Rich Snippets: what they are, importance and how to implement them

by Moises Hamui April 1, 2023

Have you ever done a Google search and immediately got a result that exactly matched your search?

It may have appeared to you through a box that answers your question or with any other graphic feature. If so, then you've come across a Rich Snippet.

Most of the time they appear and on other occasions they do not have much presence. What is a fact is that they instantly resolve the doubts, concerns and questions that users have.

If you want to learn more about Rich Snippets, as well as their characteristics and modes of operation, continue reading the article we have for you.

What are Rich Snippets?

Rich Snippets (also known as Rich Snippets or Rich Descriptions, for their translation into Spanish), are parts or extracts of content from a website that is used to categorize the information that is offered.

In other words, they are fully organic search results that rank in a manageable and attractive way .

They help users to find, access and use the information derived from their search in an orderly and fast way, without having to explore each of the displayed results.

Why are Rich Snippets important?

Rich Snippets are essential for two purposes:

They constantly innovate the ways to interpret web content through metadata. This is done in order to present websites with quality, more informative and more useful results.
It gives greater weight to the credibility factors of a website, something that users highly value.

If the content of a web page is displayed in the form of a Rich Snippet, its conversion will be higher, as long as the user finds it in the right place and at the right time.

Similarly, Rich Snippets help capture the attention and interest of users who come across them.

Advantages of Rich Snippets

Rich Snippets are generally a great perk on their own no matter their type. In order to analyze its components and benefits, we will now present the main features that make Rich Snippets an element with many advantages:

They are colorful and stand out from the other results.
They are organic.
They attract more user attention than other organic links.
They provide the opportunity to acquire more traffic.
There are more chances of conversion.
Improves the image of the brand .

The advantages can be enhanced by creating valuable and well-structured content for users. This will incentivize people to follow our material.

Types of Rich Snippets

There are various formats of Rich Snippets, each with its properties and purposes. However, there are some more common than others. Next, we will present you which are the main Rich Snippets that there are:

featured snippet

It is one of the most popular Rich Snippets and one of the favorites by users, since it exposes the content that answers the user's concern or question.

Visually, it is represented by a box that is located above all the results and directly answers the person's question, either with a fragment of the information presented by the website or with a list that retrieves the necessary data.

FAQ Snippets

It comes from Frequently Asked Questions , which in Spanish means Frequently Asked Questions. After the Featured Snippet, the FAQ Snippet are the favorites of the users.

Its visual format corresponds to that of a box with a series of questions directly and indirectly related to the central question that the user has raised.

This Rich Snippet retrieves data and information from different websites that the Google algorithm identifies as a possible answer to the question.

Business Rich Snippets

The Google algorithm is responsible for showing the public a series of businesses, shops and premises that are related to each other and that could meet the wishes of the user / consumer .

For example, if a user searches for "oriental food restaurants" on Google, the search engine will immediately show them a Rich Snippet that includes spaces with the best rating (scoring from 0 to 5 stars), location, general characteristics of the place and, what best of all, the opinions and comments of consumers who have been there before.

Product Rich Snippets

Like food and other businesses, products can also have their own Rich Snippet, where you can get a rating from 0 to 5 stars, as well as general reviews of the product or service.

How to implement Rich Snippets?

Unfortunately, it is not in the hands of digital creators to make search engines (such as Google) display Rich Snippets directly.

However, it can be achieved, through different work methods and content creation, that the search engine can prioritize the information and, therefore, show our content over that of the other results.

In order for our content and material to be positioned as a Rich Snippet, it is important to make small adjustments to the structure of the HTML code of our website. To achieve these settings, it is important to adjust three types of data: Microdata, RDFa and Microformats.

In this sense, the most effective way to enter the race to position our content through Rich Snippets is by creating and modifying quality content by implementing the ideal HTML code on our website.

Finally, to make sure that the search engine manages to create Rich Snippets with our website, it is important to take into account the following points:

Be careful with the definitions or data that we present to users.
Optimize the selection and use of keywords.
Write quality texts with added value.

Rich Snippets and SEO: How do they influence each other?

The relationship between these two concepts is clear: Rich Snippets are a substantial tool for the proliferation of SEO .

That is, by establishing a Rich Snippet above any other result (or in the well-known “zero position”), it is already part of an SEO strategy, resource and tool, since this action will attract clicks, views and conversions.

Conclusion

Rich Snippets are a fundamental tool within SEO. However, it does not depend on the will of the content creator, but on the search engine's own means and algorithms.

It is true that there are certain adjustments and configurations that can be made to web content so that they are taken into account, however, this cannot 100% ensure that it appears as a Rich Snippet.

The good side is that pursuing the ideal of trying to make our content part of an Enriched Snippet will help us readjust and improve the quality of existing and future content.

Written by Moises Hamui Abadi : I am an entrepreneur, founding partner of Viceversa and SoyMacho. After being in charge of several digital businesses and advising several other businesses; I decided to form MHA Consulting, a digital marketing consultancy dedicated to growing and empowering digital businesses in more than 7 countries and generating more than 1,500 million pesos.

Schedule a call with MHA and let us advise you so you can achieve your sales goals.