SEO
Google Clarifies Course Structured Data Requirements

Google updated the Course structured data requirements for appearing in the Course rich results. Failure to follow the guidelines may result in not qualifying for the rich result.
While the added requirement is not new, it was previously missing from the Course structured data requirements page.
Course Structured Data
The Schema structured data for courses is what schools use to appear in the associated rich results, which can appear as a carousel.
The official Schema.org website defines the Course structured data as:
“A description of an educational course which may be offered as distinct instances at which take place at different times or take place at different locations, or be offered through different media or modes of study.
An educational course is a sequence of one or more educational events and/or creative works which aims to build knowledge, competence or ability of learners.”
As long as schools follow the Google Search Central structured data guidelines and requirements for the Course structured data, students can find courses they’re looking for in the rich results triggered by educational course search queries, and everyone wins.
Unfortunately, the Course structured data guidelines were incomplete because they were missing an essential requirement.
Google Clarifies How to Be Eligible for Rich Results
The change to the Course structured data was to add a requirement missing from the guidelines.
The change is described in a Google changelog:
“Clarified that you must add three courses to be eligible for the Course rich result. This is not a new requirement; it was previously only documented in the Carousel documentation.”
Google added additional sentences to the section of the Course structured data guidelines that is titled Technical Guidelines.
The new wording that was added is:
“You must mark up at least three courses. The courses can be on separate detail pages, or in an all-in-one page.
You must add Carousel markup to either a summary page or an all-in-one page.”
Previous to this clarification, developers and SEOs who followed the Course guidelines would not have known about this requirement unless they had looked at the Carousel structured data requirements.
All schools that failed to mark up three courses and add Carousel markup will not qualify for the Course rich results.
Additional Changes to Structured Data Guidelines
Previous to Google’s clarification of the Course structured data requirements, the word “carousel” appeared only two times.
After the change, the word “carousel” appears six times in the new documentation.
The Carousel structured data requirements were important all along, but the previous documentation did not communicate that importance to the search community.
Check Your Structured Data
If the Course structured data has failed in the past to result in a rich result, it may be helpful to review the current structured data that’s on the pages to ensure that there are at least three courses marked up and that the Carousel markup is also used.
Citations
Read the Updated Course Structured Data Guidelines
Use Schema for Course Carousel
View an Archive of the Previous Guidelines
Archive.org Snapshot of Google Course Structured Data Guidelines
Image by Shutterstock/Maxim Gutsal
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SEO
Google’s Algorithms Can Understand When Sources Agree On Same Fact

Google’s Multitask Unified Model (MUM) algorithm is now capable of identifying when multiple high-quality sources agree on the same fact.
This update to MUM is part of a more significant effort to improve information literacy across the web.
A Google-supported survey conducted by the Poynter Institute finds that 62% of respondents encounter false or misleading information every week.
To help people separate fact from fiction, Google is applying several changes to search results.
Here are the complete details about the updates Google announced today.
Improvements To Google’s MUM Algorithm
With improvements to the MUM algorithm, Google can understand when multiple sources on the web come to a consensus.
What does this mean for search results?
Google will now fact-check its featured snippets to see if other reputable sources agree with the information.
Pandu Nayak, Google’s Vice President of Search, explains how advancements to the MUM algorithm make this possible:
“Our systems can check snippet callouts (the word or words called out above the featured snippet in a larger font) against other high-quality sources on the web, to see if there’s a general consensus for that callout, even if sources use different words or concepts to describe the same thing. We’ve found that this consensus-based technique has meaningfully improved the quality and helpfulness of featured snippet callouts.”
Further, MUM can help Google more accurately determine when queries are better served without featured snippets.
As a result of this update, Google is reducing the triggering of featured snippets in these cases by 40%.
Helping Searchers Identify Trustworthy Information
Along with the update to MUM, Google is introducing additional features to help searchers find information they can trust.
Expanding ‘About This Result’
Google is expanding the ‘about this result’ feature with more context, such as:
- How widely a source is circulated
- Online reviews about the source or company
- Whether another entity owns the company
- When Google’s systems can’t find adequate information about a source
About this result is now available in the Google app and in more languages, including Portuguese (PT), French (FR), Italian (IT), German (DE), Dutch (NL), Spanish (ES), Japanese (JP), and Indonesian (ID).
Content Advisories About Information Gaps
A new advisory in search results will alert users when there’s not enough reliable information available for a particular query.
Google shares an example of a search related to a conspiracy theory triggering the new content advisory:




Source: Google
Featured Image: Andrii Yalanskyi/Shutterstock
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