Google’s Extended Snippets
Posted By Melanie Prough on April 7, 2009
Google has made a significant and rather ground breaking change in the length of snippets they pull for your website. The changes are an serious improvement for searchers but if you sit on your hands they could be quite detrimental for your website and click thru rate.
Will Google’s new snippet technology mean fewer visits?
Currently, Google is showing an extended snippet for search queries consisting of three or more keywords. The thought process behind this change is that these multiple worded queries are very targeted and and a bit complex. So by that right, a normal shorter snippet short snippet may not be enough information to cover the bases in the searcher’s query.
The (improved?) longer search results snippet contains more information, which Google idealizes will assist searchers more effectively. However, in providing this great service to searchers, Google may be doing webmasters a greater disservice. Even before longer snippets, this has occurred… How many times have you searched for a quick answer and found the answer in the search results…. Never needing to visit the page? I have, and now this will be more common than ever. So that’s scary enough, but Google me this… How long before searchers specifically search with longer queries to get more detailed search result snippets and save precious time?
Okay… So it gets scarier as you might imagine…. Longer snippets need more valuable SERP space. Longer snippets will use enough additional vertical space to move another listing below the fold and push the #10 to the next page. We’ve all talked about search results page real estate and its perils, but now you have got to get out of the middle.
As always Google will ignores your Meta description tag for the purpose of snippets and will in fact pull these from the page… Just like the shorter snippets. More than ever you must properly plan your paragraphs, heading and keyword rich content to include what you want searchers to see. Remember, the top of all containers is the most important… Whether it’s a div a paragraph of other…. This is Google’s most likely candidate to pull a snippet for the container’s content… Long and Short Snippets.
Over at SEO Scoop they have been contemplating the lengthening and restructuring of the Meta description to perhaps combat this issue. This is a very possible thing to do and they have some great tips to help you get started. Bottom line is this…. Google is not likely to pull a snippet if your Meta description is covering the bases. Google has always said to use Meta descriptions and that …
We frequently prefer to display meta descriptions of pages (when available) because it gives users a clear idea of the URL’s content.
If your Meta description skills are not so buff, or maybe they are just a bit rusty, then read what Google uses as criteria for selecting snippets and the expected quality of your Meta descriptions.
Link to this Post
Does this mean that the meta description can be longer now? Like an extended version? That would actually make life easier – distilling some pages into a short meta description can be really difficult (for me anyway!)
But, I am worried about #10 dropping off to the next page.
Well, thats what the discussion is. For the most part I already use up to 250 characters, as I have always figured if it doesn’t all display…Oh well as long as the good stuff is in the beginning. Yes… listings are dropping off the first page etc. Couple of examples:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=zen+cart+seo&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq= has 8 (2 are indented)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=dog+winter+jacket&btnG=Search has 9 (1 is indented)
It’s worth mentioning that the added related searches at the bottom also reduce the page real estate.
[...] Longer Snippets : Google is now showing an extended snippet for search queries consisting of three or more keywords. The thought process behind this change is that these multiple worded queries are very targeted and and a bit complex. So by that right, a normal shorter snippet short snippet may not be enough information to cover the bases in the searcher’s query. [...]
Melanie – I use 250 words in some of my description tags too – I would love to be able to use more than that – as I said before it’d make life easier for me!
Fact is very textually heavy pages, if they are well written, no description tag can cover all of the longtails… You will still have snippets to plan for.
[...] the first 3 pages. This area I believe is changing tremendously everyday. I Blogged recently about Google’s new extended snippets for longer, more complicated queries. This will dramatically change these numbers in the coming [...]
Thanks, lower left corner corner and address bar.
That’s for the input, but I do as I like, thanks.