Rich results
Rich results are search results that show extra details, such as a price, stock or star rating, taken from a page’s structured data.
What it means
An ordinary search result is a headline, a link and a line or two of text. A rich result adds more. Google says adding structured data “can enable search results that are more engaging to users”, which are “called rich results”.1
For products, that can mean shoppers see “price, availability, review ratings, shipping information, and more right in search results”.2
Eligibility is not a promise. Items missing a required property “are not eligible for rich results”. Even correct markup guarantees nothing: “Using structured data enables a feature to be present, it does not guarantee that it will be present.”3
Think of it like this
A rich result is like a shop window with price tickets on the goods. Passers-by learn the price before they walk in, but only if the tickets are there and correct.
For example
A plain result for a bath shows its title and a line of text. A rich result for the same page can add the price, £479.00, and In stock, read from the Offer in the page’s structured data.
Why it matters
A price and stock line in the results answers a shopper’s first question before they click. The markup behind it has to be true: a structured data manual action “means that a page loses eligibility for appearance as a rich result”.3
Not to be confused with
Rich results are not Shopping ads, though both can show a price and a picture. Shopping ads are paid for; rich results come from the structured data on your own pages.
Sources
- Google Search Central. Introduction to structured data markup in Google Search.
- Google Search Central. Introduction to Product structured data.
- Google Search Central. General structured data guidelines.