What Are Rich Snippets for SEO? (And How to Get It)

By Erik Bonsaksen on 2023-03-16

What Are Rich Snippets for SEO? (And How to Get It)

What Is a Snippet in Search Results?

A snippet is a short description or summary of your webpage in search results (and other venues such as Google News, Bing Shopping, etc.).

Snippet example

Snippets main purpose is to provide a brief overview of the content of the search result so users quickly understand what the webpage is all about. If it's relevant to their search query, they can determine whether to click through to the page.

Normal snippets in search includes the following elements:

  • URL
  • Title
  • Description
  • Date (occasionally)

As a website manager, there's two ways to control how they are shown:

What are Rich Snippets?

Rich snippets are enhanced versions of a normal search snippet, in which search engines show additional information from the page. This can include:

  • URL
  • Title
  • Description
  • Date information
  • Product Images
  • Product Reviews
  • Ratings
  • Price information
  • Website name
  • Website icon

There's some confusion about the rich difference between snippets and results (and Google annoyingly use the terms interchangeably), so here's our take:

  • Rich snippets (or rich cards): Standard search results with additional, enhanced information displayed right next to the title link, meta description and page URL.

  • Rich results: A rich snippet is a part of rich results, and is a term used to describe all types of visually improved search results pulled from structured data. The "People also ask" feature, which is affected by structured data but not shown directly below a search result rich is a non-snippet example.

  • SERP features: Another term worth remembering, referring to anything except the blue title link and its snippet. This includes Knowledge Panels, People Also Ask, Featured Snippets, Paid ads, etc.

Example of the interaction between enhanced features:

SERP features example

When and How Can Rich Snippets Show Up?

They appear for webpages with certain content types.

Search engines always try to categorize what you're all about, and certain types such as recipes, job listings and events are eligible for enhanced search experiences.

Rich snippets are created from structured data, but only around 32 schema markup types gives you improved visibility on Google (it may the less for other search engines).

There's 797 different schema types (as of February 2nd, 2023), so only 4% supports rich snippets.

To get them, use the one of the 32 markups that corresponds to your content, and deploy it to your site's HTML code. Each markup has their own vocabulary you'll find on schema.org:

schema.org vocabulary product

Combining the right properties to something like this:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org/",
  "@type": "Product",
  "name": "This could be your webpage",
  "image": [
    "https://example.com/photos/1x1/photo.jpg",
    "https://example.com/photos/4x3/photo.jpg",
    "https://example.com/photos/16x9/photo.jpg"
  ],
  "brand": {
    "@type": "Brand",
    "name": "metamanager"
  },
  "aggregateRating": {
    "@type": "AggregateRating",
    "ratingValue": "4.4",
    "ratingCount": "89"
  },
  "offers": {
    "@type": "AggregateOffer",
    "lowPrice": "119.99",
    "highPrice": "199.99",
    "priceCurrency": "USD"
  }
}

Could create a rich snippet like that:

Rich Snippet Code Example

Note: This is a classic Review snippet bundled with a Product Schema Markup, common within e-commerce. However: Review structured data can be added to any page as long as you have qualified ratings.

Which Search Engines Support Structured Data?

Schema.org is a collaboration between Google, Bing, Yahoo and Yandex (Baidu has their own vocabulary called "Baidu Open", but it's quite similar), and all of them are using structured data to show enhanced search results in their own result page.

Rich Snippets in SEO - Do They Help?

It boosts your search results by providing more information and take more space on desktops and devices with images, stats and other graphical elements. This has a track record of giving an uplift to its click-through rates (CTR).

More traffic, more user engagement after landing on your page (because they have a better idea what to expect on the page) has a positive effect on search engine optimization (SEO).

By adding structured data which lays the foundation for a rich snippet also assist search engines to comprehend your content better and faster, and give them clues for when to show your stuff.

Overall, they play a crucial role in improving the search engine rankings and user experience for websites.

Here's an example where we markup up a client website:

rich snippet seo boost

Guess when we did our job?

Adding Rich Snippets to Website?

  1. Determine the type of rich snippet you want to add to your site: There are several types of rich snippets, including reviews, events, FAQs, products, recipes, and music.
  2. Type of content: You need to decide what type of information you want to mark up, such as a product's price, a recipe's ingredients or event's date and location.
  3. Select a schema markup format: The most common ones are Microdata, RDFa, and JSON-LD, but is the recommended one by Google.
  4. Create structured data: Generate code with applicable schema type and data, and select which pages you want to deploy it to.
  5. Validate your structured data: Use a structured data markup tool to make sure it's properly formatted and contains all required information.

Rich Snippet Tools

Efficient deployment of structured data to get rich snippets can be done through specialized software or online platforms.

These tools generate structured data for a website which you can either copy and paste to your HTML or publish it for you directly on your website.

metamanager is one of those tools that can be used on any website. Book a demo here if interested.

Types of Rich Results:

  • Rich Snippets: Provide information about a specific webpage, such as the author, date, or ratings of a review.
  • Knowledge Graphs: Info box on the right side of search results, providing additional information and instant answers, generated automatically.
  • Featured Snippets: Highlights a specific part of your webpage that directly answers a user's query.
  • Local Pack: A map and a list of nearby businesses that matches the local search query.
  • Direct Answers: Quick answers to a specific question.
  • Related Searches: List of other search terms associated with the query.
  • List, Carousel or standalone: Videos, News, Social icons, Reviews, Ratings and Images

What Are Featured Snippets?

While rich snippets improve your existing search result, featured snippets are additional information appearing above normal search results (see picture above).

Their aim is to answer questions instantly. It contributes to the "zero click searches" phenomenon where no clicks are registered due to people getting their answers directly from their queries. Some case studies even show that approx. 8% of all organic clicks goes to featured.

Types of featured snippets:

  • Definition box: Short, precise explanation on a question
  • Table: List data from a page in a table format
  • Ordered list: Typically a numbered instruction list or steps
  • Unordered list: A list in no particular order

How to Get Featured Snippets?

Google use multiple sources to produce them, and they are automated. However, you can following these tips for increasing the odds of showing up:

  • Use between 50-60 characters
  • Answer "People also ask" questions showing up on searches
  • Add headers with "What is" structure
  • Target keywords with low competition
  • Choose format you want to target, structure content thereafter

And if you were wondering: No, you can't pay to get them.

How to Block Snippets From Showing?

Did you know: You can block data and content from showing in any snippet on whole pages or specific sections by adding the nosnippet or data-nosnippet attributes.

Example using the meta robot tag:

<meta name="robots" content="nosnippet">

If both nosnippet and data-nosnippet rules is added to a page, the nosnippet takes priority and no snippets will be shown at all.

What Is a Knowledge Panel?

Google Knowledge Panel is a right-hand side box by Google that presents information about a particular person, place, or thing in a prominent and descriptive manner.

The panel may includes entities related to your search query, being definitions, images, key facts and relevant links.

All information is gathered from a variety of sources, herein structured data, to provide a comprehensive outline of the entity being searched for.

Knowledge Panel example

What is SEO Rich Text?

SEO Rich Text refers to text content that has been optimized for search engines, meaning it contains relevant keywords, meta tags, and other elements that help improve its visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).

The purpose of SEO Rich Text is to attract more organic traffic to a website and increase its visibility to potential customers. The text should not only be keyword-rich but also engaging, informative, and well-structured, so as to provide a positive user experience for visitors.

Conclusion

  • Rich Snippets are search results with added, enhanced information.
  • Add one of 32 schema markup types eligible for rich results to get them
  • They help SEO with being visually appealing and increase CTR
  • Get a rich snippet by adding structured data (for instance using metamanager)
  • Rich results are all types of visually improved search results, not only for search results
  • Featured snippets show above normal search results, answering questions directly
  • Get featured snippets by answering questions on your page content and headers
  • Knowledge panel is the information box on the right, providing extra information of a query
  • Rich text is text optimized for search engines, using relevant keywords and meta tags