Articles
Why is Snippet important for SEO?
Most webmasters tend to overlook the importance of snippet when doing SEO work for their website because focus has been directed to rankings, conversions and link building, that snippet has been neglected where in fact, it plays a big role convincing the user to click through the search result page. To truly understand snippet, let us dissect its importance by first giving its definition. Snippet is the two-liner summarized description you read below the links shown on search result pages (SERP).
Even after news releases on the unimportance of Meta description tags, it is still the best way to create an appealing snippet because no one knows how Google derives snippets and the only bet left is a relevant and well written Meta description tag.
There are several theories from SEO experts that you must consider:
1. Snippets derived by Google spiders are directly connected to a site’s traffic.
2. Make Meta description tags unique. Duplication of Meta description all through out the site’s pages could most likely hurt the ranking than do good.
3. Keep in mind that Google cuts the snippet to 150 words. To avoid Google grabbing chunks of text from the page’s content, provide a fair amount of text on Meta description tag that’s relevant to the keyword you want to rank for.
4. Make your description count. It’s not enough that you put incomprehensible phrases on Meta description tags in an attempt to trick search engine spiders on the relevance of your page to a certain keyword. Bear in mind that search engine algorithm is now ‘smarter’ than ever.
5. Most importantly, your snippet should contain enticing words that will excite searchers and will eventually make them decide to click through the search result page.
These are also good key points to consider when optimizing your page’s snippet:
1. Make your tone a friendly one when writing.
2. Avoid using over used words such as best, cheapest, largest because search engine often mark these as red flags
3. Creativity is good but leave something to the imagination that will entice searchers to click through the result page.
4. Not too long not too short and keep it informative.
5. Trial and error is still the best way to do this. Keep trying on new snippets every now and then when the previous one didn’t do well.
Snippets may sound like a lot of work but truth is, with the right tools and approach, it can be done and you’ll be shock to know that it’s quite easy to implement.
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Ray Ritchey – Ray has over 20 Years experience in Technology and Marketing, including experience in SEO from the early days of the Internet in 1996.
