Rich results

What it means

Rich results are search results enhanced with extra elements such as star ratings, product price and availability, FAQs, recipes, events or breadcrumbs. On the results page they take up more space and catch the eye more than an ordinary blue link with a description.

Search engines display them based on structured data that the site adds to the page code using the Schema.org vocabulary. The data tell the search engine precisely whether the page is a product, an article, a business, a review or an event, and what its properties are.

The main benefit is a higher click-through rate. A page with a rating and price right in the result looks more trustworthy and attracts more clicks even at the same position. Structured data do not improve rankings by themselves, but they raise the chance of a click.

How it works in practice

For an online shop, the key data are product name, price, currency, availability, ratings and image. For a service business, organisation details, address, opening hours and contacts. For a content site, article, author and last-updated date.

Markup is validated in the search engines' testing tools and in the webmaster console, which reports errors and warnings. After deployment, monitor whether rich results actually appear and how the click-through rate has changed.

On a multilingual site, structured data must be in the correct language for each version and match the visible content. A rich result is the outcome of good content and technical SEO, not a substitute for them.

What to watch out for

Structured data must match what visitors actually see on the page. Invented ratings, prices not shown on the page or marking up hidden content breach search engine guidelines and can lead to a manual penalty.

Search engines decide for themselves whether to show a rich result, and the supported types change. Some formats, such as FAQs, have been restricted for ordinary sites. Follow the current rules and do not treat rich results as guaranteed.