Rich results

Rich results are the visually enhanced search listings Google produces from structured data: star ratings, FAQ accordions, product prices and availability, recipe cards, event details, and breadcrumb trails. They make a listing more prominent and informative, which can raise click-through, and they are only eligible when the page carries the corresponding valid markup that matches the rich-result requirements.

Eligibility is not a guarantee of display. Google decides per query whether to show a rich result, and some rich-result types have been removed or narrowed over time (FAQ rich results, for example, were restricted to a small set of authoritative sites). So the right mental model is that structured data makes a page eligible and helps machines understand it, while the visible enhancement is a bonus that Google grants at its discretion.

This is why we frame schema around entity understanding first and rich results second. Even when a rich result is not shown, the structured data still does the more durable job of telling search and AI engines what the page and its entities are, which feeds the knowledge graph and the citation decisions that increasingly drive visibility.