Rich snippets are visual features that Google displays in the search results. They make your SERP snippet look more relevant to searchers, and so they result in a higher click-through rate (CTR).
Adding rich snippets for WordPress is easy.
Just install and activate one of the rich snippet WordPress plugins mentioned below.
But first, let’s look at rich snippets in more detail.
What Are Rich Snippets?
A rich snippet is like a regular SERP snippet.
But it contains some extra lines of text that give the searcher specific information.
In the case of a recipe, the rich snippet might include:
- an image
- the popularity of the recipe (number of votes)
- the preparation time
- the number of calories
For an events web page, a rich snippet might include the dates of upcoming performances:
There are many types of rich snippets available. Well over 100, as you can see from this list on Schema.org.
But the main ones are:
- Reviews
- People
- Products
- Business and organizations
- Recipes
- Events
- Music
- Video
And there’s even a Rich Snippet for ‘articles’.
One of the elements in the ‘articles’ Rich Snippet is breadcrumb navigation (instead of the default URL):
So how do you get your web pages to display as rich snippets in the Google search results?
The short answer is: by adding schema markup to your web pages.
But what exactly is schema markup?
Rich Snippets for WordPress and Schema Markup
Schema Markup (aka Structured Data Markup) is a syntax or language.
It tells search engines what categories of information your content contains and how you want it displayed.
There are three different formats of Structured Data Markup:
- JSON-LD
- Microdata
- RDFa
Watch This Video: ‘Why & How To Add Schema To Your WordPress Website For Better SEO & Visibility’
What Are the Benefits of Rich Snippets?
The main benefit of rich snippets for WordPress is that they stand out from the other search results. And that means you get a higher Click Through Rate (CTR).
Why do rich snippets stand out?
One reason is that very few websites are using Structured Data Markup. Search Metrics reports that only 0.30% of domains regularly use schema markup (that’s about 1 in 330). And Bing found that only 17% of marketers are using Schema.org structured data markup.
Another reason rich snippets stand out is that they take up more space. With rich snippets, you get more ‘real estate’ in the search results. And that produces another benefit:
With rich snippets you get a higher Click Through Rate (CTR) than from ordinary SERP snippets. Search Engine Land states that Structured Data Markup produces a 30% increase in CTR.
And of course higher CTR impacts SEO: the more clicks you get on your search snippet the higher Google will place you in the search results.
Rich Snippets for WordPress – How To Add Them To Your Site
So, how can you get rich snippets for WordPress? You could copy and paste the JSON-LD directly into your web pages. But as with most things on WordPress, there are plugins that will do it for you.
Here are some plugins that make it easy to get rich snippets for your WordPress site:
All In One Schema Rich Snippets
- Supports the following types of Schemas: Review, Event, People, Product, Recipe, Software Application, Video, Articles
- By: Brainstorm Force
- Last updated: 3 months ago
- Active Installations: 90,000+
- Free (no premium version)
- Review plugin that supports rich snippets
- Create product review boxes
- Create comparison tables for different products
- Developer: Theme Isle
- Free | $65
- Last updated: 2 weeks ago
- Active Installations: 50,000+
- Review plugin
- Use stars, percentage or point rating
- Supports translation, WPMU
- Developer: MyThemeShop
- Free | $67
- Last updated: 1 month ago
- Active Installations: 70,000+
- Works with 13 different schema types
- Supports reviews, recipes, events, & more
- Applies Schema markup to pre-existing content
- By: Brainstorm Force
- Free | $79
- Automatically creates schema.org markup for pages and posts
- Breadcrumbs, Sitelinks Searchbox and Your Site Name in Google Results
- Applies Schema markup to pre-existing content
- By: Hunch Manifest
- $30 p/month
- Last Updated: 6 days ago
- Active installations: 10,000+
- Adds schema for Organizations, Local Businesses, News Articles, Blog Postings, Events, Products, Videos, Services, Reviews, Aggregate Ratings, Restaurants
- By: WPsem Plugins
- Free | $49
- Last Updated: 3 weeks ago
- Active installations: 40,000+
Schema & Structured Data for WP & AMP
- Adds schema for Blog Posting, News article, Local Business, Web Page, Article, Recipe, Product, and Video Object
- By: Magazine3
- Free
- Last Updated: 1 week ago
- Active installations: 10,000+
SNIP: Structured Data Plugin for WordPress
- Supports all schemas that on schema.org.
- Create your own schema markup shortcodes
- By: WPBuddy
- $77
- Last Updated: 1 week ago
- Active installations: 10,000+
Conclusion
To add rich snippets for WordPress you need to use Structured Data Markup or Schema tags. Schema tags identify key information on your web page.
The search engines use these tags to pull key information from your web page and display it as a rich snippet. Depending on the schema category you choose, your rich snippet will show key information relating to your industry.
Rich snippets help your web page to stand out from the other pages in the search results. This increases your click through rate (CTR), and that in turn moves your web page higher in the search results.
So why not get an advantage over your competitors and start using a rich snippet plugin Why not do it today – it will only take 5 minutes.
Actually, I am working on my website very hard to get sharp results, but so far no improvement, but I have learned a lot from this page, and hope it will help us to grow.
I am working for my client to improve in SERP results and Schema Markup is definitely gonna help me. I would like to ask one thing that these schema markups will help with Open Graph results as well. I Have Just Setup “All In One Schema Rich Snippets” Plugin on my website. But I have a doubt on how to make sure Google is picking up the correct aggregated reviews as in schema markup the reviews are hard coded.
My quick questions are; how to make sure that the reviews are true for local business? How much time does it take to show up rich snippets for my search results? Anyways, thanks for sharing schema Markup will definitely help my business.
Hi Prisha,
Thanks for your question. With regard to whether schema markup will help with Open Graph results, this quote answers your question (I think):
https://searchengineland.com/13-semantic-markup-tips-for-2013-a-local-seo-checklist-143708
Schema and Open Graph can be used together but Open Graph can’t be used in place of schema (see article)
Here’s the link to the full article.
I hope this answers your question.
All the best – Rob