How to get Great Snippets

06.08.07

ok, ever since I first told Gimpy, and then again at seodays, I have been meaing to blog about how to get get snippet text.

ok I don’t like to leave things to chance and by using a meta description you are doing that, so throw the meta tag away and use this really really simple method :

A few weeks ago, I blogged about Seomoz, and I have used that post has the example to this method,

1) let Google take control and create the snippet for you, screenshot of orginal snippet.

snippet test

2) go to your web page and find the starting point of the snippet, and just rewrite it, I tend to word count then over run it..

snippet test2

3) once google is happy with that, re do the ending point counting backwards, that should give you the perfect snippet for that keyword. in this case I haven’t done that yet ;)

DaveN

11 Comments

  • 1

    Nice tip, thank you.

    What are you using to get the numerals for each SERP?

    Liam Delahunty
    http://www.liamdelahunty.com

    6th August 2007 @ 16:52

  • 2

    Nice find Dave. Couldn’t you still use this in combination with the meta description since the snippet should be different based on keywords? Meta description for one set of keywords and snippet enhancement for different sets of keywords?

    Steven Bradley
    http://www.thevanblog.com

    6th August 2007 @ 17:08

  • 3

    Steven you could but i couldn’t guarantee the success ;)

    DaveN

    6th August 2007 @ 17:11

  • 4

    Very cool tip, how long does the whole process take to rewrite it?

    I am guessing it depends how often you are spidered.

    Dave Dugdale
    http://www.solardave.com/contractors/colorado/denver.cfm

    6th August 2007 @ 17:18

  • 5

    well I put the switch in, on Friday 3rd August and I noticed it today

    DaveN

    DaveN

    6th August 2007 @ 17:41

  • 6

    Great tip Dave !
    Thanks for sharing

    Phantombookman

    6th August 2007 @ 17:55

  • 7

    Thanks for the tip Dave . Can you give some info on what did you notice, as far as click through % change ?

    Kris from Florida

    6th August 2007 @ 20:37

  • 8

    Great tip, sometimes all you need to get more traffic is for your entry in the SERP’s to look different. Thanks

    New Orleans Web Design
    http://www.goatsmilktavern.com/seo-search-engine-optimization.html

    7th August 2007 @ 15:15

  • 9

    [...] How to get Great Snippets [...]

    This Week In SEO - 8/10/07 - TheVanBlog

    11th August 2007 @ 01:24

  • 10

    What I do is try to coerce Google into using the Meta Description. Generally speaking, I have found that Google will pick up the description without any modification if it meets the following guidelines…

    1. Single Sentence Snippet
    2. Key Phrase Begins and Ends Snippet
    3. Fewer than 160 Characters
    4. Greater than 100 Characters

    If the keyword I was targeting was “Blue Widgets”, I would do something like this…

    “Blue Widgets at Fantastic Prices and Incredible Service From the Internet’s Leading Retailer of Blue Widgets”

    Russell Jones
    http://www.thegooglecache.com

    13th August 2007 @ 14:41

  • 11

    [...] Snippets [...]

    The Uber Random List | UK SEO/SEM Blog | B10G

    19th August 2008 @ 12:57

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