Coming to its basic definition for the laymen, rich snippet is a presentation technique of snippet that enables the algorithms in Google search engine to highlight the structured data called markups embedded in the web pages. This provides extra information to the search results. For instance, showing the rating of a restaurant. In its recent update about its usage, Google stated that ever since its inception in May 2009, the usage of rich snippet is on the rise and is rapidly growing too. The internet giant is now also considering strengthening its base on this new evolving web trend. There seem, however, to be variations in the way they are being used.
Popularity
Having been implemented in more than 40 languages around the world, rich snippet is believed to have increased the click through rates and visitors of websites by virtue of the extra information it provides about a product or service. For instance, let’s say a potential customer is searching for a good holiday package. He gets the search results with and without Rich Snippets. Those websites which have them always stand out as against those which do not. Thus, he is more likely to go to the site that shows a good number of reviews (through rich snippets). This shows the credibility of using rich snippets in web pages. Some of today’s popular social networking sites such as Facebook also use rich snippets.
With aims to extend this feature to other services as well, Google encourages the usage of its popular Rich Snippets Testing Tools to help website owners use more and more of this useful feature. Google crawls for markup formats (generally micro formats and RDFa) that can be generally added to the web pages. To have these markups is really essential to make the web more interactive and provide great user experience. Stressing on the trend today, Kavi Goel from Google stated, “We can accelerate the growth of this ecosystem. At present, only about 5% of the web pages have Symantec markup and would like to see it increased to 50%.We are also keen on adding more formats to ensure more support for rich snippets from companies”.
Ease of Using the Web
These snippets are possible ways to make users find what they are looking for on the web. As said, if Google introduces more formats for semantic markup, chances are there that you might have to revamp your web pages completely. If you have employed a webmaster, then you can go ahead and ask him to get the necessary changes done. For those of you who have not yet launched their websites, it is the high time to get the markup embedded in your web pages. With Google eyeing for more rollouts, it is better to stay armed with the necessary changes required. Semantic web is evolving at such a high rate that it may prove highly costly to ignore it for the competition is going to be really stiff out there.
