Google Updated the Review Snippet Structured Data to Favour One Method of Writing Numbers Over Another Widely Used Worldwide.

The change has the effect of standardising one way of writing decimal numbers rather than another, which is pretty standard in other countries.

Because valid markup and reviews can result in a rich snippet result or a Knowledge Panel that includes stars and a study snippet, the review snippet structured data is essential for sites that feature product reviews.

This change affects the following eligible topics:

"Book Course Event How-to Local Business (only for sites that collect reviews about other local businesses...)" App for Movie Product Recipes"

"A review snippet is a brief excerpt of a review or rating from a review website, typically an average of the combined rating scores of multiple reviewers."

When Google discovers good reviews or rating markup, we may display a rich snippet with stars and other summary information from reviews or ratings.

A rating is an evaluation described on a numeric scale (1 to 5) in addition to the review's text."

Because ranking a review with a rich result is desirable; it's critical to stay up to date on any changes to the structured data documentation.

- Alter the Way Numbers Can Be Expressed - Google's change to structured data impacts how decimals are written. - In some countries, commas separate the central part of the number from the decimal or cents part.

Google is standardising the way decimals are expressed in structured data. The change does not affect how it appears on the visible web page. The review snippet structured data documentation itself is nearly identical.

The significant change is contained in this new paragraph:

"For decimal numbers, specify the value with a dot rather than a comma" (for example, 4.4 instead of 4,4).

Content attributes in Microdata and RDFa can be used to override visible content.

That way, you can display whatever style convention you want to the user while meeting the dot requirement for structured data.

For example: span content="4.4">4.4 stars/span>

Is Structured Data Change Required?

The updated Review Snippet Structured Data clearly states that dots, not commas, should be used to specify decimals.

However, the documentation does not mention using commas resulting in invalid structured data. It simply states that dots should be used instead of commas.

The additional information is available on Google's changelog, which keeps track of changes made to their developer documentation.

"Review Snippet structured data has been updated to recommend using dot separators for decimal ratings."

If you're currently using comma separators in your markup for decimal ratings, you'll still be eligible for review snippets.

However, for a more accurate interpretation, we recommend that you update your markup."

Dots are recommended but not required.

The additional information hidden in Google's changelog indicates that using commas in structured data is acceptable. Google recommends using dots, but commas are still acceptable and will be considered for review snippets.

Making things easy for search engines is a good practice. So, if Google recommends using dots, then using dots can instil confidence in Google's understanding of the structured data.

To Know More About Review Snippet Structured Data Please Visit

Contact us

hello@intentfarm.com