Stars in Google meta description

@netstu Are you alluding to Structured Data or Schema which you have already set. I would recommend setting the Business Type if you can. The rest here is really down to Google to apply this data for its snippets.

If you want a shortcode to inject something like the following into your meta tag:

<meta name="description" content="Bij Nano Web laat je een professionele website maken die ook nog eens winstgevend is. Ontdek waarom meer dan 200 onderneming bij ons klant zijn. ★★★★★" />

… then there is nothing in the plugin code that exists to perform this action. For a shortcode to execute, the SEO plugin would need to support this (unlikely and inadvisable) or I would need to add something to take over the handling of the website’s meta data…

In your case, you can simply add the HTML star entities into the page’s description (like in the example) using an SEO plugin.

Personally, I would avoid adding this unless it is specifically relevant to the page’s content. I don’t think it will have any positive effect on your SEO if you just add it everywhere.

I am marking this as resolved as it is outside of the plugin’s functionality. Also I don’t feel there is a need to add new functionality to perform such an action.

I hope this answers your question.

Additionally – for your design, I would recommend using the Narrow theme.

Thank you for your reply.

So what you’re saying that I’m all set up and it’s down to Google to display the aggregated review stars schema in Google Search results?

What do you mean with setting the Business Type?

This is what I mean: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/review-snippet

Thank you for your help.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 11 months ago by netstu.

@netstu I think the review snippet you have here relates to something else – not an overall review of your business’s website, rather a review for a product or another item such as a movie, book, game, etc.

The Structured Data available in the plugin refers to the LocalBusiness schema.

If your website has lots of reviews for product it sells or perhaps a library, then the Structured Data for these items would match the data of the example you provided.

Business Type – this relates to the LocalBusiness structured data and it is a recommended value. Just add it to the Structured Data section in the main Setup tab.

I hope this helps – if it isn’t clear, please get in touch. ??

@designextreme Ah hanks!

I’m using BeTheme and the plugin is not working correctly on my website I see now.

The Setup page misses the structured data part, also I’m not seeing the Shortcodes and Reviews tab.

I’m using version 2.14 of the plugin and WordPress 5.3.2. I updated the plugin to 3.0, but it doesn’t make a difference.

Have you heard about this before?

@netstu This isn’t your theme. It seems like there is an error with the data you’re receiving from Google using the Places API. Structured Data will not appear if there are errors in the Google API (perhaps the key or a limit). Do you see any errors in the Retrieved Data or when you save changes in the main Setup screen? Have you setup your billing account in Google?

If you don’t see anything try clearing the cache. If that doesn’t work and you don’t have much data set in the plugin’s archive, then perhaps reset it – make a note of the important information first.

@netstu I guess, This is not an error from this plugin.

Google updated their guidelines for displaying star ratings at webmaster’s own websites.

Going forward, “LocalBusiness” or “Organization” schema is not eligible for showing star ratings at Google SERP. According to Google, If you own the website you can control the star ratings, hence you should use 3rd party services like Google Maps, Facebook pages and similar services to acquire reviews and ratings for your “Organization” or “Local business”.

Pages using LocalBusiness or any other type of Organization structured data are ineligible for star review feature if the entity being reviewed controls the reviews about itself. For example, a review about entity A is placed on the website of entity A, either directly in their structured data or through an embedded third-party widget.

Source: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/review-snippet#technical-guidelines

@netstu Thanks for this information.

If the rating of a [Local] Business is no longer needed, I will make changes in a future version of the plugin. I know that Structured Data is generally relevant for modern search engines, but if the reviews themselves offer nothing useful, it may be better to move this functionality out of this plugin (and perhaps into a newly developed one).

@designextreme glad that you are responding to user problem promptly. All the best for your success.

@albertalbs I realise that my reply was meant for you – the @ symbol selected the wrong one. I will look into this in the future – but in the meantime, I am very happy for any expert opinions on the matter.