Search engines and SEO are constantly evolving in line with the ever-changing ways in which people want to search for information online. So, in a relatively short period of time, search engine results pages (SERPs) have gone from simply displaying text titles, URLs and descriptions to showing searchers an array of sponsored results, images, reviews, local packs, video content and more.
Needless to say, if you can ensure that your site is displayed in these snippets, you are giving yourself the best possible opportunity to significantly increase your search engine visibility and organic traffic.
But let's start by looking at precisely what rich snippets are and how prioritising ranking for them can enhance your search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy.
What Are Rich Snippets?
Rich snippets are additional pieces of information that extend beyond the standard description and URL displayed in SERPs. These include images, local results and knowledge graphs, but there are many more that might be worth your attention. SEMrush research indicates that more than 6% of all search results include a featured snippet. Although this might not necessarily sound like a lot, it's also important to note that fewer than 3% of SERPs contain no additional features at all.
How Are Rich Snippets Impacting SERPs?
Firstly, featured snippets are providing site owners with a chance to secure more clicks from organic search results without the need to boost their overall rankings. You may even find that some optimisation professionals call the featured snippet box 'position 0' because of its placement above the first organic ranking spot.
Search Engine Land research has illustrated that featured snippets secure somewhere around 8% of clicks. Additionally, when a webpage has a featured snippet, the click-through rate (CTR) that the first organic search result can successfully generate is less than 20%.
Secondly, featured snippets are contributing to the rise in 'no-click searches' which essentially means that users aren't clicking on any of the results that are displayed because they are obtaining the information they need on the SERP itself.
What Are The Different Types Of Rich Snippets?
There are four core rich snippets that most commonly appear in SERPs.
- Definition Box
This small paragraph of text is specifically designed to provide searchers with a concise and direct description or definition. This type of rich snippet is often displayed in queries entered by searchers looking to determine what something is. The average definition contains a maximum of 60 words, so they are succinct and to the point.
- Table
Sometimes, Google will pull data from a webpage and display it in a table on a SERP. This type of snippet is often used for size and dimension guides, making comparisons easier for searchers.
- Ordered List
Ordered lists are often used for queries that need to take searchers through a specific series of steps, including recipes and how-to guides. Additionally, they are also used for queries that need to rank things in a very particular order, such as the highest grossing movies of all time.
- Unordered List
Rather than using numbers, unordered lists appear in SERPs as a simple bullet point list. This allows for the efficient communication of information without prioritising or emphasising one item over another.
But there are also a variety of other rich snippets that you could choose to optimise for.
Review Snippers And Ecommerce Businesses
Ecommerce businesses will find it enormously valuable to maintain a spot in the image carousel that sits at the top of the page when searchers enter a description of a product into a search engine. If, for example, you sell black leather shoes and you successfully obtain a spot in the rich snippet at the top of the SERP, your site will benefit from a more dynamic and visible spot in results pages.
Rich snippets consistently allow shoppers to view, compare and explore their options before they commit to making a purchase. Let's focus on organic search results here. As a consumer, you will probably be more inclined to click on a search result for a product that displays a star rating in the SERP and this is a clear example as to how a rich snippet can work in your favour. Approximately 90% of consumers will seek out and engage with at least one review before they purchase something online.
Knowledge Graph
Displayed either above or to the right of organic search results, knowledge graphs often contain information pulled from multiple sources and are displayed in SERPs for queries about organisations, people or brands.
Local Packs
If your business has physical premises, optimising for local packs can be an excellent way to enhance the visibility of your services and/or products. The prominence of local packs has increased with the rise in mobile search, particularly as mobile search queries are much more likely to be localised.
Optimising For Rich Snippets
If you want to optimise for rich snippets, you're going to need to add structured data to the HTML of your website. This will tell Google how to understand the content and context of your site, which will ultimately help it better display that information in SERPs.
Schema markup is the vocabulary used to mark up a site's source code. There are many different types of Schema markup, including products, places, organisations, events, and reviews. But, in short, structured data will help you to improve the relevancy of your webpages, boost your visibility in SERPs, and generate a higher CTR which can significantly improve your bottom line.
SEO can be complex and the implementation of Schema markup is a technical exercise that will require a solid understanding of coding, HTML and SEO. If this is something you would prefer to leave to the professionals, scheduling a consultation with a Schema markup expert will assuage any concerns you might have and place your business in the best possible position to excel in organic SERPs.
