Rich Snippets

Rich snippets, often referred to as microdata and Schema, are a specific suite of microdata tags that help search engines interpret and understand webpage content. Better yet, you can add to schema markup to content already existing on your website to improve the way your current webpage content is represented in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Since rich snippets and schemas assist search engines with indexing content by implementing these into your web content will help search engines interpret the content and improves SEO (search engine optimisation) for your content and can boost your search rankings.

What is Schema.org Structured Data?

Search engines can scan pages for content and can generate keywords and search terms metrics but only by adding rich snippet schemas are they then able to interpret and understand your content to provide the best search results possible.

Schema.org is the result of the collaboration between Google, Bing, Yandex, and Yahoo! to help website editors provide webpage content with a universal (cross search engine) method to add context and meaning to their information.

Adding Schema markup to your website content improves the way your webpage and content will display and index within SERPs.

Depending on the schemas used, information available and SEO competition search engines can choose to show links to your entire site, key pages, review ratings and more. This increases both the prominence and visual display of your content topics displayed beneath your website title when users search for your content.

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Rich snippet structured data formats.

Currently rich snippet schemas are supported in the following formats;

Format	Location / Position
JSON-LD	JavaScript object notation that can be embedded anywhere within the webpage. Recommended implementation.
Microdata	An open HTML specification whereby HTML tag attributes are added to visible webpage content that represent the data to be included within the schema. Due to this implementation this method is suitable to be retrospectively fit into existing webpage markup.
RDFa	Similar to the above microdata implementation RDFa is a HTML5 extension that supports linked data by via tag attributes that relate to content to be highlighted for search engines.

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Rich snippets examples.
How to add rich snippets to WordPress & other webpages.

The real beauty of rich snippets and schemas is that you can add as much or as little to your site content as you wish, schemas are able to be nested with seemingly no end to the level of nesting achievable.

Below code is an example of an ‘Organization’ schema, one of the more straight forward schemas that can be implemented into most websites:

Basic ‘Organization’ schema.

<script type="application/ld+json">{
"@context": "http://schema.org",
"@type": "Organization",
"@id": "https://duelmarketing.com#organization",
"url": "https://duelmarketing.com",
"name": "Duel Digital",
"description": "Duel Digital | Performance Marketing Agency",
"sameAs": [
"facebook.com/FetchDotDigital",
"twitter.com/ dueldotdigital",
"instagram.com/ dueldigital"
]
}
</script>


The above schema is integrated using the ‘JSON-LD’ method. Although not using visible page content this has the advantage of being easier to extend invisible JSON objects within a webpage than it is to add tag attributes within HTML visible markup.

The following code is an example of a more complex approach to schema implementation, again it is using the ‘JSON-LD’ implementation method but has more object properties representing the larger number of details for a ‘news article’:

Advanced ‘NewsArticle’ schema.

<script type="application/ld+json">{
"@context": "http://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"mainEntityOfPage": {
"@type": "WebPage",
"@id": "https://duelmarketing.com/rich-snippets/"
},
"headline": "Rich Snippets",
"image": [
"https://duelmarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/
duel-digital-rich-snippets-schema-microdata-300x200.jpg",
"https://duelmarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/
duel-digital-rich-snippets-schema-microdata-768x512.jpg",
"https://duelmarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/
duel-digital-rich-snippets-schema-microdata-1024x683.jpg"
],
"datePublished": "2018-01-01T23:56:00+08:00",
"author": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "Richard Williams"
},
"publisher": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Duel Digital"
},
"description": "Your guide to rich snippet examples, how to
add rich snippets to your website, how to add rich snippets
to WordPress and terminology used; Schema, structured data
and microdata."
}
</script>
This code is an extension of the first simpler example with additional properties, such as ‘headline’ and ‘datePublished’, that are applicable to a typical news article. The most significant extension however is the introduction of nested properties ‘mainEntityOfPage’, ‘author’ and ‘publisher’. When using more and more advanced schemas it is possible to nest to deeper and deeper depths.

The more contextual information available to search engines the more preferable your content will be.

How to add rich snippets & schema structured data.

• Structured data on a webpage should be describing the page content and not that of any other webpage.

• Empty or blank pages should not be created to specifically contain rich snippets.

• Rich snippets should only describe content that is visible on the webpage.

Other guidelines and rules do exist so it’s worthwhile reviewing these before implementing rich snippets into your website, these can be found here.

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Types of rich snippets & their meaning.

Chances are if you are a web author or website owner you already have content that is suited to rich snippets, common example of microdata uses are the following;

• Organization schema.

  An organization schema collates the common data associated with a company that may not directly relate their website, eg. stock price, location of the company head quarters, etc.

• Local business schema.

  Suited to smaller local trades and businesses these microdata rich snippets can highlight details more useful to users searching for these businesses, eg. opening times, address, reviews, etc.

• Product schema.

  Particularly useful with eCommerce applications these schemas are capable of highlighting specific product details, eg. price, review rating, special offers, etc.

• Breadcrumbs & navigation schema.

  Useful to highlight page sections that link to other areas of websites.

• News article schema.

  Schemas that highlight news articles, as well as other timely content, may be crawled more regularly so that search engine results are up to date, a great example of this are headlines within world news.

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Rich snippets tools.

When implementing rich snippets within your content it is essential to thoroughly test your structure to ensure your implementation is valid. Many testing tools are available but perhaps the most popular tool is produced by Google – Structured Data Testing Tool.

Further schema information.

Finally, it is worth noting that search engines do change their organisation and prioritisation algorithms regularly when it comes to rich snippet schemas to ensure the best end result. This can mean that data you have marked up for to be displayed as rich snippets may not be displayed as such, however by introducing rich snippet schemas you stand a much greater chance of being ranked preferentially.

If you have any questions or queries regarding rich snippets, schemas, microdata and strucutred feel free to contact Duel Digital and we will be happy to provide advise and assistance.

Other Rich Snippet & Schema Resources.

• Google – Introduction to structured data

Discuss your Rich Snippets needs today