Getting More from Google with Snippet Optimisation

I was watching one of my favourite YouTube channels yesterday, one dedicated to blog writing and monetisation, and a rather startling statistic was given (if you are interested it is IncomeSchool, very good idea to go and check them out). Google very recently published statistics about click habits from their SERPs. Before I get into what they were, in case you are fairly new to the world of online marketing and such, SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page, so that is the page you see after you type a query into Google.

From the statistics it was ascertained that only 41.45% of clicks from the SERP are organic results (those being results that are not placed by Google ads or part of a Google related site such as YouTube), but the really startling one was that 49% of people don’t click at all. I didn’t realise it before but I do this also. After I search for something on Google, I often get my answer just from the snippets that are given, and I don’t need to click through to a site.

Now getting those clicks is obviously important to you and your online marketing efforts. So what do you do in this regard? You get crafty and make better snippets, that’s what you do. Let’s have a look at this in more details.

What is Snippet Optimisation?

You may still be wondering what snippet optimisation is. Firstly, to be clear a snippet is the little bit of text you see in the results on a search page, also known as the meta description. What you need to keep in mind is how many characters you are allowed.

This answer seems to vary from site to site, but you are looking at between 150 and 170 characters. Some also say that on mobile devices that is as low as 120 characters. So, best practice would be to stick to about 160 characters but make sure you have your main keyword inside the 120 character range.

When it comes to snippet optimisation you want to make sure you are drawing people in and getting them to click through to your website, so this is why making sure you have a good snippet is important.

The title also becomes important. This should be 50 to 60 characters. If you make your title longer then it will get truncated and someone searching may only get a bit of what you are writing about without seeing the main topic. This would cause them to move to the next result because they aren’t sure you have the answer they are looking for.

Same with the meta description, you could be rambling on about something that has no substance because your snippet didn’t address the query, but it has been addressed in the rest of your article, which the searcher doesn’t get to see.

This is why snippet optimisation is so important.

Using the Tools

If you aren’t using any tools to help you with your snippets then Google will take relevant bits from your article. This used to be the first couple lines but appears Google is switching things up again with their algorithm, but also put your main stuff in the first couple lines. In this case make sure you word your first 160 characters properly.

If however your site is built on WordPress for example, then you can install a SEO plugin to help you. I suggest using Yoast SEO for WordPress. Other CMS platforms either come standard with this kind of thing or you can add it like with WordPress and Yoast.

What this allows you to do is word your snippet specifically. You can change the title and the meta description to whatever you desire, regardless of what the article begins with. This will then be taken as preference to the first couple of lines.

Make Them Crave it

The issue with the 49% no-click results is that people are reading the snippets and getting their answers without clicking through to the sites, so what needs to happen is that your snippet needs to be designed in such a way that it grabs the person’s attention, doesn’t give them the answer outright, and forces them to click through to your website in order to get it.

To do that you need to make them want it. Make them crave the answer, but not just the answer, your answer. I admit, not always an easy thing to do, but you have to put your best into it.

So, let’s say I am looking to start cycling and I need to buy a bicycle (yes, I actually did this before writing this post). I look on the site for my local store that sells them and I find that there are multiple sizes. I don’t know what size to get.

I then go to Google and search “what size bike should I buy”, and the results come up. If we do this search then we get the first organic result as an answer box (something that Google started doing a while back, the first result after the ads is a bit longer and answers the question immediately. If you can get your post to that position then all the better, however it begs the question, is it really that good because how many people will click it?)

So my answer reads as follows:

“Your inseam is the most often consulted one. Most bike size charts note the stand-over height. This is your inseam plus another 1-2 inches for comfortable clearance of that top tube. Some sources claim that road bikes require 1-2 inches clearance while mountain or commuter bikes need 2-4 inches.”

And there is a small chart with dimensions which I could click but I can still make it out enough to get my answer. I would need a bike frame of 17 to 18 inches. I didn’t need to click the link. This is very bad.

If I continue to scroll down the page there are a couple organic results that appear to be extracted from the article content (they contain … in them which means Google pulled the relevant information from the article instead of the writer adding their own snippet for Google to use). Then we have a repeat of the article in the answer box, and a few more Google pulled results. The last one, even though it is a very short meta description (not such a good idea, how do you feel when you see a one liner, probably not too confident), is probably the best example.

The title reads “Women’s bike size guide: What size bike should I buy?”. I didn’t specify for men so that’s my own fault, but it indicates that they have a size guide and how to work out the best size for you before you buy a bike.

The meta description for this post is “Find the right mountain bike, hybrid and road frame size for you.” which as I said is very short, but it gives you a clear description of what you are getting.

But how could this be improved?

The title could read “Want to Get a Bike to Exercise? Choose the Right Frame Size” which speaks to people who are looking to start exercising and want to buy their first bike, like me, but find that there are multiple frame sizes. It says I know you are having difficulty in choosing before you go and spend your hard earned money.

And the meta description may read something like “Make sure you don’t waste your money or damage yourself with the wrong frame size. Use our special guide to find the best size road or hybrid mountain bike for you.”

What does that do for you? For me it says if I get the wrong size then I could be wasting my money or damaging myself, which wouldn’t be ideal, and that is the main pain point. I don’t want to waste my money getting the wrong size frame and then I’m stuck with it, and if I do get the wrong size, I could actually hurt myself. It then goes on to say that they have a special guide that you can use to work out which is best, not for anyone, but for me in particular.

Sure, it may be the same guide that everyone uses, but their’s is special because, well, it’s their’s. It also speaks to you specifically, giving you are a warm fuzzy feeling, and most importantly, it doesn’t give the answer in the snippet, so people will have to click through to get that answer.

I suppose I could come up with a better snippet than my example above, given more time, but I think you get the idea. Think like the person who is doing the search, what do they want to know, what are you offering them that none of the other results are offering? Get creative and create a need for the person to go to your site instead of everyone else’s.