How do I prevent site visitors from posting bad answers on my Q&A Pages?

• Based on what I learned from your article, Marked Up Q&A Content Getting Position Zero Results on Google, I've loaded up an optician website with more than 100 questions/answers – each Q&A with its own dedicated page and well prepared for the Google markup checker.

  I've also checked Google's developer guidelines here, but this part listed under Content guidelines is confusing me:

  Users must be able to submit answers to the question. Don't use QAPage markup for content that has only one answer for a given question with no way for users to add alternative answers. Here are some examples:

  Valid use cases:

  • A forum page where users can submit answers to a single question
  • A product support page where users can submit answers to a single question

  Does this mean I must give any user the chance to post an answer even though one of the optician specialists has already answered it? Stated another way, does Google really want the same functionality as in GMB in the question/answer section?

  If yes, then how can I maintain quality control by excluding misinformation and nonprofessional answers?

Answer:

Yes, technically you're supposed to provide a means by which a visitor can submit an alternative answer. We suggest using an email form, or a button that leads to an email form allowing them to "Submit an answer" ... in reality, Google doesn't know if the "answer" is posted in real time, reviewed, ignored, or whatever. Once submitted, the visitor can be informed that their answer will be reviewed for appropriate content prior to being posted.

IF someone submits a good, alternative answer (via the form) then by all means add it. Such interaction and additional content is usually great. However, just because you provide the ability to submit an answer doesn't mean you can't control what is actually added to the answer page. All you need to do is simply cherry-pick the answers that ...