We've heard a lot about Rich Snippets in the last few years, especially with regard to how they can help move the needle for ecomm brands.

In the latest YouMoz post - 5 Essential E-Commerce Rich Snippets for Your Store  - Aleh Barysevich provides some easy-to-follow tips he's used to help brands find success using Rich Snippets.

What about you? Have you found Rich Snippets to be all they're cracked up to be?

One of biggest mistakes I used to make - and I had no idea I was making it at the time - was in trying to be too cute with my H1s, H2s and meta tags/meta descriptions. How? I focused more on using fancy punctuation (e.g., dashes, pipes and colons, especially) than I did on the message I hoped to get across to readers.

This was in 2010. Eventually, I discerned the trouble I was creating for myself, and not simply in the eyes of Google.

Instead of thinking about what punctuation Google "recognizes," think of how you can deliver your information in the simplest, easiest-to-digest manner possible. When we attempt to get too cute with our punctuation, we must rely too heavily on someone/something else (e.g., search engines) to deliver our message in the way we hope to convey it; most important, though, it takes the emphasis off of the user, which is always, ALWAYS more interested in the best, most apropos result, not the result that highlights our prowess as A-List grammarians and punctuation scholars.

My advice: Write simply to convey your message thoroughly. More often than not that means few words and even fewer punctuation characters.

RS

Hi Jubaer,

One way to look at it is each (worthwhile) link is an implied endorsement of your site. Viewed in this light, multiple links from the same site, assuming it is a respected domain, would be incredible valuable, but not simply for ranking.

Remember, trust is a huge factor that can and does impact your rank in SERPs: If people come to know and view your brand as authoritative and valuable on a topic, they're more likely to click on your URL, even if you're not in the top handful of results.

One small way to gain such trust is by creating content that is worthy of being linked to by respected domains. The more people see you being linked to and mentioned, the more top of mind awareness you're creating and the greater the likelihood that you'll start seeing that recognition at the SERP level.

I link to say that value of a link extends well beyond the link itself.

RS

Matt,

For me, it's a three-pronged approach: The content ideation, creation and amplification process are all very important parts of the content marketing process. Without one, the other two are not very effective.

• For Ideation, I like to focus on what it is I'm trying to accomplish (e.g,., the goal), then marry that with the needs of the audience.
• For content creation, the goal is to discern the best medium by which to share and create the content, based on the goal of the content and the ideas being expressed. For example, a post that's designed to build a conversation around an idea I hope to test might include light text and heavy graphics and be shared on Google Plus and Instagram, in addition to my blog.
• The amplification part of the process is the most important, and for good reason: Content that isn't amplified is unlikely to get engagement, shares or links. That's why I like to say, "If it's not important enough to drive engagement, don't create it." Links are anything but a given, but shares and engagement are a clear signal that your work is finding and touching the right audience.

Where I veer off course a bit - and recommend that others do the same - is in thinking about amplification first, which is an idea Rand has shared for years.

Instead of thinking (ideation) about what content I should create (creation), I focus on who'll promote the content first. That way, I'm creating content that's more likely to be shared and engaged with. I'm convinced others could/would find success by doing the same thing.

RS

That's exactly where they have the most value to me as a prospect. I want to ascertain as much information as possible before I make a commitment to click a link and visit a webpage.

RS

Becky,

Your priorities certainly are in order. For if you don't get the onsite stuff right, (a) the offsite stuff might never come and (b) if it does come would be tough to measure.

Take the time to get the technical and the on-page SEO airtight, then, as time permits, spend time learning as much as you can about your target audience (e.g., who they are, where they congregate, what content they share and engage around, who the influencers are, etc.). Then you can begin creating content knowing that it's hitting the mark for the audience, who will likely be willing to share and, possibly, link to it in the future.

From there, you move up to adding outreach to your repertoire, whereby you create content targeted to getting the attention of influencers, who'll help you share it, which should bring more attention to your site and illuminate what the audience is hungry for and receptive for from your brand.

RS

Thank you for sharing, Gyi.

RS

Hi Gary,

I'm not entirely clear about your question, but it's best that you create content you know will move the needle for your brand and share it with sites you have a relationship with and that can help your business meet its content marketing goals. It's unlikely the websites you mention meet those qualifications, so I'd say start by creating a list of websites that you know can help your brand that publish similar content. Then reach out to the sites about sharing content on their website.

The key, however, is to be very specific about your goals with regard to the relationship: Traffic? Conversions? etc.

RS