Snippet

Contents

• What is a snippet?
• Standard snippet in search results
• Why is a snippet needed?
• How a snippet is formed in search engines
• Extended snippet: what is it and how to create it
• Differences in extended snippets of Yandex and Google

What is a snippet?

A snippet represents a text block that appears on the search results page and contains brief information about a web resource. It serves as a kind of business card for the site, allowing users to quickly understand what to expect on the target page.

Standard snippet in search results

A classic snippet typically includes several key elements:

• Favicon: the site's icon that helps visually identify it.
• Resource title: shows the URL of the main page.
• Link to the material: leads to the necessary page.
• Title: highlighted in bold, with a length of 65 to 85 characters.
• Description: a brief text that answers the user’s query and usually contains keywords. The length of the description in Google can reach over 230 characters, while in Yandex, it can be up to 300 characters.

Extended snippets may include additional elements such as images, lists, and company contact information.

Why is a snippet needed?

A snippet serves to inform users about the content of the resource. It helps answer questions, solve problems, or make purchasing decisions. The more informative and relevant the snippet is, the higher the likelihood that the user will click through to the site. This, in turn, positively affects the click-through rate (CTR) and may lead to increased traffic, even for sites that rank low in search results.

Additionally, the snippet plays an important role in SEO. Search engine algorithms analyze how often users click on certain links. If the click-through rate is high, it may contribute to improving the page's ranking in the results.

How a snippet is formed in search engines

Snippets are automatically generated by search engines based on meta tags or page content. In Yandex, a relevant fragment of 160-220 characters is selected for the snippet, which can come from the meta tag description or other sources, such as Yandex.Catalog or Yandex.Market. The title is generated based on the content of the title tag.

It is important to note that users cannot directly control the content of the snippet, as search engines use their algorithms to generate them, which are not fully disclosed. However, through SEO optimization, one can indirectly influence this process and create both basic and extended descriptions.

Extended snippet: what is it and how to create it

An extended snippet includes additional information such as images, contacts, prices, and ratings. The length of the extended description can reach 320 characters, allowing for greater user attention and improved click-through rates.

To create an extended snippet, SEO specialists use microdata. This allows certain text fragments in the site code to be highlighted so that search engine bots can better recognize them. This approach can also be used to create attractive previews of site materials on social networks.

Differences in extended snippets of Yandex and Google

Extended snippets in Yandex can include:

• Quick links to internal pages of the site.
• Information about the author and genre of the book.
• Fragments of culinary recipes.
• Descriptions of films.
• Contact details of organizations.
• Prices.
• Images and videos.

To optimize snippets in Yandex, it is recommended to:

• Correctly fill in the title and description tags.
• Use informative H1-H2 headings.
• Add information about the address and working hours in Yandex.Directory.
• Upload product information to Yandex.Webmaster.
• Add the e-commerce site to Yandex.Market.
• Change quick links in Yandex.Webmaster.
• Use microdata.

In Google, extended snippets may display:

• Contact details.
• Additional links.
• Instructions.
• Videos or carousel.
• Images.
• Questions and answers.
• Recipes.
• App data.
• Employer rating.
• Company logo.
• Product information.
• Review snippet.

To optimize snippets in Google, it is necessary to:

• Properly compose the title and description.
• Get into the quick answers block.
• Manually markup site data using the "Markup" tool in Search Console.
• Add microdata to the site code.

As a result, the formation of snippets in Google depends on complex algorithms, including those using artificial intelligence, such as RankBrain and BERT, which help find and interpret answers to ambiguous queries.