Rich Snippet
A rich snippet is an enhanced search result that displays extra detail beyond the standard title, URL, and description, such as star ratings, review counts, price, or availability, drawn from structured data Google reads on the page.
Rich snippets are triggered by valid structured data: mark up a product with review and aggregateRating schema, and Google may show stars and a rating out of five right in the result. The same applies to prices, stock status, FAQs, and recipes, each with its own schema type. The markup is a request, not a command, so eligibility never guarantees display.
The value is click-through. A result carrying star ratings stands out against plain blue links and tends to draw a higher share of clicks, even at the same position. That is why they are worth pursuing, but also why they attract abuse, which is the catch.
Google grants rich snippets when the marked-up content matches what a visitor actually sees, and it revokes them when it does not. Inventing ratings, marking up reviews that are not visible on the page, or rating the whole site rather than the specific product all violate the guidelines and can trigger a manual action. Getting existing reviews readable on the page, corroborated, and correctly marked up is the honest path, and it is the gap BetterReviews closes.