Google has done enough to bring richness to the search results. The main purpose is to provide users significant information on the SERPs.This is the reason that search results today look quite different from what used to appear on the screens a few years back. The search results we see today have extra information beneath the links of the sites. This information can be in the form of images, videos or any other visual content to elaborate the listing.

What are rich results?

First of all, it would be worth mentioning what snippets are. A snippet is basically a search results with black lines beneath the title. There is also a piece of content that explains the search result. Now, rich results are the listings that seem prominent due to their location and on-screen formatting. In most of the cases, these search results tend to catch all of the words in a search query. Those words are highlighted with bold letters.

With the help of these rich results, search engines try to provide results to the users in fastest way possible. These results also give other types of information about the listing such as product reviews and available.

One thing worth mentioning here is that rich results on mobile screens tend to provide actionable options to the users.This actionable information is displayed directly from the site.

The rich results also include rich snippets and answer boxes. Answer boxes are based on the information which Google itself knows about.This information comes from the Google’s knowledge graph.

Building blocks for rich snippets

If you want to get rich snippets, you will need to add structured data to your site. This structured data is stored in a vocabulary called Schema.org, and there are different ways to add it to your site. If you are working with CMS, adding structured data becomes a game of add-ons. Most of the add-ons use JSON-LD to add a lot of structured data to your site.

Benefits of rich snippets for SEO

With all that talking about the rich snippets, you may be surprised that these snippets do not improve the ranking of your site in a direct manner. However, the indirect benefit is so huge that you will find it to be one of the best things happening to your site. The rich snippets help your site get a prominent representation among the searchers.

Another benefit which makes all your efforts to get a rich snippet justifiable is that this representation can add significantly to your site’s credibility. The people will think of your site as an information resource which is preferred by Google. And they will think of your site to be an authentic source of information.