Snippets are the few lines of descriptive text that appear under every search result, giving users a sense of what the page is about, and why it’s relevant to their search query.  Rich snippets are microdata, designed in a way to summarize the content of a page that will make it even easier for the user to understand what the search result is about.

Okay good to know…but what do rich snippets have to do with SEO?

Well, the first benefit is that they obviously draw the searcher’s attention to your result.  Your blurb should draw them in and give an indication as to why your result is relevant to their search query.  Highly evolved internet users mean that high rankings are no longer enough on their own; rich snippets enhance search results to help people make decisions before they click.

In addition to boosting your exposure on organic results pages, snippets also increase click-through rates from search results, because you can tailor your snippets to provide the most relevant information to the users, which then will bring more qualified traffic to your site, which means…higher conversions!

What kind of information can be included in rich snippets?

Rich snippets can be used for any type of content:

• Businesses: location, customer review
• People: photos, titles, contact information, links to published work
• Products: price range, ratings, picture
• Events: event date, location, time
• Music: link to play the song, song lyrics
• Recipes: photos, ratings, prep and cooking times
• Movies: IMDB link, actor list, synopsis
• Restaurants: reviews, star ratings, price range

As you can see in the iPhone 6 sample search above, users no longer have to comb through pages of data before realizing a website is or isn’t what they are looking for; the summary of the page, reviews, location and contact information, links to buy and price ranges all show up on the SERPs to inform users right off the bat.

Take a look at the results page image above. If you were in the market for an iPhone 6 and didn’t know much about the device, would you be more likely to click on the link with reviews and pricing details?  Probably.  Rich snippets will make your listing stand out from the competition, as you’ll be showing your product or service’s value right up front.  Worded correctly, your snippet can provide a full sales pitch to your audience, which means qualified click-throughs to your website.  If your audience is already educated on your offerings, prices and reviews from the SERPs, then clicking through to your site will mean they are that much more likely to make a purchase or commitment.

How do you get started?

Google offers a great resource on implementing rich snippets.

Three steps to rich snippets:

1. Pick a markup format.

Google suggests using microdata, but any of the three formats below are acceptable. You don’t need any prior knowledge of these formats, just a basic knowledge of HTML. Structured Data Markup Helper can show you how to add microdata to your site.

• Microdata (recommended)
• Microformats
• RDFa

2. Mark up your content.

Google supports rich snippets for these content types:

• Reviews
• People
• Products
• Businesses and organizations
• Recipes
• Events
• Music

Google also recognizes markup for video content and uses it to improve our search results.

3. Test your markup.

Use the structured data testing tool to make sure that Google can read and extract your marked-up data.

That’s it! Once you’ve added and tested your rich snippets markup, Google will discover it the next time we crawl your site.

There are also several plugins that have been created for WordPress sites that allow editors to tag rich snippets within their sites, easily and efficiently.  If you currently edit your website through WordPress, check out this list to find one that may work best for you.

To recap: 

Rich snippets boost your exposure through organic search engine results in the following ways:

• higher rankings in search results
• better click-through rates from search results
• more qualified traffic leading to higher conversion rates

In order to give your website – and products and services – more exposure in search results, rich snippets are an easy and essential way to take your SEO to the next level.

If you’d like more information on rich snippets or SEO in general, please feel free to contact us and we can help you get set up!