Rich snippets are the featured results that appear at the top of the search engine results page (SERP). They are also known as ‘SERP features’. These featured results are usually generated by algorithms that take into account several factors, such as the relevance of the content, the quality of the content, and the user’s search intent.
Rich search results can be in the form of images, videos, quick answers, or even product listings. They provide the user with an immediate answer to their query and help them save time.
Including rich search results in your SEO strategy is important for several reasons. Firstly, they can help you stand out from the competition. Secondly, they can help you increase your click-through rate (CTR). And finally, they can help you generate more leads and sales.
What Is Rich Snippet?
Rich search results are featured search engine results that appear at the top of the SERP. These featured results are usually generated by algorithms that take into account a number of factors, such as the relevance of the content, the quality of the content, and the user’s search intent.
Rich search results can be in the form of images, videos, quick answers, or even product listings. They provide the user with an immediate answer to their query and help them save time.
For example, when you search for ‘how to tie a tie’, a video tutorial and/or an image of a person tying a tie in different types of knots is likely to appear at the top of the SERP.
Google pulls these extra details from a special code (structured data markup) generated from the webpage's HTML code.
Here is an example of a rich snippet:
This is a clear example of a rich search result that provides the searcher with immediate answers to their query and makes your webpage more attractive to potential visitors.
In this guide, you will learn how to get rich snippets for your webpages.
Rich snippet types
Rich search results come in a variety of different types. One of the most common types is the ‘quick answer’. These are snippets of text that appear at the top of the SERP and are designed to provide the user with an immediate answer to their query.
Another common rich search result is the ‘featured snippet’. These are short pieces of text that appear next to the search result, usually in the form of an expert opinion or recommendation.
Finally, other types of rich search results include images, videos, product listings, and local search results. All of these can help you increase your visibility in the SERP and ultimately help your SEO strategy.
Here are the types of rich snippet types:
Product markup snippet
FAQ snippet
Review snippet
Recipe snippet
Movie snippet
Events snippet
Why Rich Snippets Important for SEO?
Rich search results are useful for improving SEO strategy in a number of ways.
Firstly, they can help you stand out from the competition. By appearing in the featured search engine results, you are more likely to get noticed by users and have an edge over your competitors.
Rich search results can help you increase the click-through rate (CTR). This is because users are more likely to click on featured results than organic search results.
Featuring in rich search results can help you generate more leads and sales. This is because the featured results are more likely to appear above the organic search results, which results in more users clicking on them.
Including rich search results in your SEO strategy can significantly improve your online visibility and help your website rank higher in the SERP.
How to Get Rich Snippets?
In order for your website to appear in rich search results, you need to make sure that your website is optimized for the particular type of result you are trying to achieve.
For example, if you are aiming to achieve a quick answer result, then you need to focus on creating content that is succinct and to the point.
Your content should be well-researched and well-written, as the algorithm takes into account the quality of the content. If you are aiming to achieve a featured snippet result, then you need to focus on creating content that provides expert opinions or recommendations.
If you are aiming to achieve a product listing or local search result, then you need to make sure that your website is optimized for local search and those product listings are up to date.
Also, in order to let rich search result algorithms take your content into account and to the top, you should have already added structured data markup to your website pages.
Here's how to get rich snippets step by step:
Choose an appropriate rich snippet type
Create and add structured data to your webpages
Validate your structured data
Choose an appropriate rich snippet type
There are several rich snippet types that Google supports.
Regarding your website content, you need to choose one that's relevant to that content.
Product markup snippet
Product markup snippets are carouels that display a product's availability, review count, rating, image, price and it's description.
With this snippet, online buyers can easily read a brief of a product data on SERP while ecommerce merchants get benefit of attracting more potential customers.
The more the interest you get from search results, the more the likelihood of converting organic traffic to paid customers through your online store.
FAQ snippet
A frequently asked question (FAQ) snippet highlights a list of questions and associated answers under the title and description of your page.
Here's FAQ snippet example:
Landing pages and blog posts belongs to the authoritative government and health websites can display FAQ snippets.
Review snippet
Users who make research online about a product they are interested in read expert or customer reviews from review websites.
Review snippet can display reviews from several websites and be about product description, images, ratings, reviewer, etc.
Recipe snippet
Cooking recipe snippets can help readers to display rating, review count, cooking duration and even calories.
Create and add structured data to your webpages
Rich snippet data are pulled using structured data markup code. Here is how to create and add rich snippet to your site:
Go to schema.org. Select a type of snippet from the list.
For this example, we will create article-type structured data markup.
Here is the list of properties you can use while creating structured data markup.
Structured data markup is written in JSON-LD format. You can find an example structured data markup below (organization type structured data markup).
<script type="application/ld+json">
{ "@context" : "https://schema.org",
"@type" : "Organization",
"url" : "http://www.your-company-site.com",
"contactPoint" : [
{ "@type" : "ContactPoint",
"telephone" : "+1-401-555-1212",
"contactType" : "customer service"
} ] }
</script>Let us try to understand each line of this code.
The "script" tag is HTML tag. We denote the type of code here.
<script type="application/ld+json"> </script>@context refers to the context of the scheme.
"@context" : "https://schema.org"@type refers to the type of scheme.
"@type" : "Organization"URL refers to the URL of your site.
"url" : "http://www.your-company-site.com"Contact point refers to the contact information.
"contactPoint" : [
{ "@type" : "ContactPoint",
"telephone" : "+1-401-555-1212",
"contactType" : "customer service"
} ]Try to create your own schema for structured data markup.
Copy the code from the notepad you created your schema on and then paste it to <head> section of your page.
Validate your structured data
When you complete adding structured data to a page, validate the structured data using Schema's validation tool.
Type web page URLs to test if the structured data is working.
Conclusion
Including rich search results in your SEO strategy is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, they can help you stand out from the competition and increase your click-through rate (CTR). And secondly, they can help you generate more leads and sales. In order for your website to appear in rich search results, you need to make sure that your website is optimized for the particular type of result you are trying to achieve.
Creating high-quality, succinct content is key and will help you stand out from the competition. By using rich search results as part of your SEO strategy, you can significantly increase your online visibility and help your website rank higher in the SERP.
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