Rich snippets are search results that display extra information beyond the standard title, description, and URL, star ratings, prices, cooking times, author names, event dates, pulled directly from structured data markup on the page rather than typed manually into any search console.
They come from schema.org markup, JSON-LD being the format Google recommends, added to a page's code to explicitly label what different pieces of content mean: this number is a rating, this is a price, this is a publish date. Google decides whether to actually render that markup as a rich snippet based on its own quality and relevance checks, so adding the markup improves eligibility rather than guaranteeing the enhanced display will show up. A recipe page with rating and cook-time rich snippets, or a product page showing price and stock status directly in results, tends to stand out and earn a higher click-through rate than a plain listing sitting right next to it, since it gives a searcher more reason to choose it before ever clicking through.
