Rich snippets are a powerful tool for improving the search engine optimization (SEO) of your Shopify store. By providing additional information about the content on your website, rich snippets can make your product listings stand out in search results, attract more clicks, and improve the user experience. This increased visibility and engagement can lead to higher rankings, more organic traffic, and ultimately, increased sales for your Shopify store.  

In this article, we’ll explore the ways in which rich snippets can help improve your Shopify store’s SEO and drive more success for your business. 

Table of contents 

1. What is a Rich Snippet and how is it different from a Featured Snippet?  
2. Benefits of using rich snippets for your Shopify store 
3. Types of rich snippets 
4. Do rich snippets really drive traffic to your Shopify store? 
5. How can rich snippets boost search engine optimization? 
6. How to create rich snippets for your Shopify store? 
7. Importance of review snippets for shoppers 
8. Final thoughts 

What is a Rich Snippet and how is it different from a Featured Snippet?  

Rich snippets are nothing but regular search snippets with extra relevant and useful information added to it. Google rich snippets provide a preview of your website content for the users. Google takes the extra data for the rich snippet from structured markup on your web page.  

In addition to the title, description, and URL, the rich snippets contain star ratings, price, ingredients (for recipes), date/time (for events) etc. which make them visually appealing. Rich snippets, also called Rich Results, are more attractive than normal snippets and can bring tons of organic, high-quality traffic to your website. 

Featured snippets are the search results that appear on top of the organic results in what is known as Position #0. They provide a quick response to users’ queries without users clicking on them. Featured snippets display information in the form of a paragraph, table, or list. Since they are displayed more prominently than other results, featured snippets can draw traffic to your website. 

Benefits of using rich snippets for your Shopify store 

• Enhanced visibility: Google-rich snippets provide additional information about the content on a website, making it stand out in search results. 

• Increased Click-Through Rate (CTR): Rich snippets can lead to a higher CTR, as they provide more information and can entice users to click through to the website. They can reduce the bounce rate as the users learn more about the page before clicking on it. 
• Improved user experience: Rich snippets provide users with more information about the content on a website, improving the overall user experience. 
• Better structured data: Rich snippets use structured data to display the information, making it easier for search engines to understand and categorize the content on a website. 
• Increased trust: Providing more information about a website’s content can increase trust with users and search engines, leading to higher rankings. By showing how many people have already used and liked your product you can show the potential customers that your brand is reliable. 

Types of rich snippets 

Depending on the content to be displayed, there are different types of rich snippets. Some of them are: 

1. Review Snippet- Displays star ratings 
2. Movie Snippet – Displays movie release date, box office earnings, etc. 
3. Product Snippet -Displays details of the artist, album release date, and musical genre. 
4. Event Snippet – Displays date, time, and venue. 
5. Recipe Snippet – Displays ratings, cooking time, and calories 

Do rich snippets really drive traffic to your Shopify store? 

The question now arises in the readers – why would a user click on the website link if a summary of the useful information is displayed in the rich snippets? When the rich snippets were first introduced SEO experts had the same concern. However, dismissing all their concerns, websites listed as rich snippets saw a significant increase in CTR. 

Here are the reasons: 

• A rich snippet attracts more user attention than normal snippets, as evidenced by rank-tracking tools. 
• Only a sneak preview is provided to the user. The users get the impression that they can find more relevant information by clicking on the link 

How can rich snippets boost SEO? 

The first example here is definitely more appealing. With the star rating, total votes, and price range displayed, it attracts the users and prompts them to click on it to know more. 

Having rich snippets can help in search engine optimization. Let’s see how: 

• By attracting more traffic and increasing the click-through rates you are showing the search engines that your site offers valuable content to the users. The end result is, a better ranking for your website 
• Rich snippets can help search engines better understand the context and relevance of your content, leading to more accurate search results and improved rankings. 
• Rich snippets have the potential to reduce bounce rates. By providing users with more information about the content on a website before they click through, rich snippets can improve the user experience and reduce the likelihood of users quickly leaving the site. This can lead to longer engagement on the website and a lower bounce rate. Additionally, if the extra information provided by the rich snippets accurately represents the content on the website, users are less likely to feel misled and leave the site, further reducing the bounce rate. 

How to create rich snippets for your Shopify store? 

1. Choose a structured data format: Use schema.org markup to describe your product information, including name, image, description, price, availability, and rating. 
2. Add the markup to your product pages: You can add the structured data directly to your product pages’ HTML code. Shopify provides a free app called JSON-LD for SEO that can help you generate and insert structured data. 
3. Test your structured data: Use the Google Structured Data Testing Tool to verify that your structured data is correct and complete. 
4. Wait for Google to index your pages: Google may take several days or weeks to crawl and index your pages with structured data. 
5. Monitor your results: Check your search engine results to see if the rich snippets are appearing and verify that they are accurate. 

Or, you can skip all these steps and simply add the Shopify review app, Reviewbit, to your store! 

All you have to do is install the app and enable the review snippet option. The review snippets will now be added to your web pages. 

Importance of review snippets for shoppers 

Customer reviews provide valuable insights into product quality, reliability, and user experience, which can greatly influence a shopper’s purchasing decision. In fact, 99.9% of shoppers check out product reviews by peers before making a shopping decision. 

Adding ratings increases the reliability of a brand by providing a measure of customer satisfaction and product quality. A high average rating indicates that a significant number of customers have had positive experiences with the brand and its products, which can build trust in the brand and encourage potential customers to make a purchase. 

By giving a preview of the number of ratings or reviews of your product in rich snippets, you can attract the attention of your potential customers.  

Final thoughts 

Rich snippets can help create a more engaging experience and hence trigger more clicks. Those extra bits of information displayed in the rich snippets can make a whole lot of difference to your website. By adding rich snippets, you can gain a competitive edge. Adding reviews and ratings to your snippets increases the credibility of your brand. The knowledge that your brand is trusted by lots of shoppers, prompts the new ones to visit your store. Make Reviewbit a part of your store and add review snippets to your website effortlessly!