The goal of Featured Snippets is to make search engines understand the content of the page accurately. In this post we'll teach you how to configure structured data correctly to have more chances of climbing positions, increasing traffic and obtaining customers.
What are Rich Snippets?
Rich Snippets (structured data) are the additional information shown in the SERPs when a search is performed. This information generates a better preview of the web page, showing a small summary of it with photographs, prices, rating stars, reviews, etc.
For the more technical ones, they are HTML code tags that support marking of relevant data so that they are shown in the description of the SERPs.
Being more specific, featured snippets are a set of informational fragments designed to get search engines to correctly process the data of a web page and be able to classify them according to their content.
The CTR that featured snippets provide help to rank indirectly. It's not enough only with being in the first places, you have to use every useful tool to catch the reader's attention and get them to enter the website.
What are Rich Snippets for?
Now that we know what featured snippets are, it's time to know what they're for. It's simple, websites that know how to configure Rich Snippets stand out from the competition since they provide more summarized information on the web. This generates confidence and security for users to be willing to visit the site.
Featured snippets encourage clicks and increase CTR (Click-Through Rate), they also offer a more attractive format.
Structured data facilitates the interpretation of content allowing the search engine to place the information more efficiently. They make the search engine understand more clearly the content that a page contains.
The direct consequence of Structured Snippets is visibility and with this the increase of traffic to your website. One of the most important characteristics when configuring rich snippets is that the information they supply must be true and be consistent with what is set out on the site.
What types of Rich Snippets exist and which one should I use?
We live in a constant era of changes and structured data goes in pursuit of it. How? Providing improvements according to user preferences and trends. You already know what rich snippets are and their functionality, but… you can't leave without knowing what types of structured data exist.
Featured snippets can be enriched by using more than one type of structured data. Although the user searches with different words or in different ways, your page will have more chances of being ranked for each of them. That said, don't abuse them or google may penalize your website.
There is a wide variety of structured data, the most relevant are:
Product Rich Snippets or products:
It's focused on ecommerce because it includes more specific details of the product such as; the photo, description, price, availability, brand, etc. This type of enriched snippet is useful to compare products without having to enter the web page.
Event Rich Snippets or events:
It's oriented to the inclusion of relevant information about some type of event such as the date, the place where it will be held, what its schedule will be, etc. The 3 most recent events are usually shown.
Organization Rich Snippets or organization:
It focuses on showing the most outstanding information of a company: the company name, location, phone numbers, etc.
Video Rich Snippets or video:
They show a preview of Youtube or DailyMotion videos in the results. It should be noted that if you want to place a video on your website and want to know how to configure rich snippets correctly, keep reading until the end. If you configure video structured data well it will appear in the results thumbnail, in Google's featured snippets.
Review Rich Snippets or reviews:
To recognize it, just notice a series of stars that indicate the users' rating of the website. This type of structured data is used to give credibility to the website influencing the number of visits. Stars attract a lot of attention as long as they are focused on a good rating. You have to know how to configure review rich snippets precisely to do it, for this there are plugins that will do it for you.
Recipe Rich Snippets or recipes:
These structured data are focused on providing relevant information about dishes or recipes: ingredients, quantities, cooking time, etc.
Music Rich Snippets or music:
It's directly related to musical bands or artists. Data such as song titles, album, etc. are shown.
Person Rich Snippets or people:
It's used to integrate and show the personal data of the article author such as photo, name, pseudonym, etc. It results in greater visibility to their profile which ends up providing SEO positioning on certain topics. People featured snippets are usually configured on sites like blogs or forums.
These enriched snippets are more common, however when choosing one or another for your website, you must keep in mind the characteristics and the objective of the page. It won't be enough only with knowing what they are and how to appear in them. Soon we'll explain how to configure rich snippets for your website, keep reading to know how to do it
FAQ Rich Snippets or faqs:
These will increase your ctr since the preview of this type of microdata is quite striking, it occupies a large part of the SERP. It shows the questions (faqs) in order and in an accordion to make it easy for the user to find the information they're interested in without having to enter the website.
What benefits will configuring Rich Snippets bring me?
While knowing how to configure Rich Snippets has many benefits, these are directly related to SEO positioning. This practice makes SEO both evident and effective when optimizing results and thus improving the user experience.
Among the benefits are:
- Development and improvement of CTR: The reward of when an optimal approach and adequate copywriting tactics are used (sharing information that awakens interest). It's possible to attract more visits to the website by highlighting the search result of our site and making them catch attention.
- Perfection of engagement: When you configure structured data, you change the branding of your site and with it the identity of your brand. This motivates the website to project more professionalism, generating confidence among users and making you rank above those who don't implement it.
- Reduction of the bounce rate: By having more complete and immediate information about what is sought, the user will enter your web page and will stay because the preview has been enough to catch their attention. The user has read the thumbnail shown before entering and has seen that it's what they're looking for, therefore, they will enter with interest. This will achieve the decrease of the bounce rate on the site.
- Highlighting the value of your content: They let the user see the theme of the page: whether it's sales, products, services or informational content.
Now yes!
How to configure Rich Snippets
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Video by Romuald Fons
](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOp3RXCEmuM&feature=youtu.be)
If you've made it this far I'm sure you want to know how to configure rich snippets for your website.
There are quite a few ways to implement microdata on a website, everything will depend on the CMS and the webmaster. Most websites are made on Wordpress so we'll explain how to implement featured snippets for this CMS. We'll also show you how to do it in case the website is made in HTML, Php or another CMS.
How to configure Rich Snippets for all types of websites
This part is somewhat "technical", if you don't have programming knowledge it can be somewhat complicated but not impossible.
Next we'll reveal the steps you must follow to incorporate microdata manually:
How to configure rich snippets
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Study the project
You must study in detail what types of rich snippets you're interested in configuring so that search engines show it in a preview. It's important not to abuse the types of featured snippets, the more you have the more you'll rank. You should only implement structured data that's really relevant. For example faqs, video, review, etc.
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Enter Schema.org and incorporate microdata
You must enter the Schema website and study the types of microdata that Google is interested in according to your content. This step is very similar to the first but on that same web page it explains what it's for, how to implement it manually and whether google is interested in showing that featured snippet or not.
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Incorporate automated rich snippets
This step is only for SEO Pro, it consists of working a way to automatically implement microdata every time this concept appears. To achieve it you have to put the fields you want to capture in the same place and run a script that captures them and puts them in the Schema.org microdata that corresponds to them
How to configure Rich Snippets for WordPress
To configure rich snippets in Wordpress there are quite a few plugins. Some free and others paid, but we recommend that you contact us so that an seo professional does it for you.
Free Wordpress rich snippets plugin
The best plugin to implement structured data in Wordpress is All-in-one Schema.org.
This plugin allows you to incorporate most types of microdata marked by Schema that exist. It's the first plugin that has been invented to configure rich snippets in wordpress without having to program, it's one of the best within the free section.
This plugin allows you to select what type of microdata you want to add to the page and configure them on it. The problem is that you have to configure it page by page and you don't have it automated.
Don't worry!
To automate the process of incorporating microdata we have a paid plugin, which I let you download for free.
Paid Wordpress rich snippets plugin
We're talking about WP Schema Pro, by far the best plugin to configure rich snippets in wordpress.
This plugin, in addition to doing all the functions that the previous one fulfills, is made to automate microdata.
What does it mean to automate microdata?
Well, you won't have to create a specific microdata section for each page or blog. You can create a type of structured data and configure it to appear in all posts, all pages, only those you're interested in, etc.
In addition, it offers you a series of options to fill in the microdata data, offering you the possibility of making that field something general or filling it specifically for each type of page or article. Fascinating, right?
How to check if microdata is well implemented?
Google Structured Data Testing Tool
With this tool we'll see all the microdata, or what is the same, structured data that we've implemented on our page.
It will notify us if they're well implemented, if they have any warning or error. In that case it will inform us where the warning or error occurs and reveal why.
Do you have any questions?
Frequently asked questions for structured data configuration
How to use Google's structured data testing tool?
You simply have to access the structured data testing tool and place the url you want to analyze. Once placed it will tell you the errors warnings and corrections of all the types of featured snippets that the structured data testing tool has detected.
How long does it take to take effect?
It all depends on the niche and the website. A new domain without authority will take much longer than one with authority. In fact you're not always going to appear in featured snippets, only the one that does it best appears.
Will I only appear if I'm in the first position?
No, I've seen people in 30th position with microdata and faq featured snippets. But it is true that the higher you are in the SERP, the easier it is to show an enriched snippet.
Will Google penalize me if I put a lot of structured data?
Theoretically no, as long as you implement them well and don't put microdata that has nothing to do with what you talk about. For example in this post, there can't be a recipe snippet.
When should the author featured snippet be put and when not?
Normally it's only put on forums or articles, although I don't recommend it unless you want to give importance to the content author.
Why will my CTR increase with microdata?
Because as we've already said, in the serp a striking preview will be seen and it will incite people to click on your page.
Where can I see all the types of featured snippets?
On the schema.org website all types of rich snippets categorized appear.
When you make bad use of featured snippets and use them with bad intention. As long as everything is real and natural nothing has to happen to you.
Is it mandatory to put enriched snippets for good SEO?
Of course not but it's a plus to add.
Why should I know how to configure rich snippets?
Knowing how to configure rich snippets is important so as not to do it wrong and drop positions as a consequence instead of climbing them.
Related reading
- How to index your website on Google
- Ranking on Google: technical, content and authority
- Best SEO agency: real criteria
Shall we work together?
If you want to apply this in your company with a team that combines technical SEO, GEO and paid acquisition measured against the income statement, request a no-commitment audit. You can also check real case studies or read the public GEO baselines that Elevam Labs publishes every quarter.
