The Importance of Rich Snippets, Schema, and Microdata

Virtually all Internet marketers want to improve website traffic and boost conversion rates. Fortunately, when a person understands the importance of rich snippets, schema, and micro data, this task becomes much easier.

Micro data and schema are terms that refer to a type of structured data. This data is used by search engines to display a rich snippet, which improves search results and gives all site visitors a more positive experience by ensuring they find something relevant to the services or products for which they are looking.

Below are some tips on why these approaches and tools are vital to Internet marketing success:

The rich snippet is considered an advanced SEO technique on which the utmost importance should be placed with regard to your SEO campaign. This strong bit of HTML markup is a vital element that web crawlers use to offer information to site visitors prior to them clicking on your page.

This timing is important, as it eliminates the need for individuals to click on multiple sites, where they must often read through a substantial amount of “useless” information before discovering it is not the type of website for which they were looking.

When rich snippets are used, it instantly boosts the search engine position of your website to qualified consumers, rather than sending random traffic to your website. When the latter occurs, even though it is traffic, it is likely visitors who will do nothing more than click on your site and then quickly exit it because it did not offer the information they desired.

There are many types of snippets that are coded into a webpage’s HTML, depending on the site owner’s objectives. Below are a few of the most common snippets utilized by today’s e-commerce market:

• Google Authorship and Images

Authorship and images are good examples of snippets that enhance credibility and provide a trustworthy appearance to your website. Depending on the type of service or product you sell, this can significantly boost your presence on the Internet. Snippets of this kind may include your picture, your name, and the number of followers you have on Google plus.

• Reviews and Ratings

As its name implies, a rich snippet may display ratings and reviews associated with your product or service. This option is a terrific way to display the overall reliability and quality of a specific page. A review and rating rich snippet typically features a star rating displayed somewhere near the general search results for your page.

• Breadcrumbs

A breadcrumb snippet displays a trail of links to help searchers navigate and understand the hierarchy of your website. They are generally used to let visitors know where the different pages are located on your site.

• Product Snippets

Product snippets are highly beneficial, as they show the ratings, availability and price of your products. This obviously helps qualified customers make a decision prior to clicking on your search result, which can only enhance conversion rates.

• Music Track Information

A music track information rich snippet displays a collection of direct links to specific tracks, including a short description of each one. In most cases, the length of the song is included in the snippet as well.

• Event Details

An event rich snippet displays specific information about a particular event, such as its location and time.

• Recipe Rich Snippet

A recipe rich snippet generally shows a picture of the food, as well as ratings from users. It may also contain additional information, such as the item’s nutritional value or the recipe’s preparation time.

• Video Snippet

A video snippet typically shows a thumbnail image and the video’s duration.

Why Snippets are Important

In simple terms, this extra information assists users to recognize what the website is truly about, which helps the site attract the appropriate visitors, such as those with the highest chance of becoming customers. Ultimately, the snippet is one aspect in the evolving, collaborative web movement to help site visitors interpret information and land on pages that provide the facts, products or services for which they are searching.

This results in the following:

• Increased conversion rates
• A boost in traffic to the site
• An increase in click-through percentage
• Ultimately, satisfied visitors

Impressive Conversion Potential

In some instances, rich snippets can increase conversion rates by up to 30 percent. This does not surprise many Internet marketers, as most are aware that if users obtain more information about the site prior to clicking through, transaction rates and revenue are increased. This is because those clicking through to the site have more confidence that it offers results relevant to the services or products they want to purchase or the information they want to find.

For instance, if you use a rich snippet on your services page, the search will return
your product’s reviews, pricing and availability. This instantly communicates the value of your goods and services and establishes rapport that motivates searchers to click through to your page.

In essence, the snippet makes it possible to communicate your entire marketing pitch in a nutshell, thus making your search results very powerful. Snippets of this kind also help you in the following ways:

• Makes your link stand out
• Establishes a distinct edge against your competition
• Communicates the value of your service or product
• Helps site visitors have more confidence when making a purchase decision

Proper Implementation of Snippets

Proper implementation of snippets is also very important. Fortunately, it is not an extremely technical task. The snippets must be implemented into the HTML code of your website’s pages. However, understanding how to apply the formats and options of structured data is crucial. There are essentially three primary markup types recognized and translated by Google into a rich snippet. These include the following:

• RDFA
• Microformats
• Microdata

It is vital to understand, however, that Google recommends microdata, which Google defines as a way to label content using a specific set of attributes and schema vocabulary. Using these to markup your webpage’s HTML ultimately generates a coded block of data interpreted by search engines as the aforementioned rich snippet.

Once you understand the importance of properly implemented microdata, you can use these tools to boost clicks, conversion rates, and ultimately gain new, qualified customers for your products or services. If you need help implementing these advanced techniques be sure to get in contact with us.