There’s an update from Google for the Claim Review Structured Data that restricts how many fact checks take place on a page. It’s seen as a major change disqualifying thousands of pages for a fact check rich result.
The Claim Review Schema.org structured data has been added to web pages that fact-check claims made on another website or in a video. Its usage intends to pages that are fact-checking reviews for the claims that have been made or reported.
One can make the web pages eligible to be shown as a rich result in Google, using the Claim Review structured data, usually as a summary of the review.
The Changes in Claim Review Structured Data
Now come to the changes made in technical guidelines for Claim Review structured data.
Publishers on Google were previously allowed to have multiple fact checks on a single page. So the web pages could have multiple fact checks on different topics on a single page.
“A single page can host multiple Claim Review elements, each for a separate claim.” This was Google’s previous guidance that has been now removed from the Fact Check Structured Data Developer page.
The current guidance from the company says, “to be eligible for the single fact check rich result, a page must only have one Claim Review element. If you add multiple Claim Review elements per page, the page won’t be eligible for the single fact check rich result.”
The mandatory one Claim Review element per page appears to be a significant change going to affect all those web pages that contain multiple fact checks and associated structured data on a single web page.
The Exception to Single Fact Check Rule
The new rule, though, has an exception. Google is allowing web pages to host multiple fact checks about the same topic from different reviewers on a single page. This rule existed in the old version of Google’s guidance remains unchanged with the above exception.
The unchanged guidance says, “if different reviewers on the page check the same fact, you can include a separate Claim Review element for each reviewer’s analysis.”
Avoid Failing to Follow Directions to Prevent Loss of Rich Results
A web page through Rich Results can gain an enhanced listing in Google’s search results that allow it to gain a potential advantage over competitors, receiving more traffic related to the search.
The new guidance from Google says that a page must include a single Claim Review structured data element per page, with an exception for multiple reviewers trying to fact-check the same topic. It indicates, the pages, fact-checking multiple claims may become ineligible for a rich result.
Change log notation for this change from Google states:
“Removed guidance about hosting multiple fact checks per page. To be eligible for the single fact check rich result, a page must only have one Claim Review element.”
Hence, the publishers using the Claim Review structure data may find it prudent enough to review their implementation of structured data, ensuring their web page is going with the guidelines.
Why We Care
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