Rich results are enhanced search results that contain additional visual or textual details about a site’s pages. Having rich results can make your pages stand out in the SERPs, drive more traffic to your website and improve click-through rate. So, how do you actually appear in rich results?
In order to make a page eligible for rich results, you’ll need to implement structured data. Structured data (otherwise known as schema) is markup created to help search engines understand and classify site content. To increase your chances of appearing in rich results, you’ll want to identify the right type of structured data for your pages, create the structured data and validate this schema.
Keep reading to learn more about rich results and how they help SEO.
Rich results (also known as “rich snippets”) are a type of Google search results that show extra details about your webpage, such as ratings, images and prices to help you attract more attention and traffic from search engines. Generally, to make your site eligible, you need to implement structured data markup, found in the webpage’s HTML, which helps Google understand the content of the page. Take a look at this example of a rich snippet:
In the example above, we can see that this product has gained a rich result, showing the Aggregate rating, amount of reviews, price and image. Consequently, the product is made more appealing to users.
Follow these step-by-step instructions if you’re hoping to add rich results to your site’s pages.
First things first, you’ll need to identify the type of rich snippets that are relevant to your website content
Review SERP results for your target keywords and have a look at what competitor’s search results look like. Take a look at the Google Search Gallery to find out which options are available and which one will work best for your type of content. Each type shows how your content will be enhanced if you get one of these rich results. Some of the common types of rich results provided by Google are:
Product Markup Snippet – Product markups display a product’s availability, image, price, review, count and rating. These enhancements are particularly beneficial for ecommerce sites.
FAQ Snippet – A frequently asked question (FAQ) snippet shows a list of questions and answers under the title and description of your page. In order to create these, you’ll need to have landing pages or blog posts where you’ve included frequently asked questions and answers.
Please Note – As per Google’s recent announcement, FAQ snippets will now only be displayed for authoritative government and health websites.
Review Snippet – A review snippet displays ratings from review websites and can be about products, books, recipes, films, software apps or local businesses.
Recipe Snippet – A recipe snippet shows rating, review count, cooking duration and calories. If you cover recipes on your website, there’s a good chance you’ll achieve this type of snippet.
Organisation Snippet – This snippet type provides information about an organisation. More often than not, it displays an address and contact information.
Local Business Snippet – This snippet typically displays reviews, details about working hours and the different departments within a business. It’s great for local SEO because it will help your website appear in the most relevant local search results.
Events Snippet – This snippet highlights essential information about events such as date and location. If you sell tickets for events and concerts, this type of snippet will apply to you.
Once you understand what type of rich results may be available to your website, it’s time to create and add appropriate structured data markup code to your pages to make them eligible. Structured data or schema markup is standardised data that you can attach to your website to organise the information and classify page content, helping search engines understand what the site’s content is about.
Schema can be implemented on web pages using one of the following formats – JSON-LD, Microdata and RDFa however JSON-LD is the recommended format. Take a look at this sample so that you can understand how schema is structured:
Schema markup can be created manually, and this may be the right choice for you if you manage a small website and looking to implement basic schema like Organisation or Local Business markup. You can use tools like Structured Data Markup Helper and online generators like the Merkle Schema Markup Generator.
If you are struggling, you can also use AI platforms such as ChatGPT to create your schema. Simply use a prompt such as ‘Give me a LocalBusiness schema template’ and then fill in the required areas with your own information. Once it has created the schema, it’s crucial that you validate your schema to make sure that it is correct. Copy the code and run it through two different structured data testing tools.
However, creating schema markup manually can be time-consuming and may result in errors, or outdated data being presented to crawlers.
*To find out how to implement the schema yourself, skip to ‘How To Use Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper?’ in the FAQs.
On the other hand, if you’d rather save time and eliminate errors, there are numerous tools that can help you automatically and dynamically generate the structured data. If you’re using WordPress, you can try the following plugins which incorporate the structured data feature; Yoast SEO, Rank Math or All In One SEO. Alternatively, you can also choose from a range of dedicated schema plugins such as schema and schema structured data for WP & AMP.
Implementing data dynamically will ensure that your markup stays up-to-date and accurately reflects the content of your pages at all times. This is particularly relevant to large sites such as eCommerce stores, where manually implemented or static data could quickly become outdated.
To read more about the importance of structured data for SEO, take a look at our insightful article, ‘Is Structured Data a Google Ranking Factor?’
*Remember, if you have a separate mobile and desktop site, you’ll want to add structured data to both versions.
The final step is to check whether your structured data is set up correctly. We recommend that you use Google’s Rich Results Testing tool to do this.
In this example, the “name” field is missing. This is why the structured data is returning an error. In order to fix this, all you need to do is add the name of the field and specify the name of the recipe in the code.
Remember – Even if you add appropriate structured data markup with no errors, there is no guarantee that your pages will appear as rich snippets. It’s completely down to Google whether it wants to show a rich snippet or not.
In many cases, the amount of rich results shown for a particular search is limited – for example, the recipe gallery generally contains three highlighted results when you first input a search. Therefore, your structured data implementation needs to be part of a well-formed SEO strategy, increasing your chances of ranking on the first page and therefore appearing for rich results.
Rich results make your pages more visually appealing in the SERPs, making them stand out from regular search results. Consequently, users are more likely to click rich snippets, improving the organic click-through-rate (CTR).
On top of improving your CTR, there is another SEO advantage to having rich results. The structured data code you add to win rich snippets actually helps Google better understand the content of your page. If Google can understand your page better, it may rank it better and for more relevant search queries.
Implementing structured data is an essential step in ensuring your content is properly understood by search engines. To make sure your pages are eligible for appearing as rich results, your structured data needs to be compliant with Google’s guidelines for rich results.
At Wildcat Digital, we can help you increase your chances of gaining rich results, giving your pages a serious visibility boost in search results. Visitors who see these enhanced features are far more likely to visit your site.
So, what are you waiting for? Get in touch with our friendly team to find out more about rich results or visit our SEO page for further information.
There is no difference between “rich snippets” and “rich results”. In fact, they both refer to the same thing, according to Google. Most people use these words interchangeably so you don’t need to worry about misunderstanding or miscommunication.
The bottom line is that both terms describe search results that provide more information than the standard blue links.
Follow these steps to add structured data using Google’s Structured Markup Helper:
Google introduced a new rule in 2023 stating ‘for your FAQ page to be eligible for FAQ rich results, your site must be a well-known, authoritative government or health website” and you must follow these guidelines:
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Our founder, Will Hitchmough, worked at a number of high profile Sheffield Digital Agencies before founding Wildcat Digital in 2018. He brings an extensive knowledge of all things related to SEO, PPC and Paid Social, as well as an expert knowledge of digital strategy.
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