Rich Snippets

Rich Snippets and Schema Markup can be intimidating if you are new to them – but important data about your business can be very simply added to your site by sensible optimisation of any website footer.

This is easy to implement.

An optimised website footer can comply with law, may help search engines and can help usability and improve conversions.

Properly optimised your website footer can also help you make your search snippet stand out in Google results pages:

If you are a business in the UK – your website needs to meet the legal requirements necessary to comply with the UK Companies Act 2007. It’s easy just to incorporate this required information into your footer.

Companies in the UK must include certain regulatory information on their websites and in their email footers …… or they will breach the Companies Act and risk a fine. OUTLAW

Here’s what you need to know regarding website and email footers to comply with the UK Companies Act (with our information in bold);

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1. The Company Name –
   Hobo Web
2. Physical geographic address (A P.O. Box is unlikely to suffice as a geographic address; but a registered office address would – If the business is a company, the registered office address must be included.)
   Hobo-Web LTD,
   The Stables,
   24 Patrick Street,
   Greenock
   PA16 8NB
   Scotland
   UK
3. the company’s registration number should be given and, under the Companies Act, the place of registration should be stated (e.g.
   Hobo Web Limited is a company registered in Scotland with company number SC299002
4. email address of the company (It is not sufficient to include a ‘contact us’ form without also providing an email address and geographic address somewhere easily accessible on the site)
   info@hobo-web.co.uk
5. The name of the organisation with which the customer is contracting must be given. This might differ from the trading name. Any such difference should be explained
   hobo-web.co.uk is the trading name / style of Hobo Web Limited.
6. If your business has a VAT number, it should be stated even if the website is not being used for e-commerce transactions.
   VAT No. 880 5135 26
7. Prices on the website must be clear and unambiguous. Also, state whether prices are inclusive of tax and delivery costs.
   All Hobo Web prices stated in email or on the website EXCLUDE VAT

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The above information does not need to feature on every page, more on a clearly accessible page. However – with Google Quality Raters rating web pages on quality based on Expertise, Authority and Trust (see my recent making high-quality websites post) – ANY signal you can send to an algorithm or human reviewer’s eyes that you are a legitimate business is probably a sensible move at this time (if you have nothing to hide, of course).

Note: If the business is a member of a trade or professional association, membership details, including any registration number, should be provided. Consider also the Distance Selling Regulations, which contain other information requirements for online businesses that sell to consumers (B2C, as opposed to B2B, sales).

Although we display most if not all of this information on email and website footers, I thought it would be handy to gather this information clearly on one page and explain why it’s there – and wrap it all up in a (hopefully) informative post.

Article published on http://www.hobo-web.co.uk/