Google is pressing forward in its ongoing objective to cram more information into search results by now announcing the global launch of  ’Rich Snippets’.

Just in case you might be thinking that the “non-rich Snippets” are somhow economically disadvantaged or low fat versions of a snippet, think again. A Snippet is a portion of  the Search Engine Result  (SERP) This is the bit about your site that Google displays in search results    - read SERP background here

Here’s an example of rich snippets from  the WebMasters Blog article. Rich Snippets contain “value added information” in the SERP such as an image, company name,  location, even survey results etc

Google have declared these  (initial) categories as candidates for Rich Snippets:

• People profiles
• Reviews
• Videos
• Events
• Recipes

Before you starting thinking that adding a recipe picture wont help you sell more from your website think again!
SERPs are an important if not vital part of the organic search sales process, and being able to differentiate your SERP above your online competitors WILL command attention, visitors and most likely sales…

What is interesting is that Rich Snippets don’t just happen spontaneously. They are triggered by the presence of  ’rich  information’ that needs to be coded into your HTML using special HTML coding extensions either: microdata, microformats or RDFa

Adding these is yet another job for overwhelmed web developers who already have too much to deal with and increasing range of detail and sophistication now expected to be in a modern website.

Anyway, watch this space as I can see that Rich Snippets will potentially be applied to a broader range of categories so if/when these become relevant to your business (if not already!)  then jump on it promptly before your competitors do!

It might even be astute to pre-code Rich Snippets into your site…

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