Snippet’s are the results found on SERP(search result page) while searching for a specific keyword related to any service or product. Snippets play the role of a doorway which stands at the front of your website. They are useful for website owners as they play a vital role in boosting CTRs (click-through rate) for their specific sites.
What is an SEO Snippet ?
Basically the snippet is a short introduction of your whole webpage which is shown by the search engine on the search results page. Snippet is the combination of title, URL and description of the webpage or website. Snippets can be standard, descriptive, informative, etc.
- Standard snippet : are simply picked by search engine that are related to the searched keywords of the user if it is available on your site.
- SEO Snippet : are the meta title, meta description, and URL that are optimized by a professional according to the content of your web page or website.
Meta description and meta titles are very important for a website as it is the first introduction of the website to a user who is browsing related to your targeted keywords.
How SEO Snippets Affect CTR?
As we all know that SEO snippet works as the first intro to the user. They often provide users with direct answers to their questions making the URL attractive to the user which directly or indirectly convinces them to click on it and accordingly affects click-through rate for websites. It makes the users to understand the value of your content increasing the CTR in its wake.
- Rich snippets enhances the visibility and attractiveness of your web page which becomes a powerful tool for you to win from your competitors on the same keywords.
- A well-descriptive and SEO optimized snippet that is relevant, clear and concise can significantly boost the click-through rate of a website.
- SEO snippets can significantly increase clicks and SEO performance of the site.
It is important to know that more informative SEO snippets can affect the clicks on organic or traditional posts on your websites. So, it should be related to the intent of the user but shouldn’t provide whole information about the question. They can not boost the ranking of the website on SERP but can enhance the visibility of the content on your related web page which shows the quality of your content to the user.
Good Practices for writing Descriptive SEO Snippets
SEO’s should remember some important points while writing titles and description or while designing slugs for a website:
- SEO snippets should use primary keywords naturally in the title and description which helps to keep it intentful and visible.
- Length of the title and description are important for better SEO performance of the site as the title should have 55 to 60 words while a description must have 155 to 160 words to optimize it properly.
- SEO Snippets should match the user intent and related search queries to be visible at the right place where it is required. It is important for attracting related users instead of irrelevant leads.
- SEO’s should add clear call-to-action or attractive words for example “learn more” or “get free tips” or “book your session now”.
- Owners or SEO’s should avoid duplication on all pages of a website which will greatly affect the quality of content on web pages. Snippets should be unique for different pages.
As i have been managing a website having a page related to “Web Development in Agra” . I have fully optimized its snippet and after some off-page and technical activities its performance is better than many old web pages on the same site and on competitors also.
Tools that are useful in Optimizing SEO Snippets
We have many useful plugins on wordpress which helps in optimizing the websites according to SEO on-page activity while providing previews for the snippets of every web page. Most famous and highly recommended plugin is yoast as I have personally used it as a first hand experience while designing “Web Development in Agra” for Freelancer Access. Google search console features also helps to know about the behaviour of our website which helps to know about our snippet quality which is being used on web pages or websites. A/B testing methods can be helpful to know about two different snippets while comparing them with the help of Google Optimize, now archived by Google, can help in comparing two snippets and help to know which one is better.
Common mistakes that should be avoided by SEOs
Many mistakes are made while performing regular tasks as it becomes a problem for human nature to cope with regular problems and tiring work. SEO should avoid common mistakes while performing the regular activities are as follows:
- Keyword density: we should keep the keyword density or maximum 2% while the best practices tells us that 1% is more than enough for any type of content as more than 1% leads to keyword stuffing which leads to poor quality content.
- Explicit or non-specific descriptions: it affects the intent of our web page. We should provide clear and specific information according to the question. Vague description adversely affects the performance and traffic on the web page.
- Ignoring mobile users: in the current era everyone is using phones as they have been proven to be best portable devices. So we shouldn’t ignore mobile users as most of the traffic comes from mobile as everyone is using their cell phones to search for their queries.
- Duplication of descriptions: duplicate snippets can entangle together misinterpreting the content of the site. Being irrelevant with every page content will harm the reputation of the site. Duplicate snippet can not match with the content or keyword of the webpage which will affect it’s ranking and CTR.
Key Points Of SEO Snippet
- Relevance or intent alignment of keyword with title and description in snippet.
- Professional SEO’s understand the value of limits that are set on the length of title (i.e. 55 to 60 words) and description ( i.e. 155 to 160 words).
- There are many tools that are helpful in optimizing snippets like yoast, Google search console, Google optimize etc.
- If there is a page on your website whose impressions are more but click through rate is less then you should check its snippet and its descriptions. It can become a major problem in your site’s traffic being low.
Conclusion
You should start reviewing your page snippets to be up to date about the problems that may arise from your snippet being below standard. You can try using Google search console to research about your website’s behaviour to know about major problems about your site. Google search console can help in analyzing about the pages that have low CTR and high impressions after that you can use yoast if it is on wordpress and google optimize’s A/B testing methods to compare and implement new and better snippets for your web page that helps in growing your CTR for relevant pages.
