Rich Snippets

Rich snippets are a vital component of on-site search engine optimization. They help both human users and search engine robots use your site. However, the biggest advantage of rich snippets is the increase in click-through-rate.

Benefits of Rich Snippets

While rich snippets do not directly increase your search ranking on Google, they do help users and robots get a better ‘feel’ for your website or page. When users have a better feel for your website, it eliminates any of the guesswork. They know they will get the answers they need from your site, leading to more qualified traffic and a better conversion rate. Rich snippets, in this sense, function almost like a long link. Think of a hyperlink that says “click here”. It’s not very descriptive, and a user may avoid clicking on it because they don’t know where it will take them. However, if the link reads “click to download a PDF version of the Apple Crumble recipe” more users who would like an apple crumble recipe are going to click on the link. The same is true on the SERP. A user will be more likely to click on a site if they know it will take them to the information they are looking for.

Tools for Rich Snippets

There are several useful tools to help fully optimize the rich snippets on your site:

• Yoast SEO
• Schema.org
• Google Search Help
• Google Developers
• Google Search Central
• *The number of tools from Google shows just how important rich snippets are to Google

Yoast SEO

A WordPress Plugin that helps you to optimize your site for rich snippets. It makes it easy to create rich snippets that are appealing and concise to users and search engine robots alike.

Schema.org

Schema.org provides valuable information on all rich snippets, informing web-optimizers on what to include when generating rich snippets for all content forms from people to recipes. This huge catalog is in line with the requirements listed by a variety of search engines.

Google’s Tools

Google provides us with a variety of tools useful for optimizing a website for rich snippets. They provide information on rich snippets and how to best utilize them, as well as tools to test your site for rich snippets. Google’s transparency allows everyone, even small business owners, to tap into rich snippets to optimize their site and increase the click-through-rate.