In-Depth Articles Get a First Page Listing

Google is constantly tweaking their search algorithms trying to find the balance between relevance and authority. When it comes to publishing your own original content, we've been advising you to be sure to add authorship rich snippets to your code to let Google know exactly what your page is about and we hope you've listened.

This month Google announced the In-depth articles section will become a regular portion of the search results. This new section is prompted when a user runs a search for a broad topic, indicating that they're looking for a deeper look into a subject. Google says they will rate articles based on a number of factors including their quality and in-depth content.

They've offered this advice for anyone that's hoping to rank within the In-depth articles section of the search results:

• 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 most importantly, create quality, relevant, content

During our own tests, we were able to pull up the In-depth articles on a search for prohibition and we found it located at the bottom of the search results on the first page.

The listings are marked with In-depth articles and each highlighted article is presented with a small image alongside the link. The placement within the search results won't affect those first few listings. However, it could topple those clinging to the bottom of the first page. So if you find that you previously ranked well for some broad terms it may be worth looking into whether or not you still claim that first page spot.

If you need a refresher on authorship markup, check ou...