What is a snippet? | Yoast SEO for WordPress
This video is all about snippets. I bet you've seen loads of them while you
were searching for something online. But "seeing" and actually
"knowing what you're looking at" are of course different things. That's why we made this video. In just a few minutes,
you will know what snippets are, and why it's important to optimize them. In the upcoming screencast, we'll show you exactly how to edit
a snippet using the Yoast SEO plugin. Let's start with the first question:
what are snippets? Well, a snippet is a result Google shows
to the user in the search results. Like in this example: I was searching
for origami paper, so I googled it.
Google then showed me
this list of results. One of those results – a single one like this
one – is what we call a snippet. A snippet consists of an SEO title (in blue),
a URL (in green) and a meta description – that's the description
of what the page is about – (in grey). At least, that's what you'll see when you
search for something on a desktop right now. However, Google is testing
a redesign for desktop, so things may look different
in the future. Halfway through 2019, Google already changed the design
for mobile search results. So, if you search for origami paper on your
phone, your results will look different.
Let's compare a desktop
and a mobile snippet, to give you an idea. Now, the first thing you may notice
is the image thumbnail. Google is showing these images
occasionally in the mobile search results. Another difference is this little icon
at the top, called a favicon. Your brand's logo can be
your favicon, for example. Using a favicon can help people recognize
your brand among the many search results. We'll tell you how to set up
your favicon in the next video. Now, if we compare the text elements
of the mobile and the desktop version, we'll see that they actually are the same,
but the order is different. The desktop snippet shows the SEO title
first and then the URL. For the mobile snippet it's the other way
around: the URL comes first. And instead of green, it's grey.
Now, let's take a closer look
at the three text elements. Let's start with the SEO title. The main goal of this title should be
to describe what your page is about. Google uses the title of your page –
your H1 heading – to generate an SEO title. But, be aware that your SEO title and
your H1 heading are not the same thing and don't serve the same purpose.
Your H1 is meant for people
that are already on your site. It's telling them what your post
or page is about. Your SEO title, on the other hand, is meant for people
who are not on your website yet. You want these people to click this result
and end up on your site. In Yoast SEO you can optimize the SEO title: you can add more information if you like;
or you can shorten it if it's too long; and you can pick a separator sign to separate different parts of your title
in an appealing way.
We'll show you how to do this
in the upcoming screencast. OK, let's move on to the next element
of the snippet – the URL. We'll focus on the last part of it,
which is called the slug. Usually, the slug is automatically created
based on the title of the post. But still, you can optimize it. For example, by making it shorter. But, more on that in the next video. And by the way, if you use
breadcrumbs on your site, these could appear instead of the full URL.
Finally, there's the meta description. You can compare the meta description to a pitch in which you try to persuade
someone to do something. In this case, you want someone
to click through to your site. And therefore, your description should be short,
informative and relevant. It should tell your reader
what they will find on your page and why that is relevant for them. Make sure that your description
does not exceed 155 characters. And don't forget to include
your focus keyphrase. Google always wants to show the words
people are searching for in the meta description. These search terms are usually presented
in bold letters, like this.
And in addition, try to write in an active voice
to make your description easier to read. You can also include a call to action
if it fits your page. Basically, the point of the meta description
is to get people to click on your site. So it needs to be as inviting as possible. Take a look at the example of our post
on keyword research.
The focus keyphrase "keyword research"
is right there in the first sentence. You can see that Google has bolded it. From just two sentences, I already know
that keyword research is very important, and that if I click on this link
I will learn how to do it right. That should be convincing enough. Now let's compare the keyword research
meta description with this example. You can see that there is
a lot of information here that does not really tell me
what the article is about.
The difference between this meta description,
and the keyword research one is quite obvious. If you don't write a meta description, Google will generate one for you
based on the content of your page. Recently, Google has been basing
its snippet on the first paragraph of your text
more and more often. So it's important to both write a great
meta description and a first paragraph
that reflects the content of your piece.
This way, you will have the most control
over what your snippet will look like. OK, now you know which elements
make up a regular snippet. From what I've just told you, I think you can already guess
why snippets are so important. A snippet is a doorway to your site. You want people to open that door
and visit your site. In other words: snippets are important,
as they can increase your click-through rate. And in the long run, appealing snippets will have
a positive effect on your rankings as well. The more people click on your result, the more Google will think your result does
indeed fit the search query of the user best. A high click-through rate will, therefore,
result in higher rankings, as Google wants to show
the best results first. So, snippets are important for two reasons: they can increase your click-through rate
and they can improve your rankings. Now, I already told you that Google
automatically generates snippets for you. Still, we encourage you to optimize
your SEO title, slug and meta description.
We think that's important, because you
want to stand out in the search results. But, it's important to realize that – even if you hand your perfect snippet
to Google on a silver platter – Google will not always use it. Sometimes Google just decides otherwise
and generates something else. And I know that's really frustrating. But don't let that keep you
from optimizing. Ten optimized snippets
and two automatically generated ones, that's still better than twelve
automatically generated ones. One more thing before we wrap this up. In this video, we've discussed
regular snippets. However, not all snippets
look like this. Rich snippets, like this one,
contain much more information that can help me decide
if I want to click on that link. Think of ratings and reviews,
for example.
To get rich snippets, you need to incorporate
structured data to your site. We take a closer look at structured data
in a later module of this course. Now, shall we wrap up? In this lesson, you learned that snippets are the individual
search results you see on Google. They consist of an SEO title,
a URL and a meta description. Snippets appear differently
on mobile and desktop. The main difference is that on mobile,
snippets also contain a favicon and, sometimes, an image.
It is important to optimize all these
elements to get the best possible snippet and increase your chances
of getting more clicks and better rankings. In the next screencast we'll show you how
you can optimize your snippets with Yoast SEO!.
