What are Rich Snippets?

Rich snippets (also known as "rich results") are normal Google search results with additional data.

This additional data is usually taken from structured data in the HTML code of a page / Website retrieved.

Common rich snippet types include reviews, recipes, and events.

Why are rich snippets important?

The vast majority of Google search results display the same three pieces of data:

• Title tag
• Meta description
• URL

Here is an example:

This is a normal "excerpt".

Rich snippets take a normal snippet… and enhance it.

Here is an example of a rich snippet:

As expected, the results from rich snippets are more eye-catching than normal search results… which can lead to a higher organic click-through rate.

Google receives rich snippet data from structured markup (such as Schema) in the HTML-Code of your page.

Although some people believe that using structured data can improve search engine rankings, Google said, that the use of structured data is not a ranking signal:

At least for the moment, the main advantage of rich snippets is an increased click-through rate.

Therefore, not directly for Search Engine optimization to use, but rather to increase the click-through rate.

Rich Snippets Tips & Tricks

Choose a rich snippet type

The first step is to determine the type of rich snippet you want to obtain.

This way you can use Structured Markup, which was specifically designed for this type of rich snippet in the SERPs.

There are dozens of rich snippet types.

However, a good portion of it (such as flight information and books) only applies to a specific type of website.

Therefore, we will focus on the 8 most common types of rich snippets.

Reviews: Displays a star rating (out of 5 points). This can be from a single reviewer or a composite rating from other users.

Top Stories: Enables the display of a website in the "Top Stories" section of search results. Only applies to websites approved by Google News.

Video: Search engines cannot display videos on your page. Video markup helps search engines understand what your video content is about.

Events: Contains information about date, time, location and more.

recipes: A special type of structured data that applies only to recipes. Recipe markup contains data such as preparation time, ratings, and recipe images.

Music: Does Google provide information about music, such as release dates for albums?

Product Markup: Provides search engines with information about a specific product (including price and product images).

Organisation: Does Google help to understand important information about an organization (such as a company), including its address? Logo and contact information.

Once you have selected a rich snippet type that makes sense for your content, it's time to enable it.

Understanding the fundamentals of structured data

Structured data helps search engines better understand your content.

Let's say you've just published a blog post with a cookie recipe:

Without structured data, it is difficult for Google and other search engines to understand:

• How long does the recipe take?
• Which pictures are of the recipe itself?
• The list of ingredients
• steps

Enter the following: Structured data.

Adding a recipe tag to your page tells search engines:

• “The recipe takes 45 minutes”
• "This is the list of ingredients."
• "Here is a picture of the court."

If you play your cards right, Google will display this data in the search results as a rich snippet.

Implementing structured data with a schema

Regarding structured data, most websites use Schema.org markup.

This is because Schema is supported by all major search engines (including Bing).

And as you will soon see, it is quite easy to install.

You just need to find the type of markup you want to use on Schema.org.

…And label your content according to the guidelines on this page.

Google also has solid documentation. to structured data (example: recipe).

In our opinion, Google's stuff is much easier to understand for people who aren't developers.

How you actually add structured data code to your website is entirely up to you.

If you Wordpress To use them, there are numerous plugins to choose from:

And if you want to add your Structured Data Markup without a plug-in, you can use Microdata or RDFa.

However, we strongly recommend using JSON-LD.

This is because JSON-LD is the easiest way to add structured tags to your page.

Without JSON-LD, you have to manually add structured data to your page's HTML code.

This is a great pain.

Adding new code to your existing HTML also increases the likelihood of something going wrong.

With JSON-LD, however, all your structured data is packed into a small piece of JavaScript code that is inserted into the `<head>` section of your website.

Test with the structured data testing tool

As a final step, you need to ensure that your structured data is set up correctly.

Fortunately, Google has launched a great tool that makes this step incredibly easy: The Structured Data Testing Tool.

To use it, either access a live URL of your website, or copy and paste HTML.

And press "Perform test".

Google will then show you all the structured data found on your page.

And if the tool finds something unconventional, it will let you know.

There is no guarantee that structured data will lead to rich snippets, even if you have set everything up PERFECTLY.

In fact, Google makes this very clear in their documentation:

Mit anderen Worten:

Using structured data correctly maximizes the chances of obtaining rich snippets.

But it doesn't always work.