One of the best methods for becoming a tab in someone’s browser is to ensure that they can see –without having to click– that your content is relevant to their search query and offers them value. That’s right… you’ve got to offer value before anyone ever visits your page.
The best and easiest way to accomplish this? Utilizing Google rich snippets. Rich snippets are those small paragraphs you see under a website’s URL on a search results page. These used to be one of two things: a Google-generated mash-up of words on your page related to the consumer’s search, or a quirky little description of the page, blog post, website, or company.
Often treated as a static space, this is one of the most wasted areas of your content marketing strategy. After all, rich snippets have the ability to raise the click-through rate by 6% and increase organic visitor revenue by a whopping 677%.
What is a Rich Snippet?
A Google snippet, or rich snippet, is a term used to describe the structured data markup that a site operator can add to an existing website. This short paragraph helps Google better understand what you have to offer clients. If a consumer searches “power tool review 2017”, and your rich snippet says that your particular page contains tons of power tool reviews going back a number of years, you are more likely to get a click.
What Goes into a Rich Snippet?
All major search engines allow rich snippets to include microdata, microformats, and RDFs. Microdata is the most common specification for all rich snippets. As far as what you should put in your rich snippet, that entirely depends on your content. You can use rich media to introduce or market everything from reviews of your product, to events for your company, to video content.
The most important aspect of your rich snippet is that it drives traffic in by offering important information. For example, it may include the location and brief directions to your business if you operate a restaurant, or the hours and phone number of a medical office. The unspoken call-to-action in both cases is, “Contact me directly, in person”. For someone with a product to sell, such as an author with a new book, your rich snippet may be comments, reviews, a brief summary, and/or ratings.
You can also find third-party apps that display information for you in extended rich snippets
What Happens Next?
Google has a tool that allows you to test your rich snippet before it goes live. Once you add Google snippets to your content, you may find that your ranking in a search results page doesn’t rise. This either means that your competition is also doing great in the rich snippet marketing world, or that Google has not yet responded to the data. Unfortunately, it can take several days, or even weeks, for Google to recognize the introduction of snippets to your content.
However, once Google has recognized you as a top contender on the front page, your clicks can help you to obtain more sales, more engagement, and more reviews.
