Often, it seems only the rich get rich. It can be quite unfair in the world of finance. In the world of the internet, where ‘rich’ has a different meaning, getting rich may just be the thing your site needs to get an edge on the competition with this useful SEO tool.
Of course, we’re not talking about getting rich financially here, depending on what your site is all about. We’re talking ‘rich’ in the resource sense of the word, as in ‘rich snippets’ of information doled out by Google.
Every so often, Google updates its search presentation in a way that is of great benefit to the site owner. A recent change has promised just such a benefit. Since early last year, Google began to include ‘rich snippets’ of information for its listings for certain searches. Quite simply, the search engine changed its algorithm to take extra snippets of information from web pages and including it below the main listing for that page. For example, a PuppyCo.com.au site might have a puppy costumes page. In the former state of things, Google would simply display the page’s title tag, description and address:
PuppyCo – puppy costumes at discount prices!
We fill all of your puppy costume needs with loving care. Try our puppy Halloween costume, puppy Christmas costume and puppy Easter costume range.
www.puppyco.com.au/pupcostumes.htm
Should anyone desire to search for such a thing as a puppy costume, the listing would tell them a fair amount of what they need to know.
With Google’s rich snippets feature, however, further information is supplied:
PuppyCo – dress your puppy in style
*1 review – Price Range $$$$$
Spend your hard earned dollars on glorious puppy costumes here at PuppyCo!
www.puppyco.com.au/puppywear.htm
Now, if anyone was thinking about making a purchase from PuppyCo, they can easily see that it’s an up-market store. They can make use of this information when making their decision whether to click or not.
Google warned on the new feature’s release that it would take a while before the rich snippets were used across the board. As with most new features, Google has integrated this extra feature into its algorithm slowly, and there are still millions of searches for which the snippets don’t appear. Part of this may be due to site owners failing to take advantage of rich snippets when performing SEO on their site.
Part of the trouble with rich snippets is that they’re one of the few areas in which a site owner has to be really proactive. Rich snippets don’t happen on their own, and they may be worthwhile adding as part of your search engine optimisation campaign. Talk to our experts at www.seoconsult.co.uk when thinking about adding rich snippets to your code.
If you’re looking to further enhance your listing in the search engine results pages, it might be a good idea to look into adding rich snippets to your pages. Google does warn that simply adding rich snippets will not make them appear, so don’t be disappointed if they don’t show at first. Like everything else in SEO, this area will require patience.
Originally posted on September 28, 2010 @ 2:17 am