Click here to see an Infographic: Why Featured Snippets are so important for SEO
Hi my fellow entrepreneurs and Digital Marketers, today we will be doing a deep dive into something very interesting and definitely the most powerful thing in 2020 for an SEO perspective. We are talking about Rich Snippets
What are Rich Snippets and why do you need them for SEO
Before we dive deep into how to use rich snippets, let us understand what is meant by rich snippets. Rich snippets are a type of structured data markup developers can embed on webpages using HTML. The markup tells SERPs what type of information can be found in the content on a specific page. The important thing to note is that much like the canonical tag, the positive effects of adding Rich snippets to your webpage is much more noticeable especially as a way to get noticed by Google:
The positive benefits of Adding Rich snippets to your website are:
- Amped up Search results as your website becomes more Visible to Google and other Search engines.
- Relevancy: your website becomes more valuable and relevant to google because of the way your website serves data to search engines and its relevance to the public searching for said data.
- Ease of Use : The Search Data is normally easy to use when you are found using rich snippers because the user can only see the results of the search query they have minus the hassle of clicking the link and going to another website to check it out and read it in detail.
- If you are the owner of the site you will benefit from getting increased number of link click throughs for Free !, a huge reduction in bounce rates, and because your users get good value from your content and relevancy to their questions they will value your brand even before they visit your website.
So, let’s get right down to it….
What Are Rich Snippets?
Rich Snippets are the basically the Codes that that are called structured data markup that you can add to your existing website, these codes allow search engines to find information more easily on your website. in 2020 search engines have started using these markup tools to enable search queries to generate content publishing on the SERPs itself using these codes to highlight and structure your rich data in a search friendly manner. Normally when your website shows up on a particular Search result for a particular keyword or group of keywords, the search engines like Google display basic information for the listing like Site URL+ page URL and a brief description of the text and content in that link along with the metadata for that link. Now after Rich Snippets have come into play Google can now display more detailed information about the present search result.
Let me show you some examples of Rich Snippets:
1. Rich Answer (This is Not a Featured Snippet)
Rich Answers, which is also called Instant Answers basically they are answers delivered by Google, when you ask a question which requires a factual answer like for example:
What is the distance from Earth to the Moon?
You will get an answer like this:
These are mostly factual questions with answers that are facts about everyday things and Google does not credit any website for it and it is public domain knowledge.
2. Knowledge Graph
Knowledge Graph are again not really Rich snippets and are normally answers pulled up from a variety of sources names and are shown in list or a carousel shaped parade of images with text. You can see these types of search results pulled up for Types of brands, description of people, and list of organizations.
For example, if I search for latest movies on Netflix I get this :
3. The Paragraph Featured Snippet
You have definitely experienced this kind of snippet where you have asked a question on google and Google has extracted a piece of information from the relevant page to answer your question. If you want to use this kind of snippet you have to answer the question asked by the user directly, and give enough information to tweak the interest of the reader. For example, you can use FAQ pages which are ideal to answer Multiple choice questions at once. While you will need to provide a complete blog post to answer a question that requires a more elaborate answer like this one perhaps.
You will also see Paragraph Snippets for question like
How to…?
Why is…?
What is…?
When was …?
What are the kinds of Content you can include in Rich Snippets
Structured Data Markup or Rich Snippets, can be utilized with the content types that are as follows:
1. Reviews – In this case, individual and overall industry-wide or sector-wide aggregate reviews are definitely supported, although each type has its own properties.
2. Celebrities or Well-known People- if you are searching for a well-known person Google and Bing two of the biggest search companies in the world are currently showing more detailed rich information about people from Linked In. if you are looking at bumping up your profile a notch even if you have a very unique name then it includes your profile into the website as well as staff profiles, Junior teamsters, The properties that must include name, title, role, professional affiliations, and contact details.
3. Products – If you are in the business of selling products through e-commerce or through online sales, Rich snippets are one of the best tools you can use on the website so that your products can get the publicity for every search. Google has adapted this to make it one of the most important uses of structured data markup. Products or special offers or promotions that are available through e-commerce stores or merchants, particularly online stores. When you want to post this kind of data you need to input Properties like name, image, brand, description, SKU identification (ISBN, SKU, etc.) and you can even check out reviews, which are completely expandable with currency price and seller with additional descriptions of the seller, condition of the product and quantity of the product.
Multivendor e-commerce stores who offer the same product from multiple merchants can use low price and high price function to demonstrate the entire price range for these products.
4. Businesses & Organizations– when you want to promote your business or company you can use rich snippets with properties like business name, address (Physical and domain URL), Telephone number, and brand logo.
5. Recipes – if you are using structured data markup or rich snippets for recipes you can offer several properties, related to cooking and recipe collations. This can include all the elements of the dish from the style of the dish, Origins, reviews, preparation style and prep time you can also add nutritional information into the mix from serving size, calorific content, amount of fat contained to more …much more detailed descriptions.
6. Events – if you into event management, or in the business of events, then you definitely need structured markup. You can promote your future occurring events Only and not your previous events. Rich snippets can include properties like the event’s official name, start and end date, duration, other information can also be related to the ticket price, and purchase location details and geolocation of the venue. Events you can also do the same thing with Video and get your video ranked in the #1 position on Google with a few simple steps which we have explained in another blog.
So now you know all the theory regarding Rich snippets let’s get into the practical realm.
how to Rank #1 On Google And Youtube using Rich Snippets
Step 1 Select the markup specifications: You can write your structured data using a few different specifications. Microdata, JSON-LD, and RDFa are the three markup specifications. I have made a separate video Guide on Rich Snippets where were have done a deep dive on Rich snippets in this guide, “How to Get Rich Snippets,” we will walk you through the building, testing, and publishing your markup specifications. If you log on to Google’s Introduction to Structured Data guide, you can find a lot more information on this topic.
Step 2 Determine the Content Type: Google has the capability to add enhanced features to search results, such as recipe review or product price. With the help of “Businesses & Organizations” content type you can help make rich snippets to display for your organization type. You can also choose from a variety of other content types, including Events, Music, People, Products, Recipes, Reviews, and Video. Watch Our Rich snippets guide in the description below.
Step 3 Identify all Required Properties: While deciding on rich snippets, it is vital to take into consideration every single one. You’ll want to be sure to include item scope, item type and itemprop when coding your structured data markup. Depending on the, you can enter additional information about your pages, such as rating, author and publication date. A SEO expert from our team can populate all of the required markup data to get you the visibility your business deserves.
Step 4 Develop the Structured Data Markup: You’ll need to develop your markup code so as to get Google Rich Snippets to appear for your business. This requires that you include the minimum required information in order for Google to serve rich snippets for your content. For businesses, the mandatory fields required to be filled are as follows: business name, company logo and URL. Read more about the vocabulary used with structured data markup at and use to generate the required code.
Step 5 Test the Structured Data Markup: It is vital that you have a written structured data markup. You can wait for Google to fetch your rich snippiest however there is no guarantee on the time it will take to get fetched. Fortunately, Google helps users with a free tool that can help you validate your embedded code. After you’ve added the markup to your website, you can test your page by making use of
Step 6 Monitor SERPs for the Rich Snippet: There is nothing more pleasing than seeing your hard work reap fruits. Depending on how often you publish content on your webpage as well as how often Google crawls your website pages, it may take more than a week before you notice your rich snippets in Google’s SERP. By making use of, you can monitor the status of the structured data added on your domain as well as on specific pages, items. By making use of this tool, you can also find out errors that have been detected on a particular page.
About The Author : Lovetto Nazareth
Lovetto Nazareth is a digital marketing consultant and agency owner of Prism Digital. He has been in the advertising and digital marketing business for the last 2 decades and has managed thousands of campaigns and generated millions of dollars of new leads. He is an avid adventure sports enthusiast and a singer-songwriter. Follow him on social media on @Lovetto Nazareth
