Rich Results
Rich results, also called rich snippets, are enhanced search results with extra visual elements such as star ratings, prices or expandable questions. They rest on Schema.org structured data, usually embedded as JSON-LD.
Some search results look different from the rest: a blue star rating below the title, an expandable question, a recipe image with a cooking time. These are rich results, literally "enriched results". They stand out visually, typically improve the click-through rate and give more information before the click.
What rich results are
A classic search result consists of a title, a URL and a short text excerpt. A rich result adds further structured elements to this basic format: star ratings and the number of reviews, the price and availability of a product, the opening hours and location of a local business, expandable question-and-answer pairs, event dates or breadcrumb paths instead of the plain URL.
Google decides for itself whether and how a rich result is shown; even with technically flawless structured data, there is no guarantee that it will be displayed.
Rich results or rich snippets: the same thing?
Largely, yes. "Rich snippets" was the original name Google used until around 2019. With the introduction of the rich results report in Search Console and the official Rich Results Test, the term "rich results" took hold, and it now also covers formats that go beyond classic snippets, such as carousels or interactive elements. In practice, both terms are still used interchangeably.
The technical foundation
Rich results do not appear on their own; they need structured data as their foundation. Schema.org provides the shared vocabulary for this, which lets you label content unambiguously, such as "this is a product", "this is a question-and-answer list" or "this is a local business". JSON-LD is the format in which this vocabulary is technically embedded in a web page, independently of the visible page content.
For two particularly common use cases there are dedicated, fixed schema types: LocalBusiness Schema for local businesses with address, opening hours and contact details, and FAQPage Schema for question-and-answer lists that can appear as expandable rich results. Both are concrete building blocks within the larger Schema.org vocabulary, each embedded as JSON-LD.
A prerequisite, not a guarantee
Valid structured data is the entry ticket, not a promise of display. Google also checks factors such as the overall quality and trustworthiness of a page, similar to the criteria behind E-E-A-T. Before going live, it is worth running Google's free Rich Results Test: it shows whether the markup is technically correct and which rich result types it qualifies for.
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