</span> out of 5 stars
    <span class="number-reviews" itemprop="ratingCount">1</span> reviews</div>
  </div>

    <div class="review row_fluid" itemprop="review" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Review">
        <span content="4.5" itemprop="reviewRating" title="4.5 out of 5 stars" class="star-rating-readonly"></span>

          <span content="2013-12-05" itemprop="datePublished">
          <p class="review-headline" itemprop="headline">Way better than my previous system</p>
          <div>
            <p class="reviewer" itemprop="author">Scott H. </p>
            <span class="bullet">•</span>
            <p class="created_at">2 months ago</p>
            <p class="content" itemprop="description">I love it! The experience I have had so far is extremely positive. I had another alarm system before and I didn't like it but this one is really nice. I am telling everybody about it.</p>
          </div>
    </div>

</div>

Answer 2

Okay.

Sorry Danny. I do not have a working copy. Here is what I see.

I took a look at your source code. In the code example you supplied, a small portion was missing from near the top of the page. This is the part that is important for the SERPs. I stripped things down to the minimum and experimented around a bit. I also used this example as a guide. http://www.seoskeptic.com/count-vs-votes-error-for-schema-org-aggregaterating/ This simple example works in the Google Rich Snippets Tool.

I stripped out the rich snippets parts and tested it. It did not work. Then I went through a bunch of gyrations making the code simpler and comparing it to the example above and adding back in some of your components. There is good news.

I noticed a couple of things.

1] AggregateRating appears to need to be nested within somthing like CreativeWork which is what you appear to be doing. It appears to me that there is a nesting problem in your code?? Perhaps a missing, or too many, or a misplaced div and/or span tag.

2] Your use of meta content="???" appears to not to pass a value. Works with a value in place of the meta content.

3] Your itemprop="reviewRating" should be itemtype="http://schema.org/Review"

I began to go cross-eyed.

BTW- The Google Rich Snippets Tool sometimes does not report an error when there is one. I have found this if you simply adjust the HTML code a bit. Frustrating.

Advice: When using the Google Rich Snippets Tool, use a complete but stripped down HTML page. Without it, you may not see the results you are looking for. I basically used a blank(ish) page and adjusted the rich snippet code with each test. Of course it took me time to figure this out. (Grrrrr...) Find something that works? Remove the HTML page and leave only the rich snippets code and you get nothing. Frustrating.

The Google Rich Snippets Tool while excellent, can be a bit finicky. I suggest starting simple and working outward.

All and all, your code does seem mostly okay. It is just a matter of nailing down the few final details.

BTW- I like the look and feel of your site!

I wanted to come to you with a working example. I think it will just take time. More than I have right now. I feel comfortable that I mailed down the big items and at least got you a path forward.

Let me know how this goes for you and if I was of any help.