What are Rich Snippets? Complete Beginner’s Guide

Author

Ines Maione

Ines Maione brings a wealth of experience from over 25 years as a Marketing Manager Communications in various industries. The best thing about the job is that it is both business management and creative. And it never gets boring, because with the rapid evolution of the media used and the development of marketing tools, you always have to stay up to date.

Giving more information about your business can help you acquire new customers quickly. It is particularly important for businesses that want a strong online presence. And that is where rich snippets come into play.

They’re a fantastic option that allows people to get specific details about your business. Plus, they’re visually appealing, driving more traffic toward your business. In this guide, we’ll delve deeper into the specifics of Google-rich snippets and tell you how to make the most of them.

Table of Contents

• What Are Rich Snippets?
• Types of Rich Snippets
• How to Add Markup for Rich Snippets?
• How Can You Get the Rich Snippets?
• Can Rich Snippets Help With SEO Efforts?
• Rich Snippets: Key Takeaways
• FAQs

What Are Rich Snippets?

Rich Snippets, or Rich Results, gives users access to summary information about their search results. As of now, the Google-rich snippets support data regarding reviews and people. The Users can get clear about the reviews and ratings when searching for any products or services.

The same is the case when users search for people since it can help them differentiate between people with the same name. While it might sound like a simple change in the search results, it can have a massive impact. Users can easily find valuable data and click on the page to learn more about it.

The additional details in the rich snippets come from the unique code (Also known as the structured data markup). You can add this information to the webpage’s HTML for Google’s webpage. One important detail to keep in mind is that rich snippets can only show up for specific pages with particular types of details.

Furthermore, the device type also limits their appearance. For example, you can only see the “how to” rich snippets only on mobile phones.

How are Rich Snippets and Rich Results Different from Each Other?

People might confuse rich snippets as being the same as rich results. However, they’re two different terminologies that people use interchangeably. Rich snippets come with regular search results that have additional information.

It mostly shows reviews and ratings for a product or service along with the URL, descriptive snippet, and title. On the other hand, rich results are a kind of search result visually enhanced through the details taken from the relevant structured data.

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Types of Rich Snippets

You can choose from different types of rich snippets, depending on your business needs and requirements. Here are some of the common ones that most websites use.

• Review Snippet: This type of snippet allows the users to view the star rating under the description.
• Recipe Snippet: This usually appears on blogs and articles featuring recipes. It displays key elements of the recipes like the cooking time, calories, etc.

• Product Markup Snippet: Most eCommerce sites use the product market snippet to their advantage. It can tell about the product’s availability, reviews, price, etc.
• Music Snippet: You’ll find this type of snippet displaying information about a song, such as its release date, singer, etc.
• Movie Snippet: It tells the users more about the movie’s release date, cast, genre, etc.
• Events Snippet: This type of snippet will give you information about the events, such as location, time, and date.

You can check Google’s list of search features to know about the entire list of types of rich snippets. It will give you a clear idea regarding what kind of snippets you can apply to your pages.

Related Info: Featured Snippet

How to Add Markup for Rich Snippets?

If you work with codes and have a good idea, you can easily add data to the webpage’s source code. It will give you more control over your webpage. And you don’t have to write the code from scratch since Structured Data Markup Helper can help you generate the markup code.

However, you’ll still have to review the generated code to ensure it’s correct before using it for your website. Here is the complete process to help you out with it.

• Step 1 – Open the Tool

Open the Structured Data Markup Helper tool first. Next, you can choose where you want to place your rich snippets. Depending on your preference, you can add it to the website or email. After that, you can choose the type of snippet you want for your website.

• Step 2 – Select “Start Tagging.”

The next step entails choosing the “Start Tagging” toll to pull all the webpage’s URLs into the “Tag Data” view. If you have a product snippet, include elements such as product image, brand name, price, etc.

• Step 3 – Choose Different Elements on the Page

When the information is in the “Tag Data” view, you can choose or highlight all the elements on the page. The tool will allow you to add labels to the various elements of the content. For example, you can highlight the text and then choose the “Name” element to add the product’s name.

If you want to add the price, select the relevant text on the webpage and add the “Price” tag. Tagging as many elements as possible is best for an optimal result.

• Step 4 – Create the Code

After you’re ready, then you can choose the red button that shows “Create HTML.” You can use the JSON or microdata code with this tool to create a side panel.

• Step 5 – Copy or Download the Code

Lastly, you can download and copy the code and include it in your webpage’s HTML. Most people usually include structured data markup between the HTML code’s <head> tags.

How Can You Get the Rich Snippets?

The structured data available on the different pieces of content plays a major role in creating rich snippets. However, it is important to have the data in the proper format so Google can understand and use it for SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) and other purposes.

For example, you want to show a recipe snippet for your website. So, instead of providing Google with information like this:

The preparation time for the pancakes is 20 minutes. The best thing about these pancakes is that they have low in calories —around 80 per serving.

You can put the information in a structured format that looks something like this:

• Cooking Time: 20 minutes

• Calories: 80

The above information is easy for Google to read and understand. Now, when we talk about structured data in Search Engine Optimization, it usually refers to the schema.org vocabulary. This vocabulary will help you mark up the content on your webpage.

The Google search engine will then decide whether to use this markup to improve the search results. So, how can you execute this markup? And what kinds of content can apply? Here are a few tips to help you leverage the rich snippets for your website.

• Find Out Which Snippets Will Work For You

The first thing you need to decide is which snippets will suit you. You might also go with the standard search result snippet since it can provide a good amount of information to the user. For example, you have a blog post similar to this one.

In that case, the standard search result snippet will be enough since it can show the blog post’s title, URL, and description. Google clearly tells how you can use the rich snippets to your advantage. It also tells about the type of content that qualify for the search results improvements.

Some businesses might also implement FAQ-rich snippets. It is a commonly used modern SEO tactic to get a higher SERP rating.

• Implement Structured Data

Implementing structured data is also important in getting rich snippets. No matter how you build your website, you can easily create and deploy a markup. The easiest way to deploy the code is in your website’s <head> section. You can choose any one of the different schema markup generators.

The Google Tag Manager is also a helpful tool that you can use to deploy the code. But keep in mind that you should only include the schema for content you want the visitors to see. Also, make sure that it complies with Google’s guidelines for the particular type of schema.

For example, avoiding using the FAQ markup for marketing efforts is best. But there can be another scenario where you use a CMS (Content management system) where deploying code can be difficult.

In that case, you have to use the right strategy for that particular CMS. WordPress is a popular CMS for using different plugins, such as Rank Math or Yoast. Apart from these two, different plugins are available for the specific purpose of schema implementation.

You can use Yoast for basic schemas such as FAQs and “how to.” But you’ll require a more custom plugin for the wide range of schema types.

Keep in mind that the deployment processes will vary depending on the plugin and the schema type. So there is no one-fits-all guide for this. Simply check and go through the plugin documentation that you choose to find out how it works with your selected schema type.

• Validate the Markup

The markup deployment process is usually infallible and foolproof, thanks to the markup generators and plugins. Nevertheless, checking and running the markup through Google’s Rich Results Testing Tool is best. Doing so will allow you to determine the page’s eligibility or code for rich results.

Eligibility is an important factor to remember since a rich snippet is not guaranteed. If the markup is already in production, consider using the URL input. While it might be a good option for random checks, it won’t benefit site-wide monitoring.

Can Rich Snippets Help With SEO Efforts?

SEO is critical in helping you achieve a high ranking in Google search results. Businesses use various SEO practices to rank highly for their products and services. But most people wonder whether rich snippets play any major role in SEO ranking.

While ranking high in the Google search results is amazing, the snippet’s content will ultimately drive people toward your website. Rich snippets make the search results more attractive, which can help you engage and attract more customers.

It leaves a great first impression since it makes the most of the product schema markup. The users can clearly understand the product by going through the reviews and learning about the price. Furthermore, it can help establish trust and entice the customer to click the link.

You can also use attributes like price, ratings, reviews, or other information to get a competitive edge. For example, a user would likely choose the product that ranks second but has a lower price than the above ones.

But let’s be clear about one thing: Rich snippets might lead to higher traffic on your website, but it is not a ranking factor. So, adding the snippets won’t contribute to your SEO efforts.

Rich Snippets: Key Takeaways

Google-rich snippets are an amazing way to help you stand out on the Google results page. It can allow you to enhance your online presence, which can lead to more clicks and traffic. Using the structured data markup, you can create rich snippets for your website in no time.

And the best part is that you don’t have to be a coding expert to write structured data snippets. There is a wide range of plugins available that you can use to get one. You can also use Google’s structured data testing tools to test your startup.