Rich results

Rich results are search results that show more than the usual title, link and description. Think of star ratings for a product, a price and stock status, preparation time for a recipe, date and location for an event, or an expandable list of frequently asked questions. They make a result stand out visually and give the searcher extra information straight away.

Google usually builds this enhanced display from structured data on your page. With it, you tell the search engine explicitly what a price is, what a rating is or when an event takes place, in a format machines can read unambiguously.

What types of rich results are there?

Google supports a range of types, each with its own requirements. A few that are often relevant for SMEs:

• Product: price, availability and ratings on a product page in an online shop.
• Local business: details such as address and opening hours, although Google often takes these from your business profile too.
• Event: date, location and tickets for workshops or open days.
• Recipe: image, preparation time and rating, handy for a bakery or food blog.
• Breadcrumb: a readable trail instead of a long URL, based on your breadcrumbs.

Google regularly changes what it offers. For example, FAQ and HowTo displays were heavily restricted in recent years. So always check the current documentation before you invest in a particular type.

How to make your page eligible for rich results

1. Choose the schema type that genuinely matches the content of your page.
2. Add the markup, preferably in JSON-LD, the format Google recommends.
3. Make sure all the data in the markup is also visible on the page and accurate.
4. Test your page with Google's Rich Results Test.
5. Keep an eye on the enhancement reports in Google Search Console so you spot errors quickly.

No guarantee, but an opportunity

Correct structured data makes a page eligible for rich results, but Google decides for itself whether and when to show them. So there's no guarantee. Still, an online shop in Brighton that neatly marks up its product pages with price, stock and genuine customer reviews increases the chance that its results stand out among those of competitors. That can lead to a higher click-through rate, although that also depends on the rest of the results page.

Be aware of what you mustn't do, too. Markup containing information that isn't on the page, or reviews you've written yourself, goes against Google's guidelines. In that case Google can withdraw the enhanced display or impose a manual action. Honest, verifiable data is therefore the only sustainable approach.

Rich results and AI search engines

The same structured data that makes rich results possible helps search engines, and probably AI systems too, interpret the facts on your page correctly. A price, opening time or rating that is marked up unambiguously leaves less room for misunderstanding when an AI assistant builds an answer from it. Exactly how heavily each system uses that markup isn't fully known, but clear data is never a disadvantage.

Want to know which pages are eligible and where markup is missing or contains errors? A technical SEO analysis of your website gives you a quick overview.