How Rich is Your Content?

Ever noticed that when you enter a search query, some results come back with an extra little snippet in their listing? These are called rich snippets and if you play your cards right on your business' website and manage to incite one of these handy add-ons, they are excellent for click-through rates.

A rich snippet is essentially an expansion of the traditional search result snippets. Typical snippets include:

• a title tag

• a meta description

• a URL

But a RICH snippet adds a little more eye-catching information (hence the higher click-through rates). The most common examples of rich snippet data are reviews, recipe info, music info, product info, organizational info, top stories, videos and events. Google will pull these extra bits of data from structured data in your website. This is organized content that is tagged with specific groups of text to help search engines gather context and return better search results.

So, how can you add a rich snippet to your web page's results?

1. Choose the type of rich snippet you would like to appear in your search results

2. Enter the relevant structured data. For example, if you wanted musical information to appear on your band's music site, you might include text like:

   1. Here are our top albums

   2. Here is a picture of the band

   3. This is a list of our top-rated songs

3. Test your structured data.

HOT TIP: schema.org is an awesome tool for developing structured data, by simply selecting the type of rich snippet you are targeting and having it populate a list of useful text. If you use WordPress, there are also many plug-ins available to assist with producing structured data.

For testing, you can use a structured data testing tool like the ones available through Google.

A WORD OF CAUTION: Using structured data does not guarantee you will get rich snippets in your search results, but it does maximize your odds of doing so.

Need some help? We can do that!

To speak to us about all your web design and development needs, come see us in-store at 1257 Marine Drive in North Vancouver or give us a call at 604-986-7680.

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