In-depth articles in search results

Tuesday, August 06, 2013 at 11:05 AM

Users often turn to Google to answer a quick question, but research suggests that up to 10% of users’ daily information needs involve learning about a broad topic. That’s why today we’re introducing new search results to help users find in-depth articles.

These results are ranked algorithmically based on many signals that look for high-quality, in-depth content. You can help our algorithms understand your pages better by following these recommendations:

    use schema.org “article” markup,
    provide authorship markup,
    rel=next and rel=prev for paginated articles (also watch out for common rel=canonical mistakes),
    provide information about your organization’s logo,
    and of course, create compelling in-depth content.

Following these best practices along with our webmaster guidelines helps our systems to better understand your website’s content, and improves the chances of it appearing in this new set of search results.

The in-depth articles feature is rolling out now on google.com in English. For more information, check out our help center article, and feel free to post in the comments in our forums.

Posted by Pandu Nayak, Member of Technical Staff

Appearing in the "In-depth articles" feature

Often when you're searching on Google for a person or organization name, or other broad topic, you'll find a block of search results labeled "In-depth articles." These results provide high-quality content to help you learn about or explore a subject. While the feature is based on algorithmic signals, there are steps you can take as a webmaster to help Google find your high-quality, in-depth content and best present it to users in the search results page.

Optimize your site for the "In-depth articles" feature

Schema.org Article markup

In general, we'll do our best to understand the metadata you provide for your pages to better present search results to users. For this feature, it's particularly helpful if you can implement certain aspects of the schema.org Article markup, notably the following attributes:

• headline
• alternativeHeadline
• image (note: the image must be crawlable and indexable)
• description
• datePublished
• articleBody

Authorship markup

Authorship markup helps our algorithms to find and present relevant authors and experts in Google search results. Learn more about authorship.

Pagination and canonicalization

For multi-part content, proper pagination markup using rel=next and rel=prev can help our algorithms correctly identify the extent of those articles. In addition, it’s important that canonicalization is done correctly, with a rel=canonical pointing at either each individual page, or a “view-all” page (and not to page 1 of a multi-part series). Learn more about pagination and canonicalization.

Logos

A logo is a great way help users recognize the source of an article with a quick glance. As a webmaster, there are two ways you can give Google a hint about which logo to use for your website:

1. Create a Google+ Page and link it to your website. Choose an official logo or icon as the default image.
2. Use organization markup to specify your logo.

Note that it may take some time for logo changes to be reflected in search results.

Restricted Content & First Click Free

If you offer subscription-based access to your website content, or if users must register for access, then search engines may not be able to access some of your site's most relevant content. If Google can't properly crawl and index your content (including text, images and videos), we can't show it in our search results (including the "In-depth articles" feature). Implementing First Click Free is one easy way to make sure your content is accessible to Google's search crawlers so it can be displayed in Google search results. Learn more about First Click Free.