"Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works."
Want to learn more about SEO ranking, schemas, and snippets, but are too tired of technical articles that are making complicated things look even harder? I have decided to create a summary of research that will be understandable to literally everyone. And yes, of course, it is related to Rich Snippets and the SEO ranking of a website... So, let's start from the very beginning!
Although there are many definitions of Rich Snippets, I think it's best to think of them as structured data that is providing additional information in the search result. It is a structured data markup that's added to the HTML code of the website.
Okay, but what does that look like in practice? You can think of Rich Snippets as of formatted display info that is provided to the users by Google.
Almost all snippets have the same formation. They consist of:
*The title of the page
*URL of the website
*Small description.
Since 2009, Google stopped using only simple snippets and started implementing Rich Snippets as well.
From that year, Google has started providing additional context in SERPs, or simply said - it offered a new chance to users to understand what they actually click on. Besides that, with Rich Snippets, every user can get additional information and understand if the website they've visited is truly relevant to their purposes.
That's exactly what interests us all - A website and content that is relevant for the user's purposes! Sounds familiar?
We all want to create websites and optimize them in such a way users will like and need them. That is exactly how Rich Snippets and SEO are related because the success of the SEO ranking is connected with what Rich Snippets show to the users.
But we will talk more about that a bit later. Let's see what else Rich Snippets bring to us first...
Often searching for delicious recipes? You probably want to know more about the nutritional value and calories of that dish, right?
Rich Snippets play a role in that too. Cooking time of a recipe, calorie information, nutritional value - all that information is displayed by Rich Snippets.
Most often, such content contains at least a small image at the side with the purpose to complete the user's interests and experience.
Rich Snippets that contain images are very attractive to the users.
To be completely clear from the very beginning, not every website gets a rich snippet, no matter how hard you try. Unfortunately, that's not because Google is ''selfish'' to provide it, but because people just don't know how to get one on their website - or they don't provide and represent relevant information.
The good thing is that you are here, reading this, and learning more about it because there are high chance that you get a Rich Snippet which will improve your SEO. Here's how...
There's only ONE WAY to get a rich snippet - you have to provide structured data to your website. Tell the users what your website is truly about and be sure that you highlight those things that represent you, your business, and what is the most important about it all.
Once you provide all this information to search engines, you make your chances of creating a detailed snippet much higher.
Still interested? Let me tell you a secret then - Your best option to achieve all this successfully is through Schema markup...
All the major search engines use the same structured data, called Schema markups. How you can and should use it?
Once you decide that Schema markup is your way to get a Rich Snippet, you have to go through that vocabulary list of categorized tags on your web. For example, you can have two categories like creative works and organizations. The best would be to think of a further categorization of such fields, or better said - create subcategories.
Sounds like too much work? Think of it this way - once you're done with marking up every single page or anything on your website, you're almost there to get a Rich Snippet.
But always keep in mind - use only the information that's the most relevant and important.
Spammy markup? In this case, Google may even remove your rich snippet even if you get it, so don't exaggerate with the info.
Here's another interesting tip. Work in WordPress? Then the best would be to just use a plugin for creating structured data.
Be sure that all of your structured data is correct. Although this doesn't guarantee that you will 100% get a rich snippet, it definitely is a huge step that will probably make it all possible.
All in all, you must have a website that is useful for your users, which will later lead you to your Rich Snippet.
Anyways, don't worry if you still don't get a rich snippet after all this work because every structured data on your website improves SEO ranking anyways.
And if all of this wasn't clear, here is the simplest example of what Schema.org looks like - Schema vocabulary + microdata formatting -> (added to) HTML content.
The simple answer is - YES. Although Rich Snippets aren't some sort of an official ranking factor that will immediately improve your ranking, we have now seen, after all this information, that it can have a huge impact on your traffic.
Rich Snippet helps your SEO ranking because more and more people will find your website relevant and click on it. Therefore, you'll start to rank higher than the others.
Getting more visitors? Search Engines are now capable to recognize your importance to the users.
Are you the best result for them? They'll immediately improve your ranking.
Overall, once you completely structure your data on the website and represent only relevant things, you'll also start getting users that are about to stay on your website for the long term.
And, of course, be patient. Rich Snippets can occur on your website with time. Don't expect them to bring results immediately as well. Work in that direction, and I promise, it will all pay off.
Ready to get into this process? You need just a little bit of patience, but you will create eye-catching and quality results and probably even increase clicks-through rates. Of course, your website will gain more followers (hopefully those who are there for a long stay).
Want to test your website if it can rank for getting a Rich Snippet? Try this RR testing page ->
https://search.google.com/test/rich-results
The future of Rich Snippets is also obvious. They are about to bring us more relevant search results and increased ranking.
