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Winning the SEO Race with Rich Snippets

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The changing SEO landscape

 

For the longest time, SEO was all about getting the highest possible ranking on search engine results pages or SERPs because it is the best way to boost click-through rates or CTRs – which is only natural, considering how short the attention span of people online is. Nobody really has the patience to browse through pages upon pages of results just to get to what they are looking for. In most cases, people limit their options to the first few items they see.

 

But all this changed with the advent of rich snippets.

 

What are rich snippets?

 

Before we answer this, let us first define what snippets are. Simply put, they are the short descriptions that accompany search results to give users an idea of what each link has to offer before they click on anything. They help users decide whether or not each result is relevant to them. A Premium SEO Plugin helps you to get rich snippet of your website.

 

For instance, if you try searching for “Fender guitars” on Google, you’ll get results that look something like this:


 


The snippet is the content right under the link.

 

In comparison, rich snippets contain much more useful content than the example above. They generally include things like reviews, contact information, pricing and product availability. Let’s take a look at some examples:


 


First up: Food Network. See the difference between this one and the “Fender guitar” example? The result itself not only gives you an overview of what you can do on the Food Network website, it also allows you to either access the most popular content directly or search the entire website for something else – all from the SERP.

 

Another good example is Thomann UK’s website:




It doesn’t just display a simple description, but actually lists the product’s specifications, cost, availability and popularity based on user reviews.

 

The different kinds of rich snippets

 

Now that you know what rich snippets are, let’s take a look at all the various types at your disposal:

 

1.  People

 

This rich snippet displays information such as the person’s biography, accomplishments and profession as in the example below:

 

 

2.  Products

 

As the name implies, this one shows useful information about consumer goods, as shown in the photo below:

 

 

 

3. Reviews

 

This one is extremely useful for online shoppers who typically search for online reviews before making a decision.




You can use it for practically any product that can be reviewed, including books, movies and even restaurants.

 

4.  Events

 

This one primarily displays the particulars of upcoming events, as shown in the photo below:

 

 


5.  Recipes

 

This rich snippet provides a quick overview of everything you need to know about a certain recipe like total prep time, calorie count and user rating.

 

 

 

6.  Local Businesses and Organizations

 

People generally search for companies online to find their contact information or operating hours. This rich snippet displays just that, plus a couple of useful extras:



 

7.  Music

This rich snippet displays things like ratings and song titles as in the example below:

 

 

 

8.  Video

This one shows a thumbnail preview along with the upload date, uploader name and video description – the exact things you’ll find when you search for videos within YouTube itself.




 

9.  Software

Finally, we have the software rich snippet, which practically functions the same way as the one we use for products.

 


All these rich snippets, despite the difference in their application, share a single purpose: to instantly give users what they are looking for by putting the most important content directly on SERPs.

 

The bottom line: Increase CTRs by giving customers what they want – fast

 

Ranking high on SERPs is no longer enough to get people to visit your website. While it’s still generally a good idea to get your link on the first page, you’ll now need to make sure that you also provide useful enough content right on the SERP to set yourself apart from all the other search results. This is what people online use to gauge just how relevant you are to them – which ultimately dictates whether or not they’ll click on your link.

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seoultimateplus

Saved by seoultimateplus

on Apr 21, 16