Tag: structured data

Rich Snippets add “extra information” to snippets and make you stand out in search results.

You can do this with reviews, recipes, videos, events, user reviews, and other supported data. The easiest way to add rich snippets to WordPress is by installing a rich snippets plugin, using it to markup pages/posts (basically just filling out fields), then testing those URLs in Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool. This will increase your clickthrough rates (CTR) and SEO traffic.

What is the best WordPress rich snippets plugin? I use WP Review Pro (they also have a free version) which is the plugin I will feature in this tutorial. I used to use All In One Schema, but’s way too minimal. I also used WP Rich Snippets but the developer abandoned that plugin. WP Review is maintained by MyThemeShop, looks fantastic, loads fast, and is highly customizable.

1. Choose A Rich Snippets Plugin

Option 1: WP Review (I Use The Pro Version) – the plugin I use myself and recommend. Other rich snippet plugins are either too minimal (All In One Schema lacks customization options) or they’re unreliable (WP Rich Snippets hasn’t been updated for 2 years and isn’t compatible for PHP 7). I love WP Review and the pro version comes with 16 pre-styled designs, plus support.

Why I Use WP Review

• Looks awesome (here’s a page I use it on)
• The plugin is maintained! Unlike many others.
• Supports reviews, recipes, and most data types.
• Multiple ratings systems (stars, points, percentage).
• No compatibly issues with other plugins or new PHP versions.
• Lightweight (loads fast) and doesn’t affect my GTmetrix report.
• Supports user reviews + unlimited domain usage with pro version.
• Pro version comes with 16 pre-styled designs which look amazing.

 
How it looks…

Option 2: All In One Schema Rich Snippets – free plugin that “does the job” but has minimal settings and customization options (by little I mean there are only 6 settings to customize how your rich snippets look). This doesn’t cut if for me. Here’s a full review of All In One Schema.org or see these screenshots on the WordPress plugin page.

Why I Don’t Use All In One Schema

• Looks boring
• Doesn’t support user reviews
• Limited customization options (literally only has 6 settings for customization)
• Only 1 type of rating (stars) with 1 point intervals (you can’t something a 4.5)

How it looks…

Option 3: WP Rich Snippets – I wanted to love this rich snippets plugin. I even used it for 2 years when it wasn’t updated once. But there came a point where I needed to upgrade from PHP 5.6 to PHP 7, and WP Rich Snippets wasn’t compatible (it broke my site). The developer lists “plugin updates” and “plugin support” on his website, but there is none. I would love to dive into cool features of WP Rich Snippets, but it would be a waste of time. Stay away from it.

Why I Don’t Use WP Rich Snippets

• No support
• No plugin updates (for 2 years!)
• Not compatible with PHP 7 or higher
• Doesn’t support event rich snippets type
• Most add-ons need to be purchased separately
• Each add-ons is an additional plugin that runs on your site

How it looks…

2. Configure Your Plugin Settings

This will obviously be different depending on which rich snippets plugin you choose.

These are the settings for WP Review:

Styling
Below are the main settings where you can choose between their 16 pre-styled designs (for WP Review Pro) as well as colors, review box width, and whether you want Google Fonts.

Defaults
Choose the review type (star, point, percent, circle, thumbs up), whether you want the markup before or after the content, and what type of review you’re writing. You can use shortcodes to display markup somewhere in the middle of your content, if you don’t want it before or after.

Embed
Choose if you want to allow users to embed your reviews on their website.

3. Markup Your Content

Edit any page/post you want to add rich snippets to (it must be a review or other data type). Scroll down until you see the “review” sections. Here’s what they look like for WP Review.

Review – review type, item, and author fields are mandatory for Google to show schema.

Review Item – tell people what specific features you like and don’t like about the item, giving each one a score. You can customize the colors of the stars here (and their background color).

Review Links – add your affiliate link and the text you want to use as the link. The plugin will automatically set the link as nofollow so search engines don’t crawl it (which is what you want).

Review Description – your review description can include both text, links, images, and videos.

User Review – choose whether you want visitors to be able to leave a review about the item.

Here’s the end result:

4. Test In Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool

Run the post’s URL through Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to make sure your rich snippets are working. Just look for the green “all good” text and if you see errors, expand the box to see items that need to be fixed. Your rich snippets won’t appear immediately in Google’s search results (it can take a few days to update) but this tool will tell you if something’s wrong.

Common Solutions

1. Add the data Google tells you to in their Structured Data Testing Tool
2. Make sure the data is representative of the content on the page
3. Try adding markup to a few more pages which is suggested by Google
4. Upgrade to the latest version of WordPress, MySQL, and PHP (contact your host)
5. Visit this Google forum which lists common problems and other FAQs
6. Visit the structured data section of your Google Search Console
7. Visit Google’s structured data policies and webmaster guidelines
8. If you still have problems, it might be because you have a low domain authority

Once Google recrawls your site, your rich snippet should appear…

If You Decide All In One Schema (Free And Easy, But Minimal)

Install and activate the plugin…

In the settings, the configuration tab can be left as-is unless you want to change the text…

The customization tab has basic styling options…

Edit a page or post you want to add rich snippets to. Scroll down and select a rich snippet…

Based on the rich snippet you choose, you will be asked to fill out certain fields…

Publish the page and test the URL in Google’s Structured Data Tool (step 4). You will need to wait for Google to crawl your website (usually 1-4 days) for these to appear in search results.

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions, Errors, Success?

If you’re still having trouble with errors, you can drop me a line below but I recommend you contact the plugin developer since they are suppose to provide support for their customers – WP Rich Snippets DOES provide support for the 1st year no matter which plan you chose.

I really hope you found this helpful! Adding rich snippets to WordPress is incredibly beneficial and can give you a huge advantage with your SEO. So if you’re stuck, please don’t quit and either reach out to me or contact the WP Rich Snippets support team for help.

See Also:
How I Optimized My WordPress Site To Load In .2s (100% GTmetrix/Pingdom Scores)

Cheers,
Tom

All In One Schema Rich Snippets is a WordPress plugin used to markup pages/posts with rich snippets.

It has good reviews and will do the job for a lot of people. But other people (like me) are picky about how the markup affects the design of the page. Since every rich snippet plugin adds content to your page which is needed for Google to show your rich snippets, the main difference between rich snippet plugins is how the information is presented on the page.

This post you’re reading is marked up with WP Rich Snippets and in my opinion, looks awesome. It can include a video, photo, links, and plenty of other options. Whereas All In One Schema Rich Snippets is limited when it comes to options and design customization.

Here’s how your page will look after marking it up with All In One Schema Rich Snippets:

Supported Data Types

• Products
• Recipes
• Reviews
• Events
• Software Apps
• Videos
• Local Business Markup

Should You Consider Other Rich Snippet Plugins?
If you’re happy with the basic design of All In One Schema Rich Snippets, it is the best free rich snippets plugin and I will show you how to set it up. But if you’re looking for something more robust and have $69+ for a premium plugin, check out WP Rich Snippets and view this tutorial. WP Rich Snippets has more options and supports local business markup which helps Google show your business information correctly in Google Maps.

Now let’s get started…

1. Install All In One Schema Rich Snippets

2. Configure The Settings

Once installed you will see the “Rich Snippets” options in the left menu of your WordPress dashboard. Go through the settings especially the configuration and customization tabs. The other tabs are helpful but I listed a more robust set of resources at the bottom of this article.

Basic styling options…

3. Add Markup To Pages

Edit a page/post you want to add rich snippets to then scroll down until you see “configure rich snippet.” Select the type of rich snippet then plugin will request specific data. Fill out as many fields as possible since this will help Google understand your data and show it in their search results. Certain fields are often required for rich snippets to work, but you can use Google’s Structured Data Testing (step 4) to see if you’re missing fields or getting errors.

4. Test Your Rich Snippets

Once you fill out all the fields you can, use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to see if your rich snippets are working correctly (they won’t immediately appear in search results so use this tool instead). If you see red errors, click the box to expand and look at the items. Fixing them may be as easy as filling out a field you forgot about while marking up the page.

End Result

This is what a review rich snippet will look like once Google updates their search results which takes around 2-4 days. For other rich snippet types you will see different information; events will have hours and location information, products will have pricing information, etc. Once you get the hang of it, go ahead and start marking up other pages/posts that include reviews, events, products, videos, and other supported data types used in rich snippets.

Solutions To Common Problems

1. Add data Google tells you to in their Structured Data Testing Tool
2. Rich snippet data should be accurate and align with the content on the page
3. Add markup to more pages instead of only having 1 page with markup
4. Update WordPress core, theme, plugins, etc
5. Review All In One Schema Rich Snippets’ support forum
6. Visit this Google forum to see common problems and FAQs
7. Visit the structured data section of your Google Search Console
8. Comply with Google’s structured data policies and webmaster guidelines

If you’re still running into problems, leave me a comment or see All In One Schema Rich Snippets’ support forum. Otherwise I hope you found this review helpful and good luck driving more traffic to your WordPress site using this free, awesome rich snippets plugin!

Thanks for reading!