Have you already heard about rich snippets? Well, we can tell you that there is a great chance you will hear a lot about it in the future! Why? Rich snippets are the new SEO trend that many web masters of web pages will implement this year. In this blog we will tell you what rich snippets are and how you can implement them into your website!
What are rich snippets?
Rich snippets basically are enriched search results, which may appear in different formats. The most well-known format is that of reviews on the basis of yellow stars. But rich snippets may also appear as events and other things. Rich snippets are by all means pointed at giving visitors an idea of what the page is about and making it clear for them why the web page is relevant for them.
The clothing webshop UniQ, for instance, uses rich snippets. When entering the query 'UniQ kleding' in Google, one sees the following:
In this way, one is able to see how former costumers rated the webshop. This kind of information is what makes rich snippets an important contribution to costumer decisions. The reason for the latter is that many people see recommendations of other people as reliable. Since the rating of this webshop is quite good, there is a big chance people will go to this web page when seeing this page in the search results. They will be less likely to go to a web page which does not use rich snippets.
Rich snippets are seen as very important for SEO. Google puts much effort into separating very good good content from content that is of lower quality. Especially visitors of web pages may determine what is good web content and what is not. Therefore, Google attaches great importance to rich snippets. By the means of rich snippets, people are able to rate websites and are able to see, just by looking at the search results, whether they will find the information they are looking for on a web page. Furthermore, rich snippets contribute to web care, which has become increasingly important, as a result of the fast increasing number of webshops.
What kind of rich snippets are there?
Rich snippets can be made by Google or other search engines, when the search engine understands the information on the page. For this reason, web masters should include markers in the HTML of a web page in a particular kind of way. The marker that is included in the HTML determines the format of the rich snippet. That is why rich snippets may appear in different formats, depending on the kind of website. On a recipe web page, the total cooking time may appear. Or in the case of a music album, the tracks can be mentioned in the rich snippets. In order to let the right kind of rich snippet appear on a website, a certain kind of HTML markup must be added to the web page. Google offers help for web masters, by which web masters can make the right HTML markup, in order to let the right rich snippet appear.
The following things may appear as rich snippets:
Rich snippets started with reviews which appeared as stars. However, as rich snippets have developed over time, they have appeared in more formats. Reviews, Persons, Products, Companies, Recipes, Events, Music, Video Content & Breadcrumbs may also appear as rich snippets nowadays.
By clicking on the links, you are able to see what you must do in order to make a rich snippet in the mentioned format.
In short, rich snippets help visitors determine whether the website is relevant for their query. This may lead to more clicks to the page of your website. Now you might also want to implement rich snippets into your website. Rich snippets are actually not so hard to implement as it may seem. We will tell you how to do it.
How do I add reach snippets to my web page?
You should help Google or another search engine by implementing certain HTLM markups into your pages. On the basis of these markers, search engines are able to recognize certain types of data and to display them as rich snippets.
In these steps we will tell you how to add rich snippets to your web page:
1. Select a marking format
There are three types of marking formats you can use in order to create rich snippets. For all these three types of formats only very basic HTML knowledge is required and there are lots of tutorials on the Internet to teach you how to use a format to create rich snippets. Although all three formats can be used, Google itself recommends micro data.
- Microdata (recommended)
- Microformats
- RDFa
2.Mark your content
As we just told you, Google supports rich snippets for different content types:
By clicking on a link, the Google webmasters help program tells you exactly what to do in order to let the right rich snippet appear on your web page.
3. Test your markers
By using this program, you can test whether Google is able to scan and extract the marked data which you have implemented into the HTML of your web page.
5. Submit
You will have to let Google know that you are interested in using rich snippets. You can do this by the help of this tool.
That's all folks! When you have implemented the rich snippet markers and tested them, Google will discover them when crawling your web page. However, it may take a while before the rich snippets will be displayed.
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Do these steps assure me that Google will display rich snippets?
The answer is no. Although these steps are a prerequisite to let rich snippets appear, they do not assure you that they will appear. It is not very clear in which way Google determines whether it will let rich snippets appear or not. Probably, this is also one of the well-kept secrets of how Google determines the positions of information in the search results.
The answer to this question is yes. In addition to the fact that rich snippets contribute to the ranking of your web page, rich snippets also enhance the click trough rate (CTR) of your web page. Because your web page is displayed in a particular kind of way in the search results, people will notice the relevant issues. This will lead to more traffic to your web page and will leave your competitors far behind.
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