How to boost your SEO performance with Review Rich Snippets on Shopify

Using review-rich snippets can help you get more out of each search result in which your products or Shopify store is featured. To do this, you need to understand what rich snippets are and what you can do to get them to show on search engine results.

What Are Rich Snippets?

In layman's terms, rich snippets are the stuff that shows up on Google search results that offer additional information and makes a particular result look better and legit.

But let us offer you a better, more detailed explanation.

Rich snippets are additional information you can use to improve your visibility on Google search results and enhance user experience. Those look like this:

If you want to go deeper into rich snippets, check out our other article about the different types and examples of rich snippets you can use to strengthen your SEO and stand out on Google Search Results

What Are Review Rich Snippets?

There are many different kinds of rich snippets. One of the more popular ones is the review rich snippet. These are rich snippets that convey information relating to a review (how many stars were given, the price, an excerpt of an expressed opinion).

Other types of rich snippets are: recipes, instructions, product specifications and prices, FAQ, event information, business location, etc.

What Are The Benefits Of Using Review Rich Snippets?

Trust

As we said in the intro, rich snippets help with legitimacy and trustworthiness because many other legitimate and trustworthy results have them. So that's the first and most direct benefit of adding these markups to your Shopify store.

Visibility

Because rich snippets increase the amount of space your result takes on the screen, among other things, rich snippets improve your visibility on Google search results.

Social Proof

And there's another benefit specific to review rich snippets, and that's the opportunity to offer the user a glimpse into a customer's opinion of your store or product before they even visit, which can be extremely helpful (to you and your potential customer).

But that's if we're limiting ourselves to talking about what adding markups to your site can do for your Shopify store. But to have review rich snippets show up on search results featuring your site, you first need to have reviews.

If you don't have reviews on your site, you need to consider adding them as part of your SEO efforts. Reviews carry weight when it comes to giving credence to a site, and that translates into your overall ranking on search engines in general, and Google, of course, is no exception.

For example, in Just How Much Do Google Reviews Impact Your SEO Ranking? Ruhi Van Andel wrote:

How Much Influence Do Reviews Have on SEO?
A lot. According to a study, the fifth most significant parameter that determines the rank of a business is online reviews.

So, suppose that you add reviews to your online business because you want to appear on search results with review rich snippets, that's a triple win for you right there: you added a way to provide social proof to potential customers, improve your ranking on search engines, and improve your visibility on search results. That's because user-generated content is a great way of building trust, and both users and search engines recognize it.

Are Rich Snippets Good For SEO?

Rich snippets aren't going to improve your ranking. But they are good for SEO. Let me explain...

How Can Review Rich Snippets Affect Your SEO Performance?

When we talk about Search Engine Optimization, most people think about improving your ranking in search results, and while yes, that's a very important aspect, it's not the only one.

First, we want to say that rich snippets may help you improve your ranking, among other measures.

Adding rich snippet markups alone isn't going to improve your ranking. But that's because there isn't a singular thing that will improve your ranking on Google.

With the number of algorithms involved and Google's ranking system constantly evolving and shaping the web (SEO is a bit like an arms race), there can't be a single "if you do this, you get that" solution but rather a more holistic one. And every bit helps.

See, there is a correlation between adding rich snippets and achieving higher click-through rates (especially when your snippets include pictures) and it's generally accepted that higher click-through rates help improve your ranking.

But as we said before, SEO isn't exclusively about ranking higher. There are also other things you can optimize. So let's talk about one of the things that rich snippets do directly (and greatly) impact: better visibility.

Optimizing for better visibility will help you stand out among other results within your current ranking level.

Additionally, a lot of what SEO is about boils down to optimizing for a better user experience -- even before they enter your site. And rich snippets are a way to do that.

How To Add Review Rich Snippets To Shopify

Technically, you can't add rich snippets to your Shopify store. You should add markups to your code so that Google can better understand the content. Google can then add rich snippets when it shows your site in a search result.

Depending on the code and tools you're using, there are several ways of adding rich snippet markups to your site. For a more detailed explanation of how to add rich snippet markups to your Shopify store, check out our guide with an easy copy-paste approach.

You've added markups so that Google includes rich snippets when your Shopify store shows up on search results; that was great. But what now?

Measuring Rich Snippets' Performance

To better understand the impact that rich snippets have had on your Shopify store, you need to compare your performance on search results before you had them vs. since you've added them.

If you haven't changed anything else, you can assume the changes you see are due to rich snippets. But keep in mind that there are other cyclical factors in play, that could be one of your keywords is in season, for example.

Since rich snippets' most significant impact is improving your visibility in search results, the main thing to keep an eye on is the click-through rate. If things are improving on that front since you've added rich snippets, it's fair to assume they're the reason behind it.

Additionally, suppose that you want information specific to how rich results are performing, Google's Seach Appearance report will show data on the different rich results earned by your content and how users have interacted with them, mostly in the form of clicks, impressions, CTR (click-through rate) and average position of your search results.

We hope to have answered your most important questions regarding review rich snippets. If there's something you think we missed, don't hesitate to contact us, we'd love to hear from you.