This document summarizes the Search features and experiences that help Google Search users find, use, and take action with your creative content, your business and its offerings, or your listings. These experiences fall into these broad categories:

• Rich results
• Customized site features
• Knowledge Graph cards

Rich results

The structured data markup you provide for your pages helps Google algorithms better understand the kinds of things you offer your users so that their attributes can be featured in a visually compelling way—from ratings for recipe content, to structured layouts for events, to carousels for a related collection of items such as recipes from a specific host. These experiences are also streamlined for the user’s device and context, enhancing your content previews and making it easier for users to take action on your content wherever they are.

To make your own content eligible for rich results, you provide structured data markup for two categories of things:

• Content items, such as articles, recipes, or movies.
• Lists of items, such as recipes and events.

Rich cards

A card is the fundamental presentation unit for Search results. It appears in the organic results for Google Search either as a single element or a list of elements. A rich card is a more engaging level of presentation because it improves on the standard Search result with a more structured and visual preview of things you describe with your markup. For example, a recipe card shows the host site for that recipe, a picture of the recipe, a snippet of information about it, and a “star” rating—all attributes that are most compelling to a user when searching for a specific recipe.

Finally, when you use the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) specification for your web pages, you make your content eligible for additional rich card features. For example, the Top Stories carousel previews articles and video content from sites that use AMP HTML. Each card in the carousel displays the publisher’s logo, an image thumbnail from the page, the title of the page, and a timestamp. To the left of the timestamp, the AMP annotation indicates a fast loading page and a consistent browsing experience for consuming content. For details on creating AMP pages and video content, start with Create Your First AMP Page on the AMP Project website.

Learn more

• The Search Gallery showcases a variety of markup examples
• The Data Types Reference provides the markup specification and detailed examples you can test in the Structured Data Testing Tool.
• See Mark Up Your Content Items for implementation specifics.

Host-specific recipe list

A host-specific recipe list displays cards from a single source. The list appears for queries that match a category intent, such as “dessert recipes.” Users can browse previews of items in that category by swiping on their mobile device. Each carousel displays a link to a page within your site that lists all the results you provide for your item list. Each card within the carousel links directly to the specific page previewed in the card.

To make your recipe content eligible for a host list, you provide markup for the list on your list pages, in addition to the markup on the item pages referenced by the list. The list pages markup provides annotation and sequence information for the carousel items.

Learn more

See the implementation steps in Mark Up Your Listings.

Customized site features

You can customize how your website appears in Search results by using three kinds of structured data markup.

• Breadcrumbs—help users navigate your site hierarchyWhen you mark up breadcrumb information for a page, Google can present the information on your pages in our search results.
• Site name—indicate the preferred name for your site in Search resultsYou can also provide more than one possible name for your site, and let Google Search algorithms choose between them. Use this to provide natural sounding alternatives for your, such as “Google” rather than “Google, Inc.”
• Sitelinks Search box—let users search your site directly from Search resultsSearch users sometimes use navigational queries, typing in the brand name or URL of a known site or app, only to do a more detailed search once they reach their destination. For example, users searching for pizza pins on Pinterest would type Pinterest or pinterest.com into Google Search—either from the Google App or from their web browser—then load the site or Android app, and finally search for pizza. With Sitelinks search box, the user can search “pizza” directly in Search results to open content in the Pinterest site, or in the app if they have it installed.

Learn more

See the implementation steps in Markup Up Your Site’s Attributes.

Knowledge Graph cards

The Knowledge Graph cards are a special Search feature powered by the Google Knowledge Graph, Google’s system for organizing information about millions of well-known entities: people, places, and organizations in the real world. A Knowledge Graph card appears for an entity when there is enough data and expressed search interest in a particular entity to benefit Search users. In addition to summary information and relevant photos for a person or official entity, Knowledge Graph cards can also contain contact info, website details, logo, and social profile links. It can also contain other elements, like event listings and songs, such as with search queries an artist. Depending on the nature of the query, an artist’s events might appear as a separate card in the Search Results panel, or it can be embedded in a Knowledge Graph card, which aggregates a variety of information about known entities.

Google’s algorithms merge information about official entities and sites from many data sources, with the primary authorities for information in the knowledge graph being designated official sites for an entity. Ownership of a site is first established in Search Console, and then Google later uses process and algorithms to verify the entity and/or site as an official representation for that entity.

How Google recognizes authoritative information

Authority data for Knowledge Graph cards is recognized by a number of avenues:

• Google My Business—Information you provide from Google My Business is authoritative for your business. This includes your address, phone number and other contact info, business type, and photos. Sign up your brick and mortar business using Google My Business.
• Known sites—A known site is the official website for an entity as shown in Knowledge Graph cards. If you add markup to a known site, that data is treated as authoritative and used for Knowledge Graph cards where it is not already determined by data you put into Google My Business. This includes your official logo and social profile links. However, if you enter contact information through Google My Business, that data source is treated as authoritative. We recommend you keep the data sources in sync if you use both types. Read the guide Enhance Your Site’s Attributes
• Knowledge Graph feedback—Once you’ve established ownership of an official site, you can suggest changes to some content in the Knowledge Graph cards through a special feedback button that appears for registered authorities. To see this feedback, you must be registered as an owner of the official site or Google+ channel and signed into Google with that same account. Learn how to Request a Change to the Knowledge Graph Card.