Rich Snippets 101 for your SEO

When you perform a search query, the search engine results page (SERP) will automatically provide a list of websites to choose from based on their rankings. Usually, from the SEO, you do see the website link with a few lines of sentences and some bold words below the link before clicking on the link to see what content is to be expected on that page.

What are those?

Well, the few lines are also known as rich snippets that serve as a “preview” to the website and can be used for many functions. This is also one way used by Search engine optimisation services to boost websites to rank higher in the search engines. For any beginners learning SEO, this is 1 of the first few things you should really master at the beginning!

What are rich snippets? 

Rich snippets are known as all sorts of organic search results that include more information in addition to the URL, title with reviews, and description. They make the website shown by the SEO more visually appealing to add value for the readers. They are structured data markups that can be added to your website to transform the site to be more informative and on sight for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). 

These are the same three most common snippets of information that appears in the vast majority of search results:

• Meta Description
• Title/Header tag
• URL

What is a structured data markup? How does it help?
It is important to understand what structured data is as it helps search engines to better understand your content. All kinds of data that are stored in a fixed field within a file are classified as structured data. It enables search engines to mark up elements on a webpage, allowing Google to read the content on that page. 

Structured data can consist of the information. For example, music where it has to include how long the video is, who is the producer, the type of genre, and where the studio is located at.

Example of how a rich snippet will appear on Google search results:

Are you still with us? If it’s too complicated for you at this moment, simply let us – your SEO consultant take care of your snippets for you. 🙂

How does Google utilize rich snippets?

Rich snippets are generated using structured data relevant to certain types of content. The information is structured and arranged in a way that Google can understand and utilize for SERPs, SEOs, and other reasons. 

By labeling your pages with Schema or rich snippets, you are notifying search engines that your results should include richer content. You can also read a blog about the top trends of SEO 2021 here.

How do rich snippets actually help you?

The information shown on Google will allow the content to turn “richer” with the help of rich snippets. This is where the Schema which is the language of search engines or structured data markups comes in. They help to boost snippets to make the content-rich by producing more relevant and eye-catching information for the search engine to capture and understand. 

Though rich snippets are not always useful as some functions are meant for very specific purposes, they still assist in communication between websites and the search engine. 

Rich snippets make search engines provide 

• Richer
• more specific and,
• relevant results

This makes seeing information easier for the user. For example, if they are looking for reviews, a snippet with limited information shows, giving the user a rough notion of what the website is about by reading the brief description.

Do agencies use rich snippets?

SEO services in Singapore will add rich snippets to make your website’s HTML more visible. It is something similar to On-Page SEO and technical SEO where it aids in the optimisation of web pages in the search for certain keywords in order to increase traffic and aims to enhance the technical aspects of your website in order to increase its search engine ranking.

This helps to enable search engines to notice your website’s presence and content on the page. Some benefits of adding rich snippets to a website would include

It can be used in many different areas for its multi-purpose functions such as:

• Products
• Reviews
• People
• Businesses
• Recipes
• Events 
• Music
• Video

What type of functions do rich snippets perform?

Snippet works with small details that can be remembered easily and instantly to achieve the main purpose:

• Increase click-through-rate (CTR)

Here are some tips in using rich snippets as it is always important to choose which type you want to use or include in such as 

• reviews by displaying star ratings
• product specifications such as including the price and stock information 
• business information with the date of establishment and more background information

More information will be shown on the search engine result page whether it is a review, a company, a person, or a product, it will be displayed by the search engine.

What is the difference between rich snippets and featured snippets?

Rich snippets improve pre-existing search results, whereas highlighted snippets show above the usual SERP results.

How to add rich snippets to your website?

If you are unsure of how to get rich snippets, do not worry. Before that, it is important as mentioned earlier that you have to choose which rich snippets are most suitable for your content to maximize the SEO potential. 

Here are some tips on how you can add snippets to your website.

• Adding structured data can be time-consuming and difficult to comprehend. Though you will have to pay money, it will be well worth it because you will be paying for their knowledge, talents, and service.

As a result, SEO consulting will benefit you because it will assist you in creating a structured data graph on your website to help search engines better understand your content.

• When you add structured data to your website, Google will be able to offer rich results.

Due to it being in a coding format, it is written in a way that search engines can comprehend by reading the code and using it to generate rich snippets.

• Include featured snippets. What is a featured rich snippet? 

Well, both rich and featured snippets are different as rich snippets help in ranking while featured snippets are ones that Google selects to answer a specific search query. Therefore, by using a featured snippet that includes bullet points and graphs in your content, it prompts a pop-up of your website the moment the user enters the search query.

By adding rich snippets, it can have an impact on how the SEO ranks. Rich snippets are a more sophisticated SEO approach that should be at the top of your SEO campaign’s priority list. They have the potential to become a key ranking factor in search engines in the future. If you are unsure about what to do, simply enquire and sign up for any SEO packages here. We can do the work for you. 🙂