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Content Optimization Strategies

Semantic SEO
LSI Keywords

Rich Snippets

What Are Rich Snippets?

Rich snippets (also known as “rich results”) are normal Google search results with additional data displayed. This extra data is usually pulled from structured data found in a page’s HTML. 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:

  1. Title tag
  2. Meta description
  3. URL

Here’s an example for the query “seo basics”:

Google SERP – SEO basics

That’s a normal “snippet.”

Rich snippets take a normal snippet and add to it.

Here’s an example of a rich snippet for a book:

Google SERP – Rich snippet

As you might expect, rich snippet results are more eye-catching than normal search results. Which can lead to a higher organic CTR.

Rich Snippets are more eye catching

Google gets rich snippet data from structured markup (like Schema) in your page’s HTML.

Rich Snippet Data Taken From Page's HTML

Even though some people think that using structured data can improve your search engine rankings, Google’s search liaison Danny Sullivan has stated on X (formerly Twitter) that using structured data is not a ranking signal.

X – SearchLiaison – Schema tweet

But Google does say that structured data helps it better understand your webpages’ content.

“Google Search works hard to understand the content of a page. You can help us by providing explicit clues about the meaning of a page to Google by including structured data on the page.”

So, at least for now, the main benefit of rich snippets is providing better context to search engines and the potential for increased click-through rates.

With that, here’s how to get rich snippets.

How to Optimize Your Site for Rich Snippets: 4 Best Practices

1. Choose a Rich Snippet Type

Your first step is to identify the type of rich snippet you want to get. That way, you can use structured markup that’s specifically designed to get that type of rich snippet in the SERPs.

There are dozens of rich snippet types out there. But a good chunk of them (like flight info and books) only apply to a very specific type of site.

That’s why we’re going to focus on the eight most common types of rich snippets.

Reviews

Displays a star rating (out of 5). It can be an individual reviewer or aggregate reviews from users.

Review snippet example

Recipe

A special type of structured data that only applies to recipes. Recipe markup includes data like time to prepare the dish, reviews, and recipe images.

Recipe snippet example

Music-Related

Includes schema types like MusicAlbum, MusicRecording, MusicEvent, and MusicGroup.

Provides Google with detailed information about music content, such as album release dates, track lists, and artist details.

Music snippet example

Product

Gives search engines information about a specific product (including price and product images).

Product snippet example

Organization

Helps Google understand key information on an organization (like a business), including address, logo, and contact information).

Organisation snippet example

NewsArticle and BlogPosting

Helps news articles and blog posts appear in the “Top Stories” carousel in the search results, which requires adherence to Google News content policies.

Google SERP – Top stories

VideoObject

Search engines can’t “watch” videos on your page. So, video markup helps search engines understand what your video content is all about.

Google SERP – Videos

Event

Includes information on dates, times, location, and more.

Event snippet example

So, once you’ve picked a rich snippet type that makes sense for your content, it’s time to make it happen.

2. Understand the Basics of Structured Data

Structured data helps search engines better understand your content.

For example, let’s say you just published a blog post that featured a chili recipe:

Structured data helps Google understand your content

Without structured data, Google and other search engines have a hard time understanding:

  • How long the recipe takes
  • Which images are of the recipe itself
  • The list of ingredients
  • Steps

Enter: structured data.

When you add Recipe markup to your page, you tell search engines:

  • “The recipe takes 45 minutes”
  • “This is the list of ingredients”
  • “Here’s a picture of the dish”

And if you play your cards right, Google will show this data in the search results as a rich snippet:

Data as Rich Snippets

Pretty cool.

3. Implement Structured Data with Schema

When it comes to structured data, most websites use Schema.org markup.

Schema.org – Homepage

That’s because Schema is supported by all the major search engines (including Bing). And as you’ll see in a minute, it’s pretty darn easy to set up.

All you need to do is find the type of markup that you want to use on Schema.org.

Schema.org – Recipe

And markup your content using the guidelines on that page.

Schema.org – Recipe details

Google also has solid documentation on structured data.

Google Search Central – Documentation – Recipe

In my opinion, Google’s stuff is a lot easier to understand for people who aren’t pro developers.

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

If you use WordPress, there are plenty of plugins to choose from:

WordPress Structured Data plugins

And if you want to add your structured data markup without the help of a plugin, you can use Microdata or RDFa. But I highly recommend using JSON-LD.

That’s because JSON-LD is the easiest way to add structured markup to your page in most cases. And Google agrees:

Google Search Central – Supported formats

Without JSON-LD, you need to manually add structured data to the HTML of your page:

Manually added structured data

This is a huge pain. Plus, adding new code to your existing HTML increases the odds that something will go wrong.

But with JSON-LD, all of your structured data is packed into a little piece of JavaScript code that goes into the

section of your webpage:
JSON-LD packages all of your structured data

4. Verify with the Rich Results Test Tool

Your last step is to make sure your structured data is set up correctly.

Fortunately, Google launched an AWESOME tool that makes this step an absolute cinch: the Rich Results Test.

Google – Rich Results Test

To use it, either pop in a live URL from your site:

Rich Results Test – Search

Or copy and paste the HTML:

Rich Results Test – Code

And hit “Test Code”.

Google will then show you any structured data that it finds on your page.

Rich Results Test – Results

And if the tool finds anything funky, they’ll let you know:

Rich Results Test – Issues

One thing I should point out:

There’s no guarantee that structured data will result in a rich snippet. Even if you have everything here set up PERFECTLY.

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

Google Search Central – Structured data info

In other words:

Using structured data correctly maximizes the odds of getting rich snippets. But it doesn’t always work.

Learn More

Mark Up Your Content Items: A solid overview of structured markup that comes straight from Google.

Rich Snippets: Troubleshooting: Are your Rich Snippets not showing up? This detailed troubleshooting video from the Google Webmaster channel can help you figure out what’s going on… and fix it.

Spammy Structured Markup: Although rare, it’s possible to get a message in Google Search Console about “Spammy Structured Markup.” This guide from Google helps you figure out how to get back on track.

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