What Are Rich Results?

Rich Results is the name Google uses today, officially, throughout its developer documentation at developers.google.com/search. It isn't one specific result type; it's the category covering any search result Google enhances with visual or interactive elements beyond the title, URL and description, once it detects valid structured data on the page.

The term wasn't always this one. Before 2017, Google used different names depending on context: rich snippets for text-based enhancements like stars or price, rich cards for a mobile card format that was later dropped, and enriched results as an occasional umbrella term. In December 2017, when launching the new Rich Results Test, Google folded all three into a single name. That was a deliberate decision to simplify the language, not a natural drift in usage.

That unification explains why two terms coexist for the same thing in 2026: rich snippet, the name the SEO industry coined and still what most people search for, and rich result, what Google has used since 2017 in its own documentation and in Search Console.

Both terms describe the same underlying phenomenon: a search result expanded by valid structured data. The difference is origin and usage, not substance. Rich snippet is the name that stuck first, and that article lists the full set of types active in 2026, including the removal of HowTo and FAQ. Rich result is the label Google adopted later to unify a vocabulary that, until 2017, was split across three separate terms.

It wasn't a gradual drift; Google marked the change with a specific announcement, introducing the Rich Results Test as the successor to its earlier testing tools. Since then, neither Search Console nor the official documentation uses "rich snippet" except in legacy content; both talk about rich results.

The technical path is the same one that produces any enhanced result, and it's already covered in detail in the structured data and JSON-LD articles: the page includes markup following Schema.org's vocabulary, Google reads it during crawling alongside the rest of the HTML, and if the markup is valid and matches the visible content, the page becomes eligible for the corresponding element.

What Google's current documentation adds is a category within that category. Its "Enriched and Interactive Search Results" page distinguishes basic rich results, the visual enhancement to a site's own listing that the rich snippet article covers type by type, from a smaller group it calls enriched search: results with their own interactive interface instead of just an expanded listing. Google limits that category to three types: Recipe, Job Posting, and Event.

The difference shows up in the experience. A recipe rich snippet adds a photo and rating to the normal listing; an enriched recipe search can open a swipeable carousel with filters by calories or cook time. Job listings work the same way: instead of a result with more text, Google shows its own search interface within the results page, with filters by location, salary, or contract type.

Knowing the right term isn't a matter of pedantry: Search Console groups its reports under "Rich results," not "rich snippet," so searching for help or documentation under the wrong name wastes time. The same thing happens talking to a client or a technical team that's read Google's documentation directly: if the brief says "rich snippet" and the developer searches for "rich result," it can look like two different things when it's the same one.

The distinction between a basic rich result and enriched search also matters for setting expectations. Adding JSON-LD of type Product doesn't unlock an interactive interface like the one for jobs or recipes: that category is limited to three specific types, and everything else stays at the visual enhancement covered by rich snippet. Promising a client an interactive carousel for a content type Google doesn't support that way is a common mistake in technical SEO.

• Use "rich result" when searching official Google documentation or support; "rich snippet" still works for client conversations or public-facing SEO content.
• Check the "Rich results" report in Search Console, not a section called "rich snippets": that name no longer appears in the interface.
• Don't promise an enriched experience (carousel, interactive search) for a content type Google limits to Recipe, Job Posting, or Event.
• Before proposing markup to a client, check Google's Search Gallery to confirm the type in question is still an active rich result; the list changes over time.
• Use JSON-LD the same way for any rich snippet: the format and technical process don't change based on which name you use.
• Link both terms in your internal docs or client glossary so no one assumes they're two separate features.

• Treating rich result and rich snippet as two different Google products, when they're the same phenomenon under two names from different periods.
• Searching current Google documentation for "rich cards": the term was retired in 2017 along with "enriched results" when both merged into "rich results."
• Assuming any valid type of structured data can trigger an interactive experience like a recipe carousel, when Google limits that category to three specific types.
• Citing the Rich Results Test as proof the result will definitely show, when it only confirms the markup is valid and eligible.
• Assuming "rich result" is a new or trendy term: it's been Google's official name since 2017, longer than many SEO glossaries took to catch up.