Rich Results
SEOAlso: Rich Snippets · Enhanced Search Results · SERP Features
Quick definition
Rich results are search engine results that display more than a basic blue link and description. They include visual enhancements like star ratings, FAQs, product prices, recipe images and event dates. Rich results are enabled by adding structured data markup to your pages in a format Google can read.
How it varies across Australia
Across the Australian sites we review, structured data implementation is patchy even among businesses that invest heavily in SEO. Most have partial coverage at best. The gap between eligible-but-unmarked pages and pages actually earning rich results is wide, and it represents click-through rate improvement sitting unclaimed.
See digital maturity scores across Australian industries →Common rich result types
Expands question and answer pairs inline below the search result.
FAQPage schemaDisplays star rating and review count pulled from review markup.
AggregateRating schemaShows price, availability and rating for ecommerce pages.
Product schemaReplaces the URL in the result with readable navigation labels.
BreadcrumbList schemaShows date, time and location for upcoming events.
Event schemaWhat it actually means
Ranking on page one of Google gets you a slot. Rich results change what that slot looks like.
A standard result is three lines: a title, a URL and a snippet. A rich result might add a star rating pulled from your review markup, a price range from your product schema, a list of frequently asked questions that expands inline, or an event date from your event markup. The result occupies more space on the page and gives the user more reason to click before they arrive.
Rich results are powered by structured data, most commonly Schema.org markup added to your HTML. The structured data tells Google what type of content the page contains and which properties it has. Google reads that signal, decides whether your page is eligible, and decides whether to display the enhancement. Eligibility is not the same as a guarantee. Google makes the final call on whether to show it.
The most commercially useful rich result types for Australian businesses are FAQ (expands questions inline), Review (shows star rating and count), Product (shows price, availability and rating in ecommerce results), Local Business (shows hours, address, rating in local results), and BreadcrumbList (replaces the URL with clean navigation labels).
The connection to technical SEO is direct. Rich results are one of the clearest payoffs from structured data investment, alongside the FAQ schema and BreadcrumbList that tie into organic click-through rate. Core Web Vitals and page speed affect whether Google trusts the page enough to surface enhanced features, so technical health and rich result eligibility are linked.
Rich results don't improve your ranking. They improve what happens after you rank.
How it shows up
Rich results show up two places before they show up in search. First in Google Search Console under the Enhancements report, which lists which schema types Google has detected and how many pages pass or fail validation. Second in the Rich Results Test tool, which previews how a specific URL would render if Google chose to display it.
In practice, rich results show up as higher click-through rates on the pages that earn them. A page that ranks fifth with a star rating and FAQ expansion typically outperforms a plain result in third position. The click-through rate improvement is the commercial signal worth tracking, not the presence of the markup itself.
The Australian context
Australian local search is heavily influenced by Business Profile rich results, which surface hours, reviews, location and category directly in Google Search results before the user even reaches the organic listings. For bricks-and-mortar businesses across Australian cities, Google Business Profile structured data is the single most impactful structured data investment available.
Australian ecommerce sites competing in Google Shopping also benefit from Product schema, which feeds into free product listings. The overlap between structured data on-site and Google Merchant Centre data means the two systems reinforce each other when both are implemented correctly.
Where people get this wrong
Related terms
Common questions
Do rich results improve my Google ranking?
Not directly. Rich results change how your existing rank looks in search results, which typically improves click-through rate. The indirect effect is that higher click-through rate sends a positive engagement signal to Google, which can support rankings over time. But structured data alone does not move your position.
How do I test whether my structured data is valid?
Use Google's Rich Results Test tool at search.google.com/test/rich-results. Paste any URL and it previews which rich result types the page is eligible for and flags any markup errors. Also check Search Console under Enhancements for site-wide coverage and error counts.
Which rich result types matter most for an Australian small business?
For local businesses: Local Business schema and a complete Google Business Profile. For ecommerce: Product schema with pricing and availability. For content sites: FAQ schema on question-based pages and BreadcrumbList on all pages. Start with the type that matches your primary page format.
My structured data is valid but I'm not getting rich results. Why?
Valid markup makes you eligible, not guaranteed. Google withholds rich results when it judges the page quality insufficient, the content unreliable, or the schema misleading. The most common causes are thin content, low authority on the domain, or FAQ schema that doesn't reflect the actual page content.
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About New Rebellion
New Rebellion is a marketing intelligence consultancy. We build tools, score Australian businesses on how their marketing actually performs, and publish Debrief every day. This dictionary is part of how we work in the open.
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