Rich snippets are supplementary lines of text that are visible under a search result in search engines such as Google. They provide users with more information about what is on the page and how it relates to their search.
In the example below, the highlighted area shows the difference between both results in Google when searching for the term “hotels in australia”.
So why should your website use rich snippets?
According to industry research, there is a strong positive correlation between using rich snippets and the amount of people that click your search result - resulting in a higher average click through rate (CTR) and more visits to your website.
An increased click through rate will also improve your rankings for the relevant keywords - as search engines will see that users deem your website to be highly relevant to their search.
Below is an example of a website that has had rich snippets implemented into their search results. The consequence is a much more visual and enhanced listing in the search engine that gives information to a user on the number of reviews, ratings and the price of the product/service.