How To Use Technical SEO To Optimize For Rich Results


What Are Rich Results In Google?

Rich Results are enhanced results in Google SERP, including interactive features and visual elements. They were formerly known as rich cards and rich snippets.

Some Examples Of Rich Results Include (Not Limited To)

  • Google For Jobs

  • Knowledge Panel

  • Reviews

  • Flights

  • Movies Nearby

Technical SEO Practices To Optimize Your Site For Rich Results

Let’s discuss about the technical SEO best practices to optimize your website for rich results. Those are mentioned below −

Optimize Your Google Sitelinks

Sitelinks are links in your website pages that are different from pages ranking in the search results.

According to Google's official documentation, you can optimize them using a strategic link structure and implementing alt attributes.

Adding Site Link Search Box

If your site comes integrated with a search engine, you can use the site links search box rich results through JSON LD.

Add the following Website Markup to each page of your site −

<html>
   <head>
      <title>The title of the page</title>
      <script type="application/ld+json">
      {
         "@context":"http://schema.org",
         "@type": "Website",
         "URL": "https://www.seek.com.au",
         "potentialAction" :{
            "@type": "SearchAction",
            "target":"https://www.seek.com.au/{search_term_string}-jobs",
            "query-input": "required name=search_term_string"
         }
      }
      </script>
   </head>
   <body>
   </body>
</html>

Optimizing Your Chance To Feature In Google For Job

If you are a small company, ranking in the Google for Job feature in SERP is much easier than for bigger players.

However, following these recommendations can actually help −

  • Keep the logo in standard (1:1, 2:3, 3:4) format in a jpg or png file.

  • Make sure the address mentioned on the site fits the address shown in Google Maps.

  • Update results in real-time through indexing API.

  • Use a structured data preview tool to test your ads, or use a rich result testing tool. 

Feature In Google's Star Rating

It is easy to implement the Review Snippet in Google. However, for that, you need to have some real user-generated reviews on your website. Then you need to add structured data to it.

There are several WordPress plugins, like KK Star ratings, rating widgets, star ratings, etc., to add structured data reviews to your site.

Optimize Image Thumbnails To Feature In Rich Results

Multiple only shows four results in multi-image thumbnails. To display to site image in Google image thumbnails, your site must rank higher in Google.

Start with adding images in webpages you intend to rank in image thumbnails. Make sure the image is relevant to your intended keywords. Also, you need to use high-quality yet compressed images and add alt attributes to each image.

It's important to have at least eight images on each page. This will increase your chance to feature in multi-image thumbnails.

To see whether your images are qualified for featuring in multi-image thumbnails, search the following in Google −

Site − Domain + Image

Replace the word "domain" with your site domain.

Including a Table In Google SERP

Getting your table shows in Google rich results in more than structured data. You need to use the HTML tag. Google will show the table specifications if it finds it related to the user's search query.

Tables That Are Likely To Get Featured Are

  • The ones related to the user's search query.

  • The ones that have high-quality data.

  • The ones featured in a ranked webpage.

Best Practices For Tables

  • Avoid empty spaces in tables.

  • Avoid using tiny tables, such as tables with three rows and two columns.

  • Try to match the table element to the entities present in KG or Google Maps. 

  • Tables, including calendars, passwords, and table-of-contents, don't rank.

  • Represent table values in semantics.

  • Avoid featuring illogical and non-related contents in the tables. For example, don't talk about computers, fruits, and celebrities at a single table.

  • Don't add a table in the site's boilerplate.

  • Use table headings to add labels.

  • Use relevant texts and captions to reinforce your table's contents.

Google Business Profile

Google's business profile is not structured data. However, if you want to feature it, you need to do this through the knowledge graph.

The knowledge graph is a structured collection of information about a person, business, entity, product, or thing. Google displays the results by collecting the information through other sites.

To get featured in the knowledge graph, you need to formulate strategies to get your way through authoritative sources. You can get your business featured in an online news portal. Get on social media and collect enough reviews. Get a famous blogger review about you.

Follow The Policy

Sometimes even having structured data may not help in featuring rich results. This may be due to technical issues, trust, and policy violations.

To need to ensure your markup is valid. Use the rich results testing tool to debug your code.

Alternatively, you can use a schema validator from Schema.org to fix technical glitches in your site.

Make sure your website contents are in according with the policies set by Google. Make sure to follow the guidelines while implementing structured data on a page.

The quality of the site also matters. If your website is new and doesn't have much domain authority, you are less likely to have feature-rich results. This is because you don't have enough credibility to earn the trust of Google.

Trust Issue

Rich results might not be shown in Google, depending on the quality of a site. If Google does not trust the domain, it might not show the results. Use the search operator tool in Google to inspect your SERP.

If the rich results appear on the site search and not on the results page, google might have a trust issue with your site. To fix that, you need to push out more quality and data-driven content and get quality backlinks from credible sources. A backlink from a highly authoritative domain is a vote of confidence for your website.

Updated on: 14-Apr-2023

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