From Texterra

Snippets are different within the same search engine, even if the keywords are very slightly different from each other.

It is very useful to look at your snippets from time to time and adjust something.

This is the title and description of your site in search results:

Yandex most often takes snippets from text, Google - from Meta Description.

But it can be other options, including combined ones - a piece from Meta Description + a piece from text.

The keywords found in the Meta Description do not directly affect the page ranking. But they influence indirectly - due to more effective and more clickable snippets, behavioral factors improve and positions grow.

All this suggests that Meta Descriptions should be carefully designed, noticeable, interesting, clickable, include the most important keywords, place names, and commercial markers. And also that your text should also be interesting, clear, useful, practical, and not watery SEO-text "nothing about" that suits absolutely any other site.

See good and bad moments in your snippets
When analyzing your snippets, you can and should write down the most successful moments that got into them - facts, numbers, something else and use them consciously more often in texts, Title and Meta Description.

And vice versa, see the most ineffective snippets and edit the texts themselves on this page - to make them more interesting, clear, add facts, figures, benefits, your USP.

And you can analyze snippets of competitors in the TOP10-20 in the same way - either shoot snippets of specific competitors in bulk, or parse snippets of the TOP to some depth for specific requests. Then see what they have the best. And to do at least not worse.

Make sure that the visitor implements his intent
And another important point is that when reading the snippet, the user can see that on your page he can implement his search intent (intent). When looking through your snippets, you need to be aware of WHAT the target audience is looking for for this request, what drives it.

And does she see in the snippets what would interest her?

I very often come across sites in audits where there are some general texts in snippets. A man came to look for the best conditions for buying a spare part for a foreign car, and in the snippet and on the page he is told the story of the creation of this car brand.

Using it is simple:

and. We select the mode: "parsing of search results" or "collection for a given site".

b. We indicate requests.

in. We select the region and the search engine.

d. Specify the depth for analysis: TOP-1/5/10/20 or 50.

We get the result. It can be exported to .CSV. History is saved.

Pay attention to the presence of special characters and emoji. The attractiveness of the snippet increases the click-through rate. Analyze, increase CTR and improve behavioral factors.

Example 1. Parse the entire TOP in depth:

Example 2. Parse snippets for a specific URL:

And here below we see that some of the requests from this group have another relevant page. ...

2. Topvisor

You can also watch snippets of competitors - any URL that needs to be set in a new project.

See snippets in the "Positions" section with block mapping. They are removed every time you check positions in selected search engines for a query.

But (!) First, in the "Settings" section, you must set "Collect snippets" (the cost of removing positions will increase by 0.01 rubles for each key request).

Briefly, the algorithm is as follows:

1. "Settings" - select "collect snippets", select search engines and region.

2. "Core" - set the core, cluster, make sure that all groups are on - with a green circle next to it (after clustering, they automatically go to the off state, or you can accidentally click on the circle and turn off the group). ...

3. "Positions". Click on the green arrow to remove or update positions. Choosing a block display. We choose one PS or comparison of search engines. ...

Section "Settings":

In the section "Positions" remove positions. And switch to "block" mode:

Here above, for example, we see that the old tag "SEO in 2015" is clinging to the snippet. And somehow it doesn't look very good for those who are looking for relevant materials and need to change the tag to SEO in 2018 or remove it altogether.

It is very convenient that you can immediately see clearly:

- or how snippets changed over time for each request in one search engine
- how your snippets look for a specific query in Google and Yandex next to it.

There you can clearly see which relevant page you have for this query, where the snippet comes from, what words to correct, and so on.

Here, see:

1. We see the history of my snippets in one search engine - in Yandex for 2 dates. There was a change in the relevant page - you can see it by a radical change in the title of the snippet (and by hovering over the title, we will see at the bottom of the browser which link is behind it. By clicking on the title, we will go to the required page). We see a change in the snippet and a jump in positions up.

Next, you need to decide which of the pages is the target (where we want to lead people) and try to either fix the current relevant page for the desired request, or interrupt to another page. This is done first of all by increasing the external and internal link with the right words to the desired page and adjusting the optimization and text of the pages - from inappropriate to pick up the occurrences of the required query, to the target one moderately add (but without overspam).

Here we also see that the snippet can be different in the same search engine, when the word “how” just disappears from the request. And we can clearly see that Google is quite stable in that it takes a snippet description from Meta Description, and Yandex pulls from the text. We also see that the Meta Description of the article is not very interesting and not attractive for a click.

If you have any questions or your experience that may be useful to others - write in the comments!

All my projects except this SEO blog:

TOP Base - a high-quality base for semi-automatic registration with Allsubmitter or for completely manual placement - for independent free promotion of any site, attracting targeted visitors to the site, raising sales, and naturally diluting the link profile. I have been collecting and updating the database for 10 years. There are all kinds of sites, all subjects and regions.

SEO-Topshop - SEO software with DISCOUNTS, on favorable terms, news of SEO services, databases, manuals. Including Xrumer on the best terms and with free training, Zennoposter, Zebroid and many others.

My Free Comprehensive SEO Courses - 20 detailed lessons in PDF format.
- directories of sites, articles, press-release sites, message boards, directories of companies, forums, social networks, blogging systems, etc.

"Approaching .." - my blog on the topic of self-development, psychology, relationships, personal effectiveness

It is necessary to create a separate section - "If you have 3 hours for SEO work."

Because if your SEO plan is not written out in the most detailed, detailed way, so that you can't break it down even finer, then when you think about how much you need to do, procrastination begins. Hands reach for social networks, an hour has flown by, then there is very little time left, and I don't want to start.

But when there are some understandable short actions that will take just 2-3 hours, then you can already do at least something to promote the site.

Optimizing snippets is a small part of what I recommend doing there. But on the other hand, a fairly simple and quick part of it.

I'm not talking about extended snippets right now (there will be a number of articles on extended snippets at the bottom).

I'm writing here about 2 main elements - Title and Meta Decription.

Algorithm in short:

1. We receive from any analytics system (Yandex Metrics, Google Analytics) a list of pages from which most often come to you from search.

In Yandex Metric:

You can work separately with pages from which more often come ONLY from Google, for example.

Because Google will often see exactly the same snippet as you set it yourself using Title + Meta Decription. That is, it is more manageable. I'll show this point below.

But it's better to just work on all the traffic pages from search. Changes to Title + Meta Decription will give a lot of useful information for Yandex as well. Especially the Title changes.

Remember one more thing.

There is such a rule: "It works - don't touch it."

It is best to improve the most traffic pages just a little - tweak the Title, but not change it completely, from scratch, in other words.

Add additional thematic and keywords to the text, but do not change something drastically.

Add linking and linking to this page (this is always only a plus).

2. Examining how the current snippets of these pages look for some requests for which these pages are often visited. For example, with the help of Topvisor (details below, with screenshots). Let's double-check if the Titles contain all the important keywords at all.

We manually look at the TOP according to our requests - how snippets look from the highest competitors.

3. Make Title and Meta Decription interesting, bright, attractive, with all the important keywords.

4. Speed \u200b\u200bup the reindexing of these pages... There are many options - social networks, a link from the main page. But I would use - each link 2-3 times at the maxi rate. This option still works fine for me.

After a while, we look at changes in positions and traffic. They can be viewed by time segments, for example, in Yandex Metrika - here, using the link, I described how to diagnose Baden-Baden, in the same way you can set a period of a week before the changes, a week after they have already entered into force.

Where positions for important keywords are not yet high enough, we push them further pointwise to the TOP.

A little more detail:

A snippet is how your site appears on search engine results - its title, description, favicon, quick links, whatever.

I've researched a lot of snippets in recent months and based on this I can clearly say:

Today, Yandex most often takes a description of a snippet from the text (although sometimes it also takes a meta description in whole or in part - a piece of meta description plus a piece from the text).

Google most often takes the description of the snippet from the meta description, although if it does not contain the necessary keywords from the request, even partially, it will also take it from the text.

The snippet title is most often formed by both search engines from Title, if it contains keywords from the query.

Even if you rely only on Google snippets, this is still usually 30-50% of traffic, or even more. But Optimizing Titles significantly improves the ranking situation in both search engines. And a high-quality Meta Description in Yandex will also help with promotion.

That is why it is so important:
A) use keywords - so that more often you get a controlled snippet - specified by you
B) use interesting words, numbers, brackets, capital letters, your USP, strong benefits, information on freebies, discounts and bonuses, etc. - anything that increases the clickability of the snippet.

You can also watch snippets of competitors.

See them in the "Positions" section in the block display.

But (!) First, in the "Settings" section, you need to set "Collect snippets" here:

Then, in the "Positions" section, remove the positions. And switch to "block" mode. In the new interface, this is done like this:

And you can immediately see what and how - which is relevant, what the snippet looks like, where it comes from, which words to correct, and so on.

Relevant and landing pages

Another important point in snippet analysis is that most of the time you see immediately if the page is ranking that you need.

Whether your landing page is search engine relevant. Whether your page is the same relevant in both Google and Yandex.

and roughly see the different options of how the snippet might look.

If I put my Title and Meta descriptions of this page into this snippet editor, I will get this option from them:

a real snippet on Google looks like this:

As we can see, they are almost identical, so this is a good tool to help.

How to fill in Meta Keywords

Either do not fill in at all, or fill in with 1-2 master keys, without spamming - this can attract attention and impose sanctions.

In general, this is how beautiful and effective, well-optimized snippets are formed.

AND THIS IS IMPORTANT TO DO FOR EVERY (!) Important landing page.

Then improve snippets of the most traffic-generating pages and those that are close to the TOP.

But do it very carefully.

It is necessary to look, select different options, play with the title and meta description.

Read also a good guide from Igor Rudnik:

- article in the blog of Optimizer (Elena Kamskaya)

- article by Denis Kaplunov

As always, I will be glad to receive your comments!

All my projects except this SEO blog:

"Approaching .." - my blog on the topic of self-development, psychology, relationships, personal effectiveness

Briefly about usability

explore what the user needs
remove all unnecessary
add necessary
arrange visually

14.1 Compiling a usability matrix

You need to understand what problems are experienced by users who come to the site, what on the site helps to solve these problems, and what interferes.

clarification of what problems users can solve on each template by matrix
clarification of what additional problems users have
description of the list of elements that are present on the page
studying the experience of successful projects in the subject, describing the list of elements that are present on the pages of other projects
a description of the list of elements that are required to solve the key and additional problems

14.2 Analysis of the correspondence of the content of the entrance pages to the problems of users

Analyzing the received data, it is necessary to understand what to remove and what to add on the front pages.

description of the list of elements that are not needed to solve the problem, but are present on the page
a description of the list of elements that are not there, but they are necessary to solve the problem

14.3 Analyzing link usability

Usability rules are not rigid, interface professionals can safely break them and create user-friendly sites, but for an average project, you should adhere to simple rules:

links are underlined
links don't look the same as text
links that take place in the same window have intermittent underlines
there is obviously a dropdown behind the link
the borders of links and buttons should be obvious
the "buy" link must be a button

14.4 Analyzing the usability of registration forms

There is a very large loss of users on the registration / checkout page. One of the reasons is the complexity and confusion of registration, the need to provide a large amount of data.

the content of the forms is checked for validity
only data that affects the ability to fulfill the order is requested
data persists on page reload
captcha can be solved the first time
additional fields have been added to the form offered for filling after registration
automatic authorization immediately after registration
for some progressive areas - authorization via social. networks

14.5 Checking texts for usability

The text on the page should be not only useful, but also clearly designed, otherwise it will not be read.

heading + paragraph bundles
highlighting semantic accents through lists, quotes, headings, pictures
padding and layout on the grid
functional elements for solving problems
links inside the text are visibly decorated

14.6 Checking the linking for usefulness with tz. user

are targeting mechanisms used when linking
are these mechanisms effective, what is the conversion of internal transitions
checking the absence of so-called seo links of internal linking in basements, in specials. sections in the text "ala wikipedia".

14.7 Analysis of conversion of entry pages and scenarios

Studying the conversion rate of landing pages and the way users follow your site allows you to draw useful conclusions about behavioral factors.

we look at the conversion for different requests, we study the differences between the audience
we set up experiments, we conduct A / B testing
we study through the metric of video recording of user actions
we draw up logical chains based on the right column of wordstat and common sense: what information a visitor needs to make a purchase

Part # 15 - Snippets

15.1 Parsing snippets for all Yandex, Google requests

Snippets have a significant impact on the conversion of sites in the SERP. This is confirmed by research conducted by Yandex.

parse snippets from Yandex and Google for all requests (A-Parser)

15.2 Analyzing snippets on Google

It is necessary to highlight and study that each part of the snippet is formed correctly:

CNC URL
reviews on microformat hReview
title (TITLE, DMOZ, link anchor, page text)
attribution of content by hCard microformat
content of sites on microformats hProduct and GoodRelations
hCalendar microformat events
address by microformat hCard
breadcrumb Breadcrumb
description (page text, description, description in the DMOZ catalog)

CNC URL
case of letters in the domain
icon (favicon.ico file)
snippet title (title, h1-h6, strong, b, ul, li, Y. directory, DMOZ, Description)
quick links (structure, url, clicks)
site content (hCard, hRecipe, hReview, hProduct)
region (i.address, i.catalog)
address (i.address)
social links (linked accounts in social networks)
bread crumbs (bread crumbs, CNC)
description (page text, description, Yandex.catalog, anchor list)
links in description

It is necessary to record for each item whether the snippet is being formed correctly and whether there are opportunities for improvement.

15.4 Exploring the Areas of the Description

In order to influence the content of the description, it is necessary to understand where it comes from and by what algorithm. To do this, you need to collect information on all data sources used by search engines when generating snippets.

Parsing Description (A-Parser, SiteReport)
Parsing Ya directory, DMOZ (you can manually)
Collecting anchors (previously collected through Ya webmaster, ahrefs, unloading exchanges)
Parsing B, STRONG, LI, H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6, TITLE (Page Auditor module in SiteReport)
Parsing text of pages (A-Parser can collect saved text copies)
Comparing snippet data with source data

Part # 16 - Reference Mass

16.1 Getting links from various sources

yandex.webmasters
ahrefs, majesticseo, solomono
unloading from exchanges and aggregators

16.2 Retrieving link data

To analyze links, you need to get data about the entire link mass.

number of outgoing links from the page
age
indexation date
link text
number of incoming links to the site
the number of outgoing links from the site
site traffic
site pages in the Yandex index
site pages in Google index

16.3 Analysis of the dynamics of changes in the reference mass

It is necessary to study the dynamics of changes in the link mass

MajesticSEO
Ahrefs

16.4 Checking the indexing of donor pages

after purchase - check page indexing (by hand cache in Yandex, plugin wink)
upon purchase - study of the indexing of similar site pages posted earlier

“Chief editor of GetGoodRank blog, web analyst, blogger.
The snippet is one of the main elements of user attention control in search results. Today we are considering 7 free ways to improve a snippet "

The snippet does not affect the ranking, but a well-composed snippet increases the conversion significantly. And although a snippet is an autonomous unit (not amenable to direct editing by a webmaster), it can be influenced. In this review, we will tell you about 7 ways to get a quality snippet.

How to check a snippet?

No content management system, site analytics system shows the snippet as a separate element. The snippet is generated by the search engine automatically based on the page information and data provided by the optimizer about it in Yandex Webmaster and Google Webmaster systems.

We suggest that you evaluate the snippet in terms of its effectiveness in increasing conversions and improving behavioral factors. That is why you need to "see" the snippet through the eyes of users.

The main method for checking a snippet is to analyze search results for a key query. Let us remind you that you need to analyze a snippet not in isolation, but in relation to competitive sites.

7 ways to improve your snippet

Today we will talk about practical ways to maximize snippet performance.

1. Check the title and text of the snippet

The user evaluates the snippet as a small advertising text that is designed to convey the main idea in one or two sentences. Check the snippet against the following criteria:

The length of the title is no more than 70 characters with spaces, and the length of the description is no more than 156 characters with spaces, otherwise search engines may truncate the snippet. Otherwise, the efficiency of the snippet decreases. If search engines cut off snippet texts, then first of all you need to check the Title and Description tags
The title and text of the snippet contains the keyword in direct occurrence. For maximum effect, the key should be placed at the beginning of Title and Description
Literacy - is it worth arguing that even minor errors have a negative impact on the user, significantly reducing the CTR

2. Check the site for compliance with the PS requirements for displaying breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs - a great opportunity to overcome misunderstandings between users, search results and your site. If, at the user's request, the search engine displays a page of the site in the results that does not fully correspond to the request, then the navigation chain will provide an instant solution to the problem and help the user navigate to the desired page on your site, and not go to competitors for an answer.

In order for search engines to display the breadcrumbs in search results, the site must meet the following criteria:

Observations of webmasters show that the site must meet the following requirements:

Site scale - more than 500 pages in the index
Pages listed in quick links should be placed in one click from the main
Internal linking should indicate that pages in quick links are the most authoritative or interesting to users

5. Register the site in various Yandex services

Search engines welcome registration of sites in all kinds of services, thus obtaining additional information about sites. This is beneficial for the sites themselves. For example, registering with Yandex services will significantly expand and improve the snippet. Moreover, service members can enjoy additional benefits.

Yandex.Directory will transfer company data and address to the snippet, and for some companies Yandex offers additional buttons right in the search. For example, the button "Sign up" is displayed next to the button "Address on the map" for a number of dental clinics.

The record is available for companies that have entered into cooperation agreements with Yandex partners.

For online stores, registration in Yandex.Market - this will allow you not only to reach a large target audience, getting an additional traffic channel, but also to improve the snippet. Product data in Yandex.Market will be broadcast directly in search results.

Various partner programs are also available in Yandex:

Yandex.Realty
Yandex dictionaries
Yandex.Rabota and others

6. Use micro-markup

Micro-markup is a key way to extend a snippet. For a clearer understanding of the meaning of micro-markup, we offer the following video:

7. Use the power of social media to quickly re-index

Any changes take effect only after the page is re-indexed by a search robot. If you have made changes to the Title or Description of the page, then the change in the snippet in the SERP will not happen immediately.

To speed up the reindexing process, you can use the popular social network Twitter by posting a link to the changed page in your account of this social site. Twitter is the most quickly re-indexed in the Russian Internet, and by publishing a link to the corrected page, you speed up the process of its re-indexing and changing the snippet in the search results.

Conclusions:

For a high-quality snippet, the information contained both in the main page tags Title and Description, and on the page itself is important. Checking the adequacy of materials is the primary task of the webmaster.

A templated snippet is ineffective. It is necessary to use all channels of influence on this element as effectively as possible.

Schema.org micro-markup is essential for generating the right snippet.

This is a site card in search results, which consists of the title (title) and description (description) of the page. Such a card may contain the following elements and data:

Favicon - a picture that is displayed in the search results next to the site address and title, as well as in browser tabs
Website address. It can also be displayed as breadcrumbs

An example of a snippet from Yandex:

How does a snippet affect website promotion?

Having attractive snippets that include useful information is very important when promoting a website. This will help to significantly increase the number of clicks to your web resource. The main thing is to have something to interest users.

The following tips will help make information about your site in search results more attractive:

It is important to use your competitive advantages in snippets. For example, if your price is lower than your competitors, you should specify it in the snippet, this can significantly increase the CTR. You can also post information about promotions, gifts for purchases and special offers, if we are talking about a commercial resource.
An attractive favicon will also do you good, it is a kind of logo for your site that is remembered by users.
Using Open Graph and schema.org micro-markup to form an extended snippet. This will help you to place quick links, by which users can immediately go to the sections of interest to them or even post a video, company address, opening hours and other useful information.

As a rule, if a site is on the second page in search results, a properly configured snippet can give you a good result, and your position in the top ten will be yours.

Why is it important to analyze snippets of TOP-10 competitors?

With the help of such analysis, you can see what techniques and advantages competitors are using in order to extract interesting ideas and use them in themselves. Perhaps thanks to these techniques, the competitor's site is in demand among users, has good traffic and positions. You will also be able to find out how many occurrences and how they are using for promoted keywords.

Analyzing competitors with Labrika

The Labrika service has a very convenient tool for such analysis. You can find it in the subsection "Your own snippets and by TOP10" in the "SEO audit" section of the left side menu:

What information is displayed in such a report, we will take a closer look at the following screenshot:

The key word for which we analyze.
Position in the search engine for this keyword.
The ability to view snippets of competitors from the TOP-10.
The snippet of our site in the search for a keyword.
The choice of the search engine in which we conduct the analysis.

To examine in detail the data on sites in the TOP-10 search results, you need to click on the "See TOP10 snippets" button. Let's see what information we can see after clicking.