Rich Snippets / Rich Results

Rich snippets, which Google now calls rich results, are search results carrying extra elements beyond the title and description: review stars, price and stock status, cooking time on recipes, dates for events. The extra data comes from structured data in the page's code, usually following the schema.org standard.

Content is marked up with the relevant schema type, for example Product, Review, Recipe or Event, and when Google crawls the page it reads the markup and may show the result with the extra elements. "May" is the operative word: correct markup is a precondition, not a guarantee, and Google keeps adjusting which types qualify for display.

A rich result takes up more space in the results page and hands the user concrete decision data before the click. It typically draws a higher CTR than an ordinary result in the same position, and it qualifies the click as well: someone who has already seen the price or the rating arrives with a clearer intent.

Structured data works in AI search too. The markup translates content into a language machines read unambiguously, which makes it easier for AI search engines to understand and reproduce products, prices and facts correctly when they assemble an answer. That makes markup one of the more tangible tasks in technical SEO right now, and the guide to structured data covers how it is implemented.