What are Google rich snippets?

Getting to grips with digital marketing jargon can feel overwhelming. Before we proceed any further, take a look at our blog here to familiarise yourself with the basics of SEO, and why it’s important for your business.

As you know by now, Google (and other search engines) are king: they’re the first port of call for potential shoppers, providing them with search results that will hopefully lead them straight to your business. 

Search engines ‘crawl’ the internet, collecting and analysing information in order to present a searcher with the results most relevant to them.

Remember, search engines are the ‘gatekeepers’ of all the information on the web – and if you want your business to rank highly in the search results, you’ll need to provide Google with information that is credible, easy to understand, and relevant.

Google displays search results using ‘snippets’

If you search for ‘MiWay’, Google will present several snippets, that look like this:

A rich snippet contains more information than a normal snippet

As you can see, the rich snippet above includes a user rating, the number of reviews, as well as the page description.

Rich snippets are important for several reasons

They stand out on a search page

Because rich snippets include a rating and other useful information, they stand out from other search results that are solely text-based. When you make use of rich snippets, your business is more visible to potential customers browsing the web.

They receive more clicks than normal snippets

People searching for your business will give preference to rich snippets over normal snippets. In fact, Search Engine Land reports that rich snippets receive 30% more clicks than normal snippets. 

Not only do they stand out from the rest of the results, they also provide searchers with information that’s displayed in an easy-to-digest format. Rich snippets are specifically designed to provide information at a glance – a feature that shoppers have come to expect.

They increase organic traffic

Organic traffic is any traffic to your website that you haven’t paid for. And in the eyes of Google, organic traffic trumps paid for traffic. This is because organic traffic is viewed as authentic, as it is the result of an action taken by the searcher, on their own accord. 

While paid-for traffic is the result of a searcher being presented with an ad and then clicking through to the link, which is deemed as inauthentic.

They help to facilitate high-quality traffic

Organic traffic is typically high-quality traffic. Quality traffic is traffic that usually results in a positive action – such as clicking on a “find out more” page, contacting your business directly, or enquiring about a price list. it consists of people who are genuinely interested in your business. 

Consumers who click on rich snippets tend to be more confident in the business in question, thanks to the fact that rich snippets contain more information. This, in turn, contributes to higher quality traffic.

Facilitates a higher ranking

The more people who click on a link to your business, the higher you’ll rank on Google. This is because the search engine takes this information as evidence that people are interacting with your business online, and that your rich snippets are giving shoppers the information they need. 

The higher your ranking, the more visible your business is to potential shoppers. Rich snippets result in more traffic, which results in a better ranking, which facilitates more traffic – a powerful loop if there ever was one.

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