How Rich Snippets Can Change The Way You (and Your Customers) Search

At its Searchology event yesterday, Google rolled out a new feature that has game-changing potential. Well, a few of them actually. And I’ll talk about each of them over the rest of the week, but today the topic is Rich Snippets. Click the link to see Rich Snippets in action in search results.

If you don’t want to click, the results look a little (okay, well, exactly) like this:

The information in the snippet is pulled from the content on the page. That means that you don’t have to register for anything or upload anything to Google for the enhanced results to take effect, just add a markup to the information that’s already there on your site. Information on how to do this can be found on Google’s Webmaster Central blog.

Rich Snippets is very exciting, but it doesn’t change the basics of SEO. Content still matters. Links still matter. If you don’t show up in the rankings, nobody will know about all your awesome ratings and reviews. What this does change is the way that users are going to interact with your listing once they see it. Just think, are you more likely to click the first result with a one-star rating or scroll down until you find a four or a five? I know I’d do the latter, and your customers will, too.

As this becomes more widespread in its implementation (and this will be adopted by other engines at some point since none of this is Google-proprietary), it can be a powerful way to let your reputation for quality service attract new customers to your store.

Later, expect some tips on how to make Rich Snippets work in your Yahoo Store, and come back tomorrow and Friday for more thoughts on Google Squared and Google Search Options.