Google has posted an update informing us that the Google rich result testing tool can now report on unloadable embedded resources.
Google rich results test. This tool tests to see if your pages have the necessary markup to show rich results in Google search. It can also show you what those rich results may look like directly in the Google search results. The tool does not tell you if your rich results will display in search but that if they do, what they may look like. Google said “Test your publicly accessible page to see which rich results can be generated by the structured data it contains.”
What are rich results. Rich results are visual adaptions on Google surfaces, such as Search, that go beyond the standard blue link. Rich results can include carousels, images, videos, stars or other non-textual elements.
What changed. Google said the tool now “reports unloadable embedded resources, such as external elements included by a page.” So if you embed third-party code and resources in your code that is not hosted on your web site, this tool can now process it.
Screen shot. Here is a screen shot that Google shared of this in action:
Why we care. This update can help webmasters and SEOs better understand what Google can access for your page. If you are using third-party code for your rich results, this can now help you debug issues with that code and/or see what Google will display in the search results for your snippets.
About The Author
Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry’s personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.