To stand a fighting chance in the world of SEO, a solid understanding of the latest evolutions and innovations is essential. That said, staying ahead of the curve is no small task and requires a firm grasp of Google’s changes and updates, such as Rich Results.
Okay, Rich Results are not exactly new. They have been around in some form for a few years at this point. However, it is also fair to say that Rich Results have never been more important than right now. If you’re not making use of them, your business is missing out.
In order to understand Rich Results and their potential benefits, we spoke with the managing director of Bristol SEO company Superb Digital, Paul Morris. If you’re scratching your head, wondering what all the fuss is about, this article is worth a read.
What are Rich Results?
Also known as Rich Snippets, Rich Results are typically found in Google’s standard search results. This is because they generally take the same form as normal search results. The difference is the additional ‘richness’, which sees extra data being displayed alongside the usual snippet.
To explain it further in detail, it is important to first look at a standard Google ‘result’ or ‘snippet’. This is generally consistent in displaying the following pieces of data:
- URL
- Title tag
- Meta description
Anyone that has used Google over the years will be familiar with the general structure and layout of a normal snippet.
A Rich Snippet is not too dissimilar. It simply takes that normal search result and adds a little extra. As for that ‘little extra’, there are different types of Rich Results that are used. The most common are:
- Reviews: Generally the most standard Rich Results type, reviews typically showcase a star rating (out of five) alongside a more specific rating. For example, a product review could have a score of 7.2/10. Reviews can be displayed by an individual reviewer – and include the author’s name – or as an aggregate from users.
- Product markup: For e-commerce websites, the product markup snippet incorporates data for a specific product page. This data can cover the price, whether it’s in stock or not, an image, and the average rating from customer reviews.
- Music: Information such as an album’s release date, genre, and length is included with this Rich Result type.
- Recipes: A recipe snippet incorporates details such as review score, length of time to cook, and an image of the recipe.
- Organisation: An organisation snippet covers a company’s key information, including its logo, contact information, and address.
- Video: By using video markup, Google better understands your video content and displays it in its “Videos” results section.
- Top stories: For Google News-approved websites, the “Top stories” box appears for current news affairs and shows relevant articles.
- Events: This includes information relating to an event, such as location, dates, and time.
To get the extra data required to create Rich Results, Google will crawl through a website page’s HTML to better understand its structured data. This data, as the name suggests, is highly organised with the intention of ensuring Google’s crawl bots can easily decipher it – and display it as part of a Rich Result.
What is the importance of Rich Results?
With a clearer understanding of rich snippets and their constituents, let’s take a look at the associated benefits. Should your business be making the most of these elements? The answer, of course, is yes. Below, we’ve illuminated a handful of reasons why Rich Results are an SEO campaigns best friend.
Boost visibility in SERPs
The most obvious advantage gained from using Rich Results is how it adds visual appeal to your content’s search results. Standard search results are by the numbers. They don’t catch the eye in a sea of other listings in the SERPs. Due to this, there is reliance on your title tag and meta description to do the heavy lifting.
With Rich Snippets in place, the weight on your title and meta descriptions’ shoulders is lessened significantly.
Whether it is an image, star rating, or price, those little extra details found in a Rich Result can make a big difference. They catch the eye and instantly boost the visual appeal of your content in the SERPs.
Increased CTR
You have that added visibility. What naturally comes next? An improved click-through rate. Your snippet is much more enticing, and that results in your target audience clicking and seeing what content you have to offer.
This is particularly beneficial if your competitors haven’t fully jumped on board the Rich Results train. If every search result includes these rich snippets, you’re effectively back on a level playing field. Yet if it’s only your website that features them when matched against your rivals, your content instantly stands out from the crowd – and that leads to an improved CTR.
Give your pages more relevancy with Google
To create Rich Results, you need to ensure your website’s data is structured the right way. Although Google hasn’t outright said that structured data has a direct impact on their search rankings, it doesn’t take too much thinking to see why it would be seen favourably.
As you know already, Google has to better understand your content for Rich Results to be produced. You have to structure your data the right way. A positive knock-on effect of this, you would imagine, is that Google will be in a better position to decipher your content in general and position it within relevant search results.
Be ready for the future
If you have been paying close attention to recent developments at Google, you’ll know this search engine has advanced significantly in recent years. With continued refinement and the introduction of AI technologies, Google is quickly moving away from more rudimentary SEO tactics – such as using keywords as their main base to determine the relevancy of content.
By structuring your web pages correctly with Rich Results in mind, you gain the added benefit of effectively future-proofing your site. Your content is already more relevant for “semantic search”, which means you don’t have to make any swift adjustments once this becomes the norm with Google and other search engines.
Implementing Rich Results for your business
You have seen the benefits, and you’re convinced. Your business needs to start displaying those Rich Results in Google searches. Sadly, it’s not a case of pressing the ‘Yes to Rich Results’ button on. Plenty of work is required from your side to get everything up and running.
Once you have decided on the Rich Snippets type that best suits your content, you have to learn how to incorporate structured data into your content.
Using Schema to implement structured data
Structured data is the basis for generating Rich Results. To do this effectively, most will turn to one source: Schema. With the Schema.org markup, you are able to match the Rich Snippet type (or types) you require with relative ease.
That point is one of the reasons why Schema is a popular solution. It provides you with everything you need to get your content structured. Furthermore, Google and other major search engines all support Schema, which means you’re not being punished or restricted by using it for your site.
If you need a little assistance working with Schema and structured data, Google has put together a helpful guide. Is your website built through WordPress? In that case, plug-ins are also available to make the job a little bit easier.
Checking your structured data is working correctly
No, this isn’t a case of trying to find your content in search results to see if it’s displaying rich information. There is a more technical – and convenient – method for completing this task. That is using Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.
With this tool, you are able to check the structured data of a page by simply adding the URL and clicking “Run Test”. Alternatively, you can paste the HTML code directly into the tool. Either way, once inputted, Google will highlight what structured data – if any – it finds on the page you provided. It will also point out any errors that exist.
Ask An Expert
Making the most of Rich Results requires a little expert know-how. Implemented correctly, this structured data can boost visibility, improve click through rates and supercharge SERP relevancy. To achieve the best results, however, it’s worth employing a professional.
Whether you have technical experience or not, there is always a risk of human error while tinkering around with code. Rather than make a potential mistake that hampers your ability to generate Rich Results, expert assistance can guarantee your site is up to the task.
Of course, even with the perfect structured data set up, there’s no guarantee you will gain Rich Results. That said, the right approach will maximise your chances of success.
