What is a snippet?
You do a search for “underwater basket weaving” and you are provided with 10 organic and 10 paid ads (and maybe Google Maps/Local results) – called the SERP – Search Engine Results Page. That “stuff” that shows up on the SERP is the snippet from the website that Google, or any search engine returns.
The basic components of a snippet are the title, URL and description. This is made up of the page meta data/tags – title and meta description! There is a possibility, depending on your website and the type of snippet that it might include rich snippets such as reviews/rankings, your Google+ page, site links, history and maybe some other notes.
The title character max is 70 but that varies depending on the search engine, so a good rule of thumb is 60 characters. The description character max (yes spaces count) is 155-165 again depending upon the search engine so maybe stick to 155. When you go over, the search engine cuts it off.
Further, it is imperative to use the keywords that the page/blog is about IN the snippet for maximum SEO value. Not only that, but when someone does a search and you are lucky enough to have your website selected to show on the SERP, if your snippet doesn’t include that keyword, the search engine will use content from your page on the snippet… and it doesn’t always look pretty! The search engines will also bold the keywords entered into the search bar.
Let’s look at some snippet examples
- For example, in the below example, the top/first snippet is Wikipedia and it didn’t have a meta description tag so Google pulled text from the content and cut it off where it wanted, to include the keyword. Notice that there are also site links (at the bottom of the snippet)
- In the second example, it happened to be a blog page and this person didn’t use his meta description tag so, again, Google selected the content from his blog. Also, his title tag was <title>Awesome and Epic Sports Association: Underwater Basket Weaving</title> which is 62 characters. Google rearranged the title to include the keyword phrase searched first and added the rest of the title tag to the end, however it was shortened. This is shown by the “…”
- In the third example, the title was <title>15 weird college courses: Underwater basket weaving | MNN – Mother Nature Network</title>, obviously too long but luckily cut off appropriately. As you can tell, the meta description was within the character limits at 145 and fit nicely. Also, it included the keyword, bold faced, so win win.
The cool thing for WordPress users
So the really cool thing if you have WordPress, there are plugins that work really nicely and help you do all the work. The one I happen to use is WordPress SEO by Yoast and it provides an actual preview as well as warns you when your SEO title or description is too long. I added characters to mine, below, to show you that it will warn you when it’s too long. It’s a good idea to stay within the limits.
I hope this has been helpful to cover what a snippet is, why you want to use a plugin to help (unless you know code) and how it can benefit you in the long run.
Let me know your thoughts on this and if you would like more information, a consult about your website or help in getting your website showing up in search with search engine optimization, contact me, I’d love to help.
~Kristen
I’ve been using the YOAST plugin but I have to admit that I generally tend to go over the character allotment anyway. Your illustration really helped me to see that I need to be a little more careful to cut out the extra characters. It can be so difficult sometimes!
Just like with Twitter – I have a hard time also but keep trying to explain the page in less characters – think of a catchy heading/descr that will encourage the searcher to click through to your page. 😉
Great post! I do find it hard to stay within the confines of the character limit which probably means that where I am listed on Google or some other search engine, it may well be a convulted mess of words 😀
Thanks for putting this together.
It is hard, but think of it this way… create a catching desc and title so that Google doesn’t do it for you AND you have better odds of grabbing the attn of the reader AND they click through should be more important. 😉 YW
I use the SEO Yoast plugin and try my best to keep it within the limits. It usually makes my descriptions shorter, but they fit. I was really wondering what the most effective way would be to use that plugin to get everything in there as it should. I still think I could use some more optimization, but this is a good start if I can start improving on this a bit better. At least now I learned the secret to what makes the posts come up the way the day through this training! This is a really informative post that everyone really needs to read!
It is hard, as you know Heather, but just think of the importance of doing so. The best use of the plugin is to stay within the limits and review your snippet to see if it would grab the readers’ attention. We can ALWAYS optimize more. 😉 I appreciate your feedback and love of the article by sharing so much! 🙂
I’ve often wondered about how to influence the info that shows up in these “snippets” — thanks for the plugin recommendation and great explanation, Kristen!
I’m so glad that I could help answer your questions and explain. Thanks Cathy
Hmm…never heard of a snippet before. I think I need your help, Kristen!
Well, now you have. I look forward to our consult Carol.. there are some GREAT suggestions to improve your site and I can’t wait to get going with you!
I try to be very careful about the maximum characters that will work. This is a really good article that will be useful for a lot of folks! Love the WordPress plugin!
Thanks so much Beth. Glad you are trying and see the value
I’ve always been confused by meta-tags, keywords and the like. However, with just these two sentences “The basic components of a snippet are the title, URL and description. This is made up of the page meta data/tags – title and meta description”! the confusion has been cleared. Thank you for this information…I’m going to go back and re-read this from time to time.
It is confusing and you are not alone Carla! Wow, two sentences cleared it up huh? Glad to have made it clear. You’ll learn that from me… I try to put it in terms folks can understand and bite size pieces.
Once again, you gave us exactly what we need. Even with using WordPress Yost, I didn’t understand snippet. I will share this info with my partner/daughter who tends to rewrite the snippets and I’ll read this a few more times. Thanks.
Awww, Roz, you are like my #1 fan, in the biz world. LOL Glad to make things make sense for you. Hope your partner understands it as well.
Thanks for this good info, I had no clue about this here.:-) Great post!
You are welcome, thanks Katarina!
I ALWAYS WONDERED WHAT THESE MEANT LOL! Kristin saves the day, yet again. Truly, though… every time I read one of your posts I feel a bit more enlightened on the backend side of my wordpress page. I will think of you when I try to actually utilize these entries on my next post.
You are so silly. I am glad I could save the day… between you and Roz.. my biggest fans. LOL I am so glad that I can make the WP backend a little less scary for you! 😉
I made the mistake when I started my new blog signing up with WordPress to actually host my site so that means I can’t add any plugins like this…I can’t wait to switch! Thanks for the info Kristen…as always very useful 🙂
You should be able to switch over pretty easily and now you’ll be able to get cool stuff like this. Lesson learned, right Beth!?
thanks for the info. very informative
YW Mike!
I’ve been using the snippets feature and also going back to optimize some of the existing posts. It’s really helpful, thanks for the clear explanation.
You are quite welcome Delia! Great job!
OMG! Have I been ignoring the snippet? I’ll have to check on this. Thanks!
Yes, but the silly thing, we spoke about this in our consult! Get on it girl!
Based on your explanation the use of snippet such as reviews/rankings, your Google+ page, site links, history and maybe some other notes is really a big help for the purpose. Many have proven its effectiveness. It needs a thorough understanding of how it can be practically used as a beginner.
Good Lorii!
Great stuff! I also use Yoast on my clients’ websites and that works really well. My own content management system (HubSpot) throws up little red buttons to tell me when I haven’t done the meta description and then tells me if I’ve gone overboard on length, or if I haven’t used a keyword. Useful stuff!
Thanks Jackie. Yea, you have a pretty robust system as well… and that’s great! Glad that you are able to use Yoast for your clients. Thanks!