How to make an extended snippet in Yandex. Why an extended snippet is the key to successful SEO How to fix a snippet in Yandex

A snippet is an important element of any website to attract visitors from search results. Therefore, in this article we will analyze this SEO element in more detail. You will learn what it is, what it is needed for and how to make rich snippets for Google, Yandex and Mailru.

What is this snippet?

First, let's figure out what a site snippet is and why it is needed. A snippet is a block of information about a found document that is displayed in search results.

Its main tasks:

• Show primary information for the desired request
• Make a person pay attention to you
• Interest the user to go to the site

Please note that snippets affects . If you compose it poorly, then non-target visitors may come to the resource who will not be too interested in the content. This is very bad for SEO promotion! Therefore, be very careful here.

Snippets are presented differently in search engines. The ways to obtain them are also different. In this material we will look at Yandex snippets in more detail. I will also give you useful recommendations regarding Google and Mail.ru.

This is what a regular and optimized snippet looks like:

Regular and optimized snippet in Yandex

Achieving a top position does not mean that you are guaranteed to get a link to the site. You will be easily surpassed by competitors if their snippet is more presentable and attracts attention much better.

First, let's look at two examples of Yandex snippets. In the search, we entered the request “sale of children's clothing Irkutsk”. The two sites presented below were in 4th and 5th positions.

Which site would you go to if you could only open 1 project?

I would choose the second option.

What do Yandex snippets consist of?

Let's take a closer look at what we see on the second site:

1. Website address
2. Name
3. Description
4. Additional information from Yandex Directory
5. Add. info about the site

If you look closely, we see the same thing for the first site.

But why then is the second option better?

And it’s better because of the content and open contacts from the Yandex Directory. It is the latter that responds well to my regional request.

If we look at the source code of the first site, we will see the following. The description displayed in the snippet differs from the description meta tag. Click on the image below to enlarge.

The fact is that the description compiled by the Yandex search engine depends on the specified query. It can come from different places. And not even from your site. But we will talk about this later in this article.

If you look at the source code of the page of the second project, the description meta tag is displayed in the snippet description. This means that the search engine considers this tag relevant. Therefore, the snippet description can be considered optimized for the request.

Description of the snippet for the site

How to make a snippet for Yandex

Now let's talk in more detail about how to make a snippet for Yandex. To do this, below we will analyze all its components. I'll tell you why they are needed and how to implement them correctly.

Forming Title

In 90% of cases, the title tag is identical to the title that appears in the snippet. The recommended length for filling the title tag is around 55 characters.

There must be a key query in this tag. Also, the title itself should illuminate the essence of the page to which it is linked.

If the title is missing or very poorly formed, then a more informative title from the text of the document will be selected.

Data marked up can also be used. This is a markup standard for generating and publishing information in snippets for search results and on social networks.

To add information for creating a snippet in social networks, in the html code of the page inside the head element, specify the page title and site name in the og:title and og:site_name properties.

I won’t talk about this format in more detail, since it was developed by Facebook mainly for social networks.

It’s just that sometimes it can be taken into account by search engines. This usually happens when the main meta tags are poorly written or completely empty.

Then search engines have no choice but to display data from other elements of the page’s html code in the search results. Therefore, always write the main title of the page.

Favicon or icons for snippets

- this is a small picture or site icon that is displayed in the search results next to the title. Also, these icons for snippets can be displayed in the browser bar.

Displaying icons for snippets

In order for the favicon to be displayed in search results, you need to place the image in the root directory of the site as a 16 x 16 file in ico format. But other formats are also possible: gif, png or jpeg.

To describe the favicon, in the html code of the page, add one of the following codes shown in the figure above to the head element. After some time, your favicon will appear in the Yandex snippet.

Now let's talk about how to add an address to a Yandex snippet. It is worth saying that for large projects with a well-defined structure, a navigation chain may be shown in the snippet. This is a series of links to sections of the site to which the found page belongs.

Generated address in Yandex snippet

To recognize the structure and select the name of a site, Yandex uses a quick link algorithm. The webmaster's recommendations boil down to making the project structure more clear and simple.

No other special capabilities are required for this feature. Here are the basic rules for creating breadcrumbs in an extended snippet in Yandex:

• Only for large web resources
• Form strictly according to directories: the site section tree must correspond to the url
• Availability of human-readable URLs
• To select titles, use title and page link texts. And they (title and link names) need to match.

You can also visually highlight the address of your site in Yandex Webmaster. This is done in the “Site Name Register” section of the “Site Information” section.

This tool allows you to change the spelling of the site URL in search. This is necessary to make it more understandable and informative for the user.

New site name case

After setting the case of the site name, the data is sent for verification by the moderator.

Remember that Yandex reserves the right not to accept changes in the site name that are intended only for artificial emphasis.

Changing the case in the name should be aimed at improving the readability of the domain and satisfy the following requirements:

• If a domain segment contains more than one word, then all words in the segment may begin with a capital letter. An example was shown in the figure above.
• You cannot change the case for domain names that include a hyphen.
• Cannot be changed for international domains. Accordingly, domains in Cyrillic do not have the option of registering the name.
• Proper names, including those that are public domains, can begin with a capital letter.
• All capital letters are acceptable in domain names that are well-known abbreviations that are the same as the name of a website or company.

Additional Information

The next point is additional information. I will not go into detail here, since we cannot influence it.

The button next to the site name allows you to go directly to the saved copy of the page. You can also view all documents related to the found query for this project or complain about the search results.

The saved copy will show a copy of the site on the last index date.

Complain is if you think that Yandex search results do not match your request or contain inappropriate information. Then you can report it.

Description (abstract)

A description or abstract is a short description of a document. It is compiled based on the description meta tag, a fragment of text from the site and the site description from the Yandex Catalog or Dmoz.

Description should contain a brief and meaningful content of the page with key queries only for this page. The maximum length must be no more than 200 characters.

If the description meta tag is missing or poorly formed, then the system will show the most informative description from the page text. That is, the description will be automatically generated in the form of quotes from the text.

The description can also be taken from the Yandex Catalog or Dmoz. But this will be provided that such a description more accurately responds to the user’s request. To refuse descriptions from Yandex Catalog and Dmoz, you need to place meta tags in the html code of the page.

You should know in advance what queries your page will be promoted for, as this is the basis of SEO. And the snippet is an advertisement for the site from the same queries. Therefore, the necessary keywords should already be written in advance on the page itself.

It also happens that the annotation may display a message like “Links to the page contain.” This means that the robot did not find the key query in your text. However, it found sites that link to you under this query.

Contact Information

The next important element that affects the click-through rate of your link in search results is contact information.

To display contacts in a snippet, you need to add your organization and all detailed information about it to Yandex Directory.

You can also transfer contact information to Yandex in other ways. For example, use micro markup.

Schema.org markup

Yandex Directory understands schemes and markups. After marking the information on the page, be sure to use a validator to check it. To do this, the webmaster has a “Micro markup validator” tool.

Displaying quick links in Yandex snippet

The display of quick links in the Yandex snippet is formed as a short path to important information on the site. These links lead to pages with the most relevant information for the user. That is, the pages most visited by users.

Displaying quick links in a Yandex snippet

• Main pages and sections are accessible from the main page
• Logical and thoughtful navigation
• Short page titles that reflect their content
• must have a filled alt
• Title matches H1 and text links to the page

Please note that these are guidelines only. Their implementation does not provide an exact guarantee that quick links in the Yandex snippet will be identified.

If they are defined, they are managed in the webmaster panel. This is done in the “Site Information” section, “Quick Links” item.

Product information and price in the Yandex snippet

Up-to-date information about the product and its price in the Yandex snippet is a very important point for all online store owners. Below you see an attractively formed snippet with the price displayed.

Price in Yandex snippet

To get something like this involving Yandex Market, you need to upload your items. Then information about them will be automatically transmitted to the search.

I will say that this method is paid. Therefore, we will not dwell on it in more detail. Instead, let's talk about free options.

You can display information about a product using Yandex webmasters. This is done in the “Products and Prices” section. Setting up the export of information about goods and services from your YML file database is possible in some CMSs by default.

For popular CMS, there are various plugins and modules that allow you to create this file without unnecessary modifications.

After creating it on the store’s website, you will need a few minutes to transfer information to Yandex through the webmaster’s account.

You can also add information about a product using micro markup. You will find an example of it below.

Displaying the price in a snippet using schema.org markup

As you can see, special attributes have been added to the page’s html code, which the robot understands.

Schema.org markup attributes

That is, the site begins to tell the robot that price is the price. And name is the name. And so on.

After introducing micro markup into the site’s html code, be sure to check its validity. You can use Yandex and Google validator tools.

In Yandex, when you enter the address of the page for verification, you will get something similar to the one in the picture below.

Yandex validator

Here they will show you how the micro markup parser processed your page. There are no errors found in the figure. This means the validity has been passed. That is, all the necessary fields are correctly filled in on the site.

Semantic markup is understood not only by Yandex, but also by Google. Therefore, I recommend that you additionally check it in Google Validator.

Google Validator

Let's now look at the same site, but this time we'll take a page that has lost its validity. First, let's look at the site snippet.

As you can see, he is not very presentable. Doesn't grab the user's attention. It is also unclear what this web project is about.

And all this is due to the fact that on such a page one of the required semantic markup fields is not filled in.

It can be seen that the description field is not filled in. It is mandatory. Therefore, the necessary information is not displayed in search results.

With the help of Schema.org, we can implement other schemas on the site, which will be displayed in special Yandex rich snippets. We will not talk about them in more detail, since there is a lot of information here.

You can find the necessary information about micro markup in Yandex Help or on the website.

Rich snippets or Google advanced snippets

Let's talk about Rich snippets or Google advanced snippets. Unfortunately, we will not be able to consider all examples in Google search results. There are much more supported formats and possibilities.

Google Rich Snippets

But it is important to know that Google, like Yandex, actively supports Schema.org micro-markup. Therefore, I recommend that you use it by default.

In Google, rich snippets are called rich snippets. For those who do not want to go into detail into technical intricacies, the system gives us a simplified version. You can mark up pages with a marker in the Google Webmasters account.

Google labeling

To the right of the video, click on the blue “Start Selection” button. Next, enter the page URL and select the required markup type below.

Types of page markup

Then the selected page will open in marking mode. Right here, select the necessary pieces of content with the cursor and add values ​​to the attributes.

Google page tagging

Just make sure the value is displayed correctly. To do this, look at the “My data elements” block.

Label all the data you can. And after selection, click “Publish”. After indexing, Google will take into account the changes made and display them in its results.

In Mail.ru, just like in previous search engines, you can display a beautiful snippet for the site. In this article we will look at schemes such as contact information and quick links in more detail.

Extended snippets Mail.ru

Above are examples of rich snippets. As you can see, they are similar to those of previous search engines. It also contains the site address, favicon, breadcrumbs and breadcrumbs.

To display them to Mail.ru, you will need a webmaster’s account with confirmed rights to the site. Its interface is very simple and user-friendly. Therefore, it will not be difficult for you to provide the necessary data.

To display quick links(“Sitelinks”), you need to go to the Mail.ru webmaster’s account and confirm the rights to the project. Next, go to “Sitelinks” and click on the “Add” button.

Adding quick links to Mail.ru snippet

For adding contact information in the snippet, go to the “Phone and Address” section and click on the “Add” button.

Adding contacts to the Mail.ru snippet

Fill all necessary fields. However, the possibility of this information in the snippet is not 100% guaranteed. Mail.ru also supports schema.org micro markup.

A snippet is a small piece of text relevant to the user’s query, used by search engines to briefly describe the contents of a website page in organic results.

Creating beautiful website snippets plays a big role in SEO promotion. Taking the TOP position in the search results does not mean that users will go to your site. To do this, it is necessary to increase the CTR of the document (click-through rate), which can indirectly affect the ranking.

How can a snippet affect CRT and what reasons lie in the user’s desire to click on your site in the search results? The decision to click is determined by the information contained in the short description; the more accurately it answers the user’s request, the higher the chance of making a click.

Therefore, the optimizer’s task is to work on increasing the CTR of a document in search results by creating attractive snippets, which can ultimately increase site traffic by 2 or more times.

How to create an attractive snippet

Before we start creating snippets, let’s look at what it consists of:

• Favicon;
• Title;
• Breadcrumbs;
• Description;
• Quick links;
• Address and phone number, link to map;
• Rating.

Title Title

The main title of the document that influences the formation of the Title snippet. It is an important component of ranking and allows the user to understand whether the document matches his request.

Rules for composing a title:

• Main keywords must be used;
• Reasonable length up to 12 words;
• Must describe the main essence of the page in cases of cropping in search results;
• Must be unique for each page of the site;
• Indicated in the section between the HTML tags Your title.

Meta description tag

The description tag is involved in generating a snippet description for Google search. For Yandex, it is often not a rule to formulate a description. The description tag should complement the title header and provide useful information to increase click-through rates.

Writing rules:

• Must be different from title and start differently;
• The optimal length is 160 characters;
• Must be unique for each page;
• Has an occurrence of the main keyword phrase.

Create descriptions that are more attractive to the user, use numbers, and list benefits.

To highlight the snippet against the general background, you can use special characters.

Quick links

It is impossible to create them yourself; you can only influence their appearance. Some tips on how to make quick links in a site snippet:

• Logically clear site structure with easy navigation;
• The title title matches the h1 and the name of the link leading to the section;
• The main sections of the site can be accessed from the main page;
• If the link is formatted with an image, enter the alt of the image.

Micro markup of the organization

Marking up contacts will allow you to correctly display information about the organization in Yandex and Google. Example of organization markup in JSON-LD:

( "@context" : "http://schema.org", "@type" : "Organization", "name" : "Title", "url" : "https://site.ru", "logo" : "https://site.ru/ logo.png", "address": [( "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressLocality": "City", "streetAddress": "Address" )], "contactPoint " : [( "@type" : "ContactPoint", "telephone" : "+7-000-00-00-00", "contactType" : "customer service" )] )

Micro marking of bread crumbs

The breadcrumb markup makes the snippet more attractive; section names appear instead of the usual URL addresses. The example shows what a marked navigation chain looks like.

Example code for creating breadcrumb markup:

( "@context": "http://schema.org", "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ ( "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": ( "@id": "http://www.site.ru/", "name": "Home" ) ), ( "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": ( "@id": "http://www.site.ru/article/", "name": "Articles" ) ), ( "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": ( "@id": "http://www.site.ru/article/pro/", "name": "Programming") ) ]

How to change a snippet into a search result

Changing snippets as a result of Yandex and Google is not an easy task. For Yandex, they are mainly formed based on fragments of page text.

To do this, it is necessary to initially identify which snippet is generated for the user’s request. We enter a search query and look at the result, then we find a piece of text on the site and change it to a more attractive one, leaving the main keyword.

We wait for the page to be reindexed and check again. The process is quite time-consuming and it is not always possible to achieve the desired result the first time.

Snippets for Yandex

In this section, we will analyze which snippets are present in Yandex and what needs to be added to make it more beautiful and attract the user’s attention.

Favicon

Favicon is a website icon measuring 16x16px displayed in the browser tab and next to the title in Yandex results. Additionally, it attracts the user's attention and slightly increases CTR.

The favicon should be designed in the colors of the site, display the company logo or carry a semantic meaning.

It should be located in a section inside a tag, example:

Yandex directory

The directory allows you to add the organization's address in the Yandex snippet, phone number and location on the Yandex map, as well as the organization's starred rating based on the reviews left. You can add many branches to one domain by combining them into a network. It is also possible to link several website pages on the same domain, with different contact information.

With a vital search, the user can see information about the organization’s field of activity, a map, opening hours and leave a review about your company.

Products and prices

Allows you to display prices in a Yandex snippet for online stores and service sites. To create it, you must use a special structural description that contains information about the product, its price and delivery region.

To create a product snippet, you need to fill out information about the company in the Yandex Webmaster section > Site information > products and prices, and prepare a YML file.

Snippets for Google

The Google search engine has its own set of snippets. Let's look at the most commonly used ones and how to create them.

Product card micro markup

Complete information about the product will attract more user attention, and he will be more willing to click on the link that indicates the price, description, availability and rating.

You can also use markup with price listings for product categories; this is a great way to immediately show prices from and to for certain groups of products on the site.

To create a product snippet in Google, json-ld micro markup is used. The example shows an option with a price listing:

( "@context": "http://schema.org/", "@type": "Product", "name": "Executive Anvil", "image": [ "https://example.com/photos /1x1/photo.jpg", ], "brand": ( "@type": "Thing", "name": "ACME" ), "aggregateRating": ( "@type": "AggregateRating", "ratingValue" : "4.4", "ratingCount": "89" ), "offers": ( "@type": "AggregateOffer", "lowPrice": "119.99", "highPrice": "199.99", "priceCurrency": "USD " ) )

Micro markup article

If you run a blog on your website and engage in content marketing to attract potential clients, then you cannot do without this markup. It will visually highlight the snippet with rating stars and the number of reviews.

Markup example:

("@context":"http://schema.org", "@type":"Article", "name":"Title", "description":"Description", "mainEntityOfPage":"True", " author": ("@id":"/avtor=Avtor", "@type":"Person", "name":"Name"), "image": ("@type":"imageObject","url ":"site.ru/1.jpg"), "publisher": ("@type":"Organization","name":"Name", "logo":("@type":"imageObject"," url":"site.ru/user-image.png")), "articleSection":"Tags", "datePublished":"2018-06-25", "datemodified":"2018-06-25", " aggregateRating": ("@type":"AggregateRating","ratingValue":"3","bestRating":"5","ratingCount":"1") )

Conclusion

By regularly working on editing snippets and making edits, you will achieve good click-through rates and contribute to the growth of positions by improving behavioral factors.

First of all, work on attractive titles and descriptions, this will attract the right audience and reduce the bounce rate. If your goal is not just to get to the TOP, but to increase traffic to your site, then constantly analyze your competitors and do better. That is why, in our comprehensive website promotion, we include work on snippets.

“Project manager of the Business Motor team, webmaster, copywriter.
An extended snippet allows you to stand out from competitors in search results. What a company’s extended snippet can display, how to add information to the snippet - our review talks about this.”

At the present stage of development, Yandex offers site owners a number of opportunities to expand the snippet with additional information. So, for example, it is not so difficult to add information to the search engine results to which the material relates, as well as some other data that can attract the user’s attention and help him make the right choice. The opportunity we’ll talk about today will be especially interesting for businesses—owners of official websites of organizations and their optimizers. This is an extended snippet of a company in Yandex with the display of its address, contact numbers, work schedule and, possibly, other information important for consumer coordination.

Why is it important?

The ability to display company contact information in a snippet is valuable for several reasons:

• This distinguishes the snippet from others that cannot boast of the same information content. This means it visually highlights the company’s website in search results and ensures a higher CTR.
• An extended snippet with a phone number encourages a certain segment of users to call immediately - even before going to the site itself. This is especially true when a client wants to quickly call several companies to find out the price for the same service. The phone number in the snippet dramatically increases the chances of being included in their number.
• The very fact of the presence of an address and work schedule indicates the presence of a real, physical office. In some areas of activity, this advantage can be decisive. Especially for the most conservative clients who prefer to work with stationary rather than virtual providers of services or goods.
• If a user is looking for a way to get to your office, the search results will offer him a convenient Yandex map, as well as directions. This is faster and easier than going to the site itself and looking for a map there (provided that it is presented on its pages at all). It is also important that many users look for directions while on the road - from the screen of their mobile phone. In such circumstances, every additional action is fraught with difficulties, especially if the company's website is not responsive.

What information is included in the rich snippet?

The company's extended snippet in Yandex looks something like this:

Traditionally it states:

• contact phone number of the organization;
• detailed work schedule;
• office adress.

It is noteworthy that the address in the snippet is presented as a clickable link that leads to a Yandex.map with an organization marker. In addition to the marker itself, the page that opens will provide additional information about the company:

One more feature is also important. In the case when a company is assigned several addresses at once and several of them are located in the same region (for example, in Moscow), the snippet extension will be extremely laconic - a link “Addresses on the map” will appear, leading to the Yandex.map. Neither telephone numbers nor work schedules will be provided:

If we are talking about a list of branches or, for example, a restaurant chain, then there is practically no choice - you have to be content with this snippet extension. However, unless there is a real need for the same company, it is better not to assign more than one address - this will make the snippet less informative.

Important! With an extended snippet that includes contact information, only one page is shown - the one that, in Yandex’s opinion, most accurately describes the organization. Accordingly, the rich snippet will be visible only for those queries for which this page is relevant. In most cases, the home page plays this role, but there are exceptions. For example, if one site represents several organizations at once. Here is how the principle of choosing a page in the help for webmasters is described:

A snippet with an organization's address and phone number is shown only for one page of the site - the one that Yandex considers directly related to this organization. This can be either the main or internal page of the site. The concept with which we operate in this case is not a website or its main page, but an organization: geographical address, phone number and website - properties that describe it.

How to get an extended snippet for a company in Yandex?

Solving this problem is quite simple - just enter information about the company in Yandex.directory. After sending the application, the service employees will check the accuracy of the information: for this, a Yandex representative will make a phone call to the specified number within a few days. If the application correctly specifies the address of an existing website, information about the organization’s contact details will appear on one of the Yandex.Webmaster pages (Site geography > Addresses and organizations).

Subject to successful moderation, contact information will appear in the search results within 1-3 weeks - as the site is re-indexed and the search results are updated.

Yandex.directory or micro-markup?

From a practical point of view, micro-markup provides the same effect as entering information into the Yandex.directory, so it is not at all necessary to delve into the specifics of micro-markup. On the other hand, the future of the development of search engine algorithms lies in semantic markup, so using hCard in parallel with an application to Yandex.directory will not be out of place.

Extended snippet for a network of branches/branches

For restaurants, cafes, car dealerships, retail chains and some other organizations, it is typical to have several branches/branches/outlets. To present them most effectively in Yandex results, it is recommended:

1. Enter each individual department with a dedicated address into the Yandex directory. It should be taken into account that at least one of the activities of all departments/branches must coincide.
2. Use the Yandex.Directory feedback form to submit an application to merge a group of branches.

After completing these steps and having them approved by Yandex, one of the branches can be designated as the main one in the region by editing the corresponding application in the directory and waiting for its moderation.

You can read more about the procedure for generating extended snippets for a network of branches/branches in the corresponding section of the Yandex.directory help.

conclusions

Using rich snippets for companies is an opportunity to stand out in search results and provide the user with all the necessary contact information immediately, without going to the site.

The extended snippet can display a phone number, address, work schedule, as well as other special information (depending on the field of activity).

With an extended “contact” snippet, only one page of the site is displayed in Yandex results.

To display additional information in the snippet, you must enter the organization in the Yandex directory and link the application to an existing site.

Hi all! What webmaster doesn’t dream of seeing high traffic on his projects.

It doesn’t matter what the topic of the site will be, because the main goal will still be to increase the influx of new visitors and, as statistics show, 70% of them come from search engines.

What elements does a snippet consist of in Yandex search results?

For more advanced webmasters, or rather for commercial sites, Yandex went further and came up with a long snippet. This type of snippet is more informative and is usually in great demand among the Yandex population.

Here's another example

As you can see in the first case, in addition to the standard description, Yandex also displays quick links, and in the second, updated information about the company (address, phone number, opening hours, etc.)

Of course, an extended snippet attracts more attention and helps to increase the click-through rate (CTR) of such ads, then we will also learn how to do this.

I want to warn you right away that the problem with such a description is that it can only be implemented for sites on certain topics. You can find out more about the full list of sites Here.

As you already understand, ordinary bloggers will have to stay away for now and close this page, but if you are the owner of your own online store, then let’s read the post to the end.

How to change a snippet in Yandex

You must understand that you cannot directly influence the display of the snippet, but you can help the Russian search engine display it in an expanded form, and for this you should do a few simple manipulations on the site.

To do this, add the site to (if it is not already there), then follow the link “Site Geography” then “Addresses and Organizations”.

Click on the “Add organization” button.

The first step is to fill out the organization details.

The second step is to select the type of activity. In total, you can add no more than 3 of them; to do this, use the drop-down list.

In the third step, you need to choose a method for posting the extended snippet, on a paid or free basis. Here everyone looks at their own budget, perhaps I will also switch to paid placement in the future.

Next, you will need to wait until the moderators check your application and approve it, which you will receive a notification about. Over time, your organization will acquire a broad description in searches, which will have a beneficial effect on its click-through rate and behavioral factors.

I hope I didn’t bore you too much and you got the gist of it. If not, then forget about this matter and use the standard snippet.

The main thing to remember is that you only tell Yandex how to display the site in searches, but do not do it for it.

Hello! In the previous article, I talked about how to increase website conversion - push the visitor to take action on your resource. Today we will learn how to get the user to click on your link in the search results. I will talk about what a snippet is, how Yandex and Google snippets differ, and also how to optimize them to increase CTR (click-through rate).

What is a snippet?

A snippet is the description of a site that you see in search results after you enter a query.

For example, this is what Yandex snippets look like:

And here is the Google snippet:

Snippets are compiled automatically by search engines. However, every webmaster has the opportunity to edit them.

The correct snippet significantly increases site traffic, increasing the number of clicks on links in search results. In addition, let me remind you that search engines take into account . Namely, how often users click on your site in the search results for a particular request. Depending on this, your site’s position on queries also changes.

The purpose of the snippet is to allow the user to read a summary of the post before clicking on the link. Therefore, a correctly composed snippet is very helpful in promoting the resource.

The maximum snippet length for the Yandex search engine is 240 characters, and for Google - no more than 160. Although these values ​​may vary. When trying to find any information, the user is unlikely to read long texts. He will quickly skim through the titles and descriptions of articles given by the search engine. And having found what he needs, he will follow the link that attracted his attention.

How to make a snippet for Yandex and Google?

The smartest thing to do would be to create a snippet that is suitable in length for all search engines, i.e. 140-160 characters. Thus, web visitors will be able to quickly view site descriptions, assessing the degree of their usefulness for themselves, and long descriptions will not be trimmed.

It is equally important to help a person focus on your call, click on the link and go to the article, and for this you need to interest him from the first phrase.

How is a snippet formed?

Snippet optimization has always been very important for SEO promotion of any website, and the emergence of behavioral factors has made them even more significant.

To understand how a snippet is formed, just look at the search results of the two largest searches in RuNet - Yandex and Google. They are not very different from each other: they display the page title (title), snippet, site address, sometimes the date of publication; in Yandex, is visible to the left of the snippet; additional elements may be present. The main difference is that Google uses the description tag in the snippet, and Yandex uses an arbitrary piece of the article. Read more about this below.

How to make a snippet for Google?

The basis for generating a Google snippet is the description meta tag. It, like the title, must be registered, taking into account the following recommendations:

• Keywords in description. For the robot, a post relevant to the request must necessarily contain a key phrase, but you should also avoid spamming “keys” in the snippet. Optimal would be one key phrase with a direct entry in the description (without taking into account the title).
• It happens that it is not possible to tell about all the advantages of your article in 140-160 characters. In this case, try to place the key phrase and its inflection at the beginning of the description, because the robot will simply cut off the rest.
• The clickability of a snippet also depends on the accuracy and reliability of the information specified in it. Describe in the description the real facts contained on your page. This will protect you from a high bounce rate and increase the length of time visitors stay on the site. This, in turn, will signal search engines to consider your link relevant to the request, and will also increase the trust of the search engine.

But Google doesn’t always use the text you prepared in the snippet. For example, he can use the information contained in the DMOZ directory for this purpose. If this description does not suit you, you can write such a directive in:

In some cases, search engines allow the use of so-called rich snippets, which can show additional information. This could be the price of goods or services, photos, etc.

But even compiling a description taking into account all the requirements and rules does not guarantee that Google will show your snippets in exactly this form.

How to make a snippet for Yandex

Once upon a time, Yandex, like Google, used a description tag for snippets. But this tag serves only as a recommendation for the PS, and over time, Yandex algorithms have changed. Now this search engine independently compiles a description of the pages, highlighting a piece of text with a key phrase from them. Sometimes it looks appropriate, but it's still not worth relying on. Below I will tell you what to do when Yandex creates absolutely unattractive snippets for your site.

Yandex can also take a site description from the Yandex.Catalog as a snippet. To prohibit this, you need to write code in robots.txt, similar to Google: . Also, sometimes this search engine uses the information that was specified when registering the site in the Yandex enterprise directory. For example, often the address, phone number of the company, work schedule and types of activities carried out by the company are indicated in gray font in the snippet.

How to add a Yandex snippet?

How to change a snippet in Yandex if he created it himself? You need to find on the site that part of the text that the PS displays. And then correct it so that it meets all the requirements of a good snippet.

But how to make a snippet for Yandex or Google for each page of the site? After all, some sites sometimes have tens of thousands of pages. In this case, it is almost impossible to change all the descriptions. But there is still a way out.

First, you need to select those queries that are on the first pages of search results - just find the top thirty. How to do this is written in the article “”.

Then you should check their snippets for attractiveness to the user audience and, if necessary, rewrite them.

You can also optimize your snippets by moving the main key phrases to those parts of the text on the page that are more suitable for you to describe.

And be sure to analyze the work you have done to optimize site snippets. Check the results of the changes, they will not take long to arrive.

Features of snippets for sites on WordРress

For WordPress blog owners who are ranking in Google search and are interested in creating a good snippet, there is a slight advantage.

Google often attaches to the snippet the rating given to the post by blog visitors. To do this, just install the WordPress GD Star Rating plugin. As a result, the snippet from WordPress, highlighted with yellow stars, will stand out from its competitors.

And yet, the installed All in one Seo Pack plugin can independently generate title and description meta tags, you should not allow it to do this. Go to the “SEO Tools/Basic” tab in the admin panel and uncheck the “Generated Description” box.

Now you know what a Yandex and Google snippet is, how to compose and change it correctly. Create noticeable and effective snippets. Good luck.