RDFa Rich Snippets can Boost your Business

You have probably seen RDFa rich snippets, without realizing it, when using your favorite search engine. You were shown a series of listings with short summaries of what each listing contains.

Increasingly, the SERPs are returning results containing these rich snippets, which provide a great deal more information to the users, to help them select the site best suited for their needs.

RDFa allows you to suggest to the search engine what should be shown for your webpage when a particular search term comes up, in order to show the most pertinent data.

This can be especially helpful for a catalog, where sizes, price, color and other information can now be listed in the SERPs for the user.

While there is no guarantee that the search engines will use your suggestion in their results, Google has made a commitment to use RDFa technology whenever possible.

How are these helpful to my site?

Envision a typical page of site listings. Even if your business ranks very highly, it may not stand out on the page and can be lost in your competitors’ listings.

Now picture your business listing with all the information a person needs to find you or to know that you have the information or products they need. You can accomplish that with either RDFa or microformats.

Additionally, these rich snippets create better connections with other websites. Semantic web technology allows the search engines to understand your content better, linking your page to other relevant content.

Each time the search engine crawlers go through your page, more connections are made, increasing the reach of your website and thus, your business potential.

What can they do for my ROI?

Your visitor count may decrease, especially initially, but your CTR (click through rate) will simultaneously increase, because of the increased relevancy to the search term.

In addition, those people who do click on your page are more primed to convert. Because they know exactly what your website contains before selecting it, they are more likely to want what your business offers.

Your ROI (return on investment) will therefore increase and the bounce rate will decrease, because there will be fewer users finding that your website wasn’t what they expected.

As the web crawlers continue to link your webpage to other relevant content, the search results they return will become increasingly relevant to your potential customers.

Users will arrive at your site more quickly in their search process, translating into greater conversion, as they have already had a more positive experience with their search.

How can I implement them?

Implementation is too detailed to be discussed in this short article. While it is not nearly as complex as some may think, it’s still a technique that must be learned in order to utilize it properly.

The best way to quickly implement RDFa on your site is to hire a search engine marketing expert skilled in its use, as improper utilization could do your site more harm than good. Thus, an expert is the best way to proceed.

Make no mistake, websites with RDFa rich snippets will attract more business than those not offering them. Don’t be left behind as the web evolves. Take steps to implement this powerful tool today.