Introduction:
Rich snippets have come a long way since Google first launched the feature back in 2009. Rich snippets enhance the way users engage with websites through organic search. Many people wonder how do they get Google Rich snippets to show up for their business, products or services?
Worry not, this article help you know what rich snippets are, show you the most common types of rich snippets, and show you how to get rich snippets on your search listings.
What Is a Rich Snippet?
Rich snippets are the extra bits of information that can appear on a search listing below the meta title or description. However, the major search engines have taken this a step further, and now use this markup to present richer search results, enabling users to more easily find the information they are looking for. Similarly, A snippet is a result Google shows to the user in the search results
Under normal circumstances, when your website shows up on a SERP, Google, and other search engines, display the site title, URL and whatever meta description you have assigned to the page. When Rich Snippets are employed, Google is now able to display a bit more information about the actual result, including whether this particular result is a review, a person, a product, business and more.
Rich Snippet, Rich Result, or Featured Snippet?
The term rich result is often used interchangeably with rich snippets, and there is confusion between what is a rich snippet and a rich result; Then you also have SERP features and featured snippets.
Basically, rich snippets and rich results are the same thing. However, snippets can be considered to be a type of rich result:
- SERP features are anything that is not a standard blue link listing — knowledge graph, PLAs, local pack, image carousels, and featured snippets are just some types of SERP feature.
- Rich results are bits of information on the SERP page that are generated from structured data. FAQs are a type of rich result but also a SERP feature.
- Rich snippets are a type of rich result that appears alongside a search listing to enhance it. Review stars and cooking times are both rich snippets and rich results.
Benefits of Rich Snippets:
- Help you to better ranking in search engines.
- Attract viewers to click on your link.
- Displays instant information on search.
- Increase click-through rating in website.
Types of Rich Snippets Supported by Google:
As of 2016, Google supports the following types of snippets:
Product markup snippet:
Information about a product, such as its price, reviews and availability.
Recipe snippet:
Recipes that can are compatible with web searches and Recipe View.
Review snippet:
Reviews of items or businesses, such as a store.
Event snippet:
Events that people might attend at a particular time and place.
Information about a software application, such as price and reviews:
Movie snippet:
A video thumbnail or reviews and star ratings for online videos.
News article headlines, images and publisher information:
Getting Rich Snippets:
The benefits of a rich snippet should be clear now; but how do you get them to appear on your search listings?
To get a rich snippet to show on a SERP requires structured data markup to be included in the code on your page of content. Google crawls your page and translates this code to appear as the different types of rich snippets highlighted above.
Step 1: Selecting markup specifications:
You can learn all about the various types of markup and tools available through Schema.org. Schema is the rich snippet standard that’s accepted across all the major search engines like Bing and Google.
Step 2: Determining the type of content and all properties:
Decide if any of your content fits into the kinds of categories that can be optimized for rich snippets. If not, then you don’t need to worry about creating rich snippet SDM. If it does fit into one of those categories, you’ll need to prioritize what content on your site is worthy of markup. Just like building SEO into your site pages, you don’t want to have competing rich snippets on your own site.
Step 3: Developing the structured data markup:
Just remember to only add schema for content that’s visible to users and adhere to Google’s guidelines for the selected schema type. That’s because Schema is supported by all the major search engines (including Bing). As you’ll see in a minute, it’s pretty easy to set up. All you need to do is find the type of markup that you want to use on Schema.org markup. Google’s stuff is a lot easier to understand for people that aren’t pro developers. How you actually add Structured Data code to your website is completely up to you. If you use WordPress, there are plenty of plugins to choose from.
Step 4: Testing the structured data markup
Once you have applied the structured markup, you need to validate it to ensure that it is being read and it will display as you expect it to. Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool used to be the tool to test your structured data markup. Then Google tried to deprecate the tool and brought it back to use after much opposition from the industry. Google’s Rich Results Test tool is the replacement to the Structured Data Testing tool and now the standard to validate your structured data markup.
Step 5: Monitor the performance:
Getting rich snippets to appear correctly can seem overwhelming, but it’s not as hard as it sounds. There are lots of tools available to help you input the correct information, like the Google Data Highlighter. Once you do have successful rich snippets in place, continue to track your rankings, because they’ll change over time according to relevance and competition from other sites. Furthermore, you can also monitor the status of structured data on your domain, including specific pages, items and errors that have been detected, using Google Search Console.
Conclusion:
Getting more attention and clicks with rich snippets is great, but keep in mind that the structured data behind them is part of something much bigger. Similarly, the addition of rich snippets to your site can have an impact on where you rank, what information is displayed, and how many people click through from a SERP to your pages. If you need help implementing rich snippets give us a call at 888.510.0833 or drop an email to info@5280software.net.
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