uBlist defines a Content Syndication Partner as a company that has obtained a limited non-exclusive license from uBlist to show specific uBlist Content, that uBlist is indexing with search engines, on their specified online channels, e.g. on their website, where this uBlist Content relates to third party companies.
Please refer to the specific contractual terms in place between uBlist and the Content Syndication Partner for a definition of uBlist Content and clarification of what uBlist Content is licensed to the Content Syndication Partner. However, please note that there are two types of uBlist Content:
uBlist Review Content, covering data about each individual uBlist review, e.g. Reviewer Name, Review Date, Review Subject, Review Body, Company Reply and Company Report Reason. uBlist Aggregated Content, covering data that uBlist has aggregated from the uBlist reviews, e.g. Company Name, Trustscore, Trustscore Stars, Trustscore Text, Number of Reviews, Date of Most Recent Review. To show this uBlist Content in accordance with this license, the Content Syndication Partner must adhere to the requirements in this document and in the contractual terms in place between the Content Syndication Partner and uBlist.
The requirements in this document are non-negotiable.
Non-compliance with the requirements may result in immediate termination of the contract in place between uBlist and the Content Syndication Partner.
The Content Syndication Partner is assumed to have sufficient prior knowledge about SEO to understand the requirements and the recommendations. The Content Syndication Partner may reach out to uBlist for clarification.
Requirements
The requirements in this document serve to ensure that the Content Syndication Partner informs search engines and end users about the origin of the uBlist Content.
Linking
This section is relevant for both uBlist Review Content and uBlist Aggregated Content.
The Content Syndication Partner must link back from the Content Syndication Partner page on which the uBlist Content is shown to the uBlist Company Profile page from where the uBlist Content originates. The reasoning behind this is that users should be able to easily see and verify where the syndicated uBlist Content is coming from.
Details:
- The link must be “follow”.
- The link may not redirect or be dynamic.
- The link must be accessible and must be shown above the fold.
Background documentation:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66359?hl=en
As an example, the link could be a uBlist logo with the text including “ uBlist”.
Indexing
This section is only relevant for uBlist Review Content.
The Content Syndication Partner must mark the Content Syndication Partner page to search engines as being a copy of content of a uBlist page or, if the Content Syndication Partner page is showing content from multiple sources, ensure that the uBlist Content is not indexed by search engines.
To mark the Content Syndication Partner page to search engines as being a copy of uBlist Content of a uBlist Company page, the Content Syndication Partner must canonical back to another Content Syndication Partner page where no uBlist Content is indexed or to the uBlist Company Profile page from where the uBlist Content originates.
Background documentation:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66359?hl=en
Alternatively, the Content Syndication Partner must ensure that the uBlist Content is not indexed by search engines. There are multiple techniques of how this can be achieved.
Background documentation:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66359?hl=en
Structured Data Markup
This section is only relevant for uBlist Review Content.
With the search engines being appropriately informed about the origin of the uBlist Content, parts of the uBlist Content is unavailable for structured data markup by third parties.
The Content Syndication Partner may not include this uBlist Content in their markup.
Google is clear about considering markup of content belonging to third parties as artificially inflating scores and ratings, and Google is known to find and penalize such behavior, and to penalize it hard. In our knowledge, Google would typically only penalize the Content Syndication Partner, but when the Content Syndication Partner e.g. has strong ranking authority such risk might spread to uBlist, which uBlist cannot accept.
Background documentation:
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/intro-structured-data#structured-data-guidelines
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/3498001?hl=en
Recommendations
Social Profile Links
The Content Syndication Partner is recommended to implement SameAs to point to applicable uBlist Company Profile page.
The SameAs property is the structured data markup informing search engines of the page that is original source of the reviews, ref. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/social-profile-links