SEO for travel websites is paramount, and there are many SEO tactics you can adopt to generate a powerful online presence. One of these is using rich snippets.
When executed effectively, rich snippets can play a major role in improving your Google search results and enhancing the overall SEO strategy of your travel website.
Simply put, rich snippets allow you to display more interesting and valuable information in the search results, which can ultimately help you attract more traffic to your site.
Follow this guide to learn everything you need to know about rich snippets, how they work, and how your travel business can use them for stronger SEO.
What Are Rich Snippets?
Search results pages on Google don’t only display a list of indexed web pages. Instead, they also display short snippets of information that have been extracted from web pages.
In some cases, these snippets display things like images, ratings, location data, or other information or interactive elements. These are known as rich snippets.
The aim of rich snippets is to highlight the most important information on the web page and help Google understand in more detail what the web page is about. Of course, this is also helpful for the user as they can access more relevant search results.
Previously, the information displayed on search results pages only consisted of your meta description; now, you can now add special types of content and tags to your web pages to help you earn rich snippets in the SERPs.
This can have major advantages for your travel website’s SEO strategy, making rich snippets a valuable on-page SEO tactic.
Why Are Rich Snippets Important For SEO?
Rich snippets generally take the top position (also called position zero) in SERPs. This means that these pages have a far greater chance of attracting more clicks. So, if your web page isn’t ranking in the traditional text results, you’ll still be able to attract more traffic than the competition by gaining a rich snippet position.
Rich snippets also provide more detailed information for your web page in Google search results. This makes them more useful to the user than traditional search results, which increases the chances of a user clicking on your content.
Instead of having to scroll through a long search results page, users can discover the exact answer or information they need directly in rich snippet results. This information is more helpful and eye-catching. If this position is yours, you’ll attract a lot more exposure and attention.
There are also technical benefits of using rich snippets on your website. You generate rich snippets by correctly tagging these pages for easier crawling. This leads to more relevant search results being displayed, which boosts your click-through rate.
Because rich snippets also provide an exact answer to a user’s query, they can help to decrease the bounce rate on your website.
Rich snippets also work well for voice search. The rich snippet results on position zero are what Siri or Google Home read aloud.
Another benefit of rich snippets is that it can help you drive more qualified traffic to your site. Instead of merely making your web pages more visible, rich snippets display valuable information about your content or business (such as event dates, prices, or ratings).
This gives users a greater understanding of your web page before they land on it, which can play a big role in reducing the bounce rate on that page.
Finally, as a travel business, rich snippets give you a great chance to promote and sell more tours. Instead of only displaying helpful information, rich snippets can also display the travel products you sell which can result in a lot more traffic and interest in your tours.
What Tools Can You Use to Implement Rich Snippets On Your Website?
You’re probably wondering how to improve google search results for your business using rich snippets.
In order to apply rich snippets to your website, you’ll need to mark up rich results based on a language called Schema. Schema is the language that all search engines understand for tagging pages.
Basically, you use Schema by adding a small section of code at the top of your page that annotates any relevant elements that exist on the page. When a search engine crawls your site, it recognizes these elements, which improves the chances of them being displayed as rich snippets.
Sounds pretty technical, right? Not really. You don’t have to be a coding or SEO expert to add Schema to your web pages. Luckily, there are tools that can do this for you.
Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper can help you define your web page and create this code. Then you can simply insert this code into Google Tag Manager. This is a more hands-on approach, and it’s generally the most accurate way to create Schema for your pages.
However, there are easier tools that you can use to implement rich snippets on your website. Plenty of WordPress plugins are available, which can automatically create microdata for your web pages.
Some good options include Schema Pro, Schema App Structured Data, WP SEO Structured Data Schema, and WPSSO Core. Although, you can just search for Schema plugins and select your top pick from the many available options.
Schema tools are also available for platforms like Shopify, Adobe Commerce, and Drupal. Just search for Schema markup tools in the platform’s relevant app store.
You will also need to be able to identify possible elements on your pages that could help you win rich snippets in the SERPs. Google’s rich results test tool can help you review your web pages and identify the possible rich snippets that your pages are eligible for.
The rich results test tool can also preview your rich result on Google to show you what it could look like in the SERPs. The tool will reveal any errors that exist in your structured data.
Next, you can use Google Search Console to review your pages and monitor your rich snippet presence on your website. Instead of viewing your rich snippets page by page, Search Console provides an overview of your entire rich snippets presence to help you identify any errors or opportunities.
You can access this information by filtering your search results based on the type of structured data group.
Key Pages For Travel Websites To Implement Rich Snippets On
Now that you know the basics of how rich snippets work, how do you use them to boost SEO for your travel website?
It all starts by understanding which pages on your site offer the best rich snippet opportunities.
Various types of rich snippet features exist, such as recipes, reviews, music, movie, events, and product markups. While most of these might not be relevant to your travel business, there are some very useful features that can help you attract more traffic and increase the number of tour bookings.
If you include these elements on your web pages, you can use a tool to create structured data for the relevant page. The Schema should recognize the type of information available on the page, and display this as a rich snippet on Google.
So, start by identifying these elements on your site, and then run the pages through a structured data tool to optimize them.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the types of rich snippets your travel business can utilize for a stronger SEO presence.
Reviews And Ratings
Reviews are arguably the most popular rich snippet element. They’re also incredibly useful for helping your travel business gain trust and attract more customers.
If you’re able to generate customer reviews on your website (which you should be doing), then you can display these reviews as a general star rating (out of five) on search results pages, The rich snippet will also include how many reviews exist on your site.
Major travel industry websites like Booking.com or Expedia display user ratings and reviews in rich snippets, which makes their search results index look a lot more attractive.
Having a lot of ratings and reviews present on your rich snippet can help boost your ranking and attract a higher CTR.
Product Markup
Rich snippets have the functionality to display a product and price markup in search results. This is a tactic often used by hotels. However, any kind of tour or travel experience can include this information in its Schema.
Suppose a user is searching for a specific type of travel experience, and yours appears as the top result with pricing options clearly displayed. In that case, you’ll be able to attract a lot more pre-qualified customers.
Events
Schema markup is also available for events. This displays the date and details of the upcoming event. Your travel website can utilize this to display information on any upcoming trips, tours, or experiences.
Event-rich snippets display data ranges and specific events, which can help you attract users who land on the exact product page they’re looking for.
These users already know about the event from the rich snippet, so they will be better informed when they reach your site.
Video
Video markup allows you to display embedded videos in search results. As video is the most engaging form of online content, this can have a big impact on how much attention your page attracts.
You can include videos of your tours, destinations, travel guides, or more. If you win a video-rich snippet, your page instantly becomes more valuable and attractive to the user, which should result in more traffic overall.
Conclusion
If you’re wondering how to improve Google search results for your tour business, then rich snippets could be the SEO goldmine you’re after.
Rich snippets make your search engine listings a lot more valuable and visible. If you gain these snippets, be prepared to send more traffic to your website. And as you know, more traffic equals more bookings - as long as you optimize your site for it.
If you want to learn about more SEO tactics and strategies for your travel business, then check out our free SEO course. It will teach you everything you need to know about using SEO to increase direct bookings on your travel website.
