Adding additional product specs to enhance search results

Once upon a time, a customer searched for a product and came across a fancy type of search result. This result showed the title, description, Rich Results, and a table of sorts.

The customer found the information so incredibly useful, they clicked on the search result. The next thing they knew, the product was on its way and they lived happily ever after.

The end.

How did this extra product detail get into the search result? What magic schema or keyword caused this to happen?

Nothing crazy like that. In fact, it was a simple HTML table in the product description.

Tanoshi Kids Computers was finding success on Amazon but was struggling on their Shopify site. As part of our work together, we pulled the product specs out of the product image and placed the specs into a simple HTML table on their product page.

Now, when someone searches for Tanoshi’s screen size for their Scholar laptop, we may see a few different types of results.

This screenshot shows a Featured Snippet that pulls the table into the search result.

Featured Snippets are a bit different because they are in position zero, above all ads and other search results. These are summary blocks above the organic search result, also called answer boxes, that directly answer the query.

This next screenshot looks more like a regular search result with Rich Results and can be anywhere on the search engine result page (SERP). This result also includes product details in direct response to the query.

Notice the table-like call-outs for “Standing screen display size”, “Number of USB 2.0 Ports”, “Screen Resolution”, and “Average Battery Life (in hours)”.

Many call this a Rich Result, but it’s not. Rich Results come from structured data and include reviews, price, and availability which is also included at the bottom of this search result. This is more like a hybrid between Featured Snippet and Rich Results, but there is not a defined title.

So we’ll call this search enhancement a Feature Highlight because it’s pulling highlights from the table and featuring that content in the result. I made that up. Sounds good though doesn’t it?

The Feature Highlight is a great way to stand out above the other search results.

Shopify has the ability to add tables to your product descriptions so you don’t need to know HTML to add this. You can find this in the product description editor and looks like, well, a table.

I recommend using tables as a way to highlight technical specs, dimensions, materials, ingredients, and the like.

If a table doesn’t work for your aesthetic, you could try bullet points (e.g. * Color: black) but I’ve found results to be less consistent.

Also, I was stuck on how to start this article so my 9 year old told me she usually starts her stories with “Once upon a time” and thought that may help me too. Thanks, kiddo!