If you’re new to the world of search engine optimisation, you may have briefly heard about rich snippets. SEO experts will tell you how significant they are for your website’s marketing efforts. Yet what are rich snippets in SEO? This rich snippets guide has the answer. We’ll also detail its SEO importance and how your site can start profiting from the benefits of rich snippets.
If you have been looking to boost your SEO knowledge, this SEO snippets guide is just what you need, teaching you all the rich snippets best practices you could ever need. Before we answer the question “What are rich snippets in SEO?” we need to take it back to basics and uncover the answer to “what are snippets in SEO?”
What are snippets?
Before delving into the ‘rich’ side of things, let’s first detail what a snippet is. In general, snippets are what users are presented with by Google following a search query. A normal snippet will display the following information:
- URL
- Title tag
- Meta description
For example, after searching “easy pancake recipe,” Google gave us the following result:
This is a standard snippet, one that makes up the vast majority of results following a Google search. However, snippets in SEO vary. You get your standard, featured snippets (these sit above the organic search results in position zero), and then you get the other type: rich snippets SEO experts strive to get.
What are rich snippets in SEO?
A ‘rich snippet’ is one that takes this regular template and adds further details. It is an enhanced organic search result.
Going with the same search query as before, here’s another ‘easy pancake recipe’ result – except this time it’s a rich snippet:
Now it doesn’t take a genius to work out why Google rich snippets are so desirable. As Google rich snippets examples will show you, you have the inclusion of a snippet picture, rating score, and other useful details. This snippet features much more information than the regular type and gives more value to the Google searcher.
The importance of a rich snippet in SEO
Simply put, a rich SEO snippet is one that stands out compared to other snippets. Not only are they more aesthetically pleasing, but they also supply valuable extra details – despite space being at a premium. In the case of the pancakes example, this information instantly tells viewers how other people rate the recipe, the amount of time it takes to complete, and the calories per portion. The inclusion of a rich snippets product image can only enhance all of that.
Because of all this, people are more inclined to click on links that deliver more information. This means rich snippets boast a higher organic click-through rate.
A higher CTR is the main aim of any SEO strategy. Obviously, you’ll gain additional traffic from the search result due to being a rich snippet. Yet, in the long run, it’ll also boost your ranking in search results. Google will realise people are clicking on your link rather than others, and they will push your website towards the top of their results for relevant queries.
The same could work for Bing rich snippets SEO campaigns and WooCommerce rich snippets. For the latter of the two, you’ll need to download and add the WooCommerce rich snippets plugin. Head to the “Rich Snippets” in the admin panel and find the settings. You will want to enable:
- Business Contact Schema
- Local Business Schema
- Video Schema
- Default Product Schema
You will need to disable:
- Breadcrumbs in Search Result
If you want to set up a rich snippets WooCommerce, your best bet is to head to the experts who know exactly what to do quickly and easily with regards to setting yourself up properly.
Rich snippet SEO examples
You might not already be aware, but there are several different types of rich snippets available. Sadly, a sizeable amount of these are only applicable to a specific type of website. For instance, flight details can be transformed into a rich snippet – but only a very small number of sites will actually include this type of information.
Below is a list of common rich snippet examples:
- Recipes: As seen in the previous example, recipes incorporate details such as a rating, time to prepare and cook, and an image.
- Reviews: Each review includes a five-star system. Along with aggregates scores being allowed, individual reviews are also included (along with the reviewer’s name).
- Music: If someone searches for an album or song, rich snippets feature information such as the release date, genre, and producer(s).
- Product markup: This spotlights additional information about a product on a particular website, including price, rating, and if it’s in stock or not.
- Events: An event-based rich snippet includes the likes of dates, locations, and times.
- Organisation: If someone searches for a major organisation, additional information will be provided on the right-hand side of search results. This typically shows a brief description from Wikipedia, the date it was founded, social media profiles, and more.
The basics of rich snippets: How to add rich snippets
If you’re wondering how to create rich snippets or are questioning “how to add rich snippets to my website,” you’re not alone. While their beneficial nature is clear to see, actually turning a regular snippet into a rich one is a different story.
If you have been looking at how to get rich snippets, then to make it a reality, you need to do the following.
1. Confirm that it is the right move for you
Make sure that the search result you want to become a rich snippet fits in with the categories. If it is relevant to news, book, entertainment, or job-related categories or fits in with the common cases like how to markups, product type markups, and FAQ markups, then it is a great idea to move forward with your rich snippets SEO campaign. If you don’t, you may want to rethink your SEO strategies. Check rich snippets already online to see if you think yours would be similar.
2. Incorporate structured data
You need to incorporate schema markup into your website. What is schema markup, you ask? Rich snippet markup gives search engines a better chance of understanding your content. Say you want to publish your own pancake recipe as a blog post. Without structured data and markups, Google will have a difficult time understanding:
- The length of time required for the recipe
- Amount of calories
- Steps in the cooking process
- The right recipe image
With structured data, however, search engines understand the aforementioned details. You can define several items with schema markups, including articles, recipes, events, products, people, organizations, local businesses, and even a Google snippet review. Google will read the code of the structured data and use this to produce rich snippet results.
How to add Schema markup?
There are various different ways to implement the structured data code into your site. If you’re using WordPress, for instance, you can install one of the numerous plugins that are currently available. The easiest way to learn about this is to watch a video schema markup experts have made or check out a quick markup guide.
With a schema guide, you will find advice on how to get review snippets and what code you need to use. The scheme.org rich snippets markup is important because of the Hummingbird and RankBrain updates, which are all about helping a search engine interpret the context of the query to determine its quality.
Make sure to check out the schema.org test tool to ensure that your structured data is working for you and all types of schema.org markup.
How to create rich snippets for Google
When producing your rich snippets, remember to follow the same rules when creating a normal snippet. This means taking care of your content writing, where you create engaging titles and descriptions. You can find rich content SEO experts who can craft this for you perfectly.
Once you think you’re finished, you need to test your setup to ensure the structured data is functioning correctly. This can be done with the Google rich snippet checker.
The Google rich snippet testing tool
The Google snippet testing tool is an incredibly easy to use and effective piece of software. It is one of the vital rich snippets webmaster tools available if you want any shot of getting a rich snippet.
Using the rich snippets Google tool
To test it out using the Google rich snippets tool, simply add the rich snippets test URL into the “Test your structured data” section. Alternatively, the rich snippet testing tool also provides the option of copying and pasting the relevant HTML code.
Once the URL or code is added to the Google rich snippet tool, click the “Run Test” button.
When the rich snippet test is complete, it will display the structured data that is currently located on your page. This rich snippet preview tool also shows if there are any errors with the page’s structured data.
Keep in mind, you can do all the checking you want and have the structured data set up perfectly, using a schema marker checker to confirm, but this is no guarantee your page will show up as a rich snippet in search results. There isn’t one rich snippets checker that can guarantee this.
Help on rich, featured, and knowledge snippets
At Click Intelligence, we understand that setting up optimised Google SEO rich snippets on your website can be daunting. This is why we’re here to help. As part of our comprehensive managed SEO campaigns, we have the expertise to add the right structured data and gain those all-important rich snippets for your business!
