Using rich snippets helps to grab attention and hence provides better traffic. Learn how to measure SEO performance with rich snippets.
What Is Rich Snippet
Rich snippet is summarizing the original article that can be shown on search engine results pages. A few lines about the article would be shown to the users who are using search engines to look for relevant content.
By displaying the rich snippet on the search engine result page, websites can facilitate the net users to check the relevancy of the content before they click on the link. This does not necessarily mean that websites loose traffic but it can actually increase the traffic for the relevant websites.
Why To Use Rich Snippets
If you are running a text based website then you must be having rich content that attracts the readers to visit the website more often than not. But if you wish to increase the readership, you need to deploy a few techniques to grab the attention. ‘Search Engine Optimization’ is the best way to get additional readers to your website.
How Rich Snippets Work
Google identifies 3 rich snippets i.e. microdata, microformats and RDFa
In microdata, rich snippets can be written in simple HTML. This microdata carries specific descriptions of person or organization or product/service. Search engines would read this HTML based microdata and display it as ‘rich snippet’ on search engine results page.
For example you wish to show a rich snippet for your website that offers engineering consultancy services. A sample rich snippet can be like the below:
<div itemscope itemtype=”http://www.xyzconsultant.com/Person”>
Hi I am<span itemprop=”name”>Richard Parker</span>
Please visit my website
<a href=http://www.xyzconsultant.com itemprop=”url”>www.xyzconsultant.com</a>
I provide consultancy in Structural Engineering for construction companies<span itemprop=”title”> Structural Engineer</span>
at <span itemprop=”affiliation”>XYZ Consultants Inc</span>
</div>
This is the language in which search engines recognize you, your company and the services you provide and will list the details given in the above code on the search results page similar to the below:
Your Page Title (as given in your original HTML)
www.xysconsultant.com
Structural Engineer – XYZ Consultants Inc
To add best visual appeal, you can insert a video too.
Websites can add the photos of their authors and their other works on the search results page which can definitely increase the click through.
SEO Performance Of Rich Snippets
As we have seen previously, ‘rich snippets’ make the web crawlers and bots to easily identify the content on your website by matching them with the search words/phrases used by the users, the performance of your website in online search would improve steadily.
As rich snippets provide the data in a structured manner, search engine bots/crawlers find them very easily. With this, the websites can attract more eyeballs compared to their previous performance in search results.
As rich snippets allow adding the photographs and videos, websites can instantly catch the attention of an online user. Once the attention is grabbed from other results on the same page, it is very easy to increase the click-through rate.
A recent study carried by an internet content provider firm said that the rich snippets deployed by them were able to propel the search engine optimization of their clients. They have also stated that the CRT (Click-Through Rate) has gone up by 22%.
Though there is no exact method is available that can serve as measuring tool for CTRs from rich snippets, it is for sure that rich snippets are contributing to increase the web traffic.
We hope now you know how to measure SEO performance with rich snippets.
