Standing out from your competitors in Google’s search results pages depends on one thing: your snippets .
The Google snippet , that small piece of information that appears for your website pages in the SERPs, is your showcase for users.
This means that the more attention-grabbing you are , the more visitors and customers you will get.
I’m Patricia Jorde , a freelance SEO, and in this article in collaboration with Cebra, I’m going to tell you the three main ways to work on your snippets to stand out on Google:
- Classic optimization of titles and meta descriptions
- Achieving featured snippets
- Implementing rich snippets using structured data.
From a basic understanding of the elements of a snippet to advanced strategies for each type, this mini guide will come in handy whether you run a blog, online store, or corporate website .
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What are snippets and what are they for?
As we have already said, snippets are the results that appear on Google search pages (SERPs) and contain basic information about a web page : its title, a brief description of what it contains and some additional complementary data.
Therefore, its main function is to provide users with a preview of a site’s content before clicking on it .
Although it has several elements, the most visible and important are the title and the meta description, two of the most important SEO metadata .
- The SEO title , which appears as a blue link, should summarize the content of the page in an attractive way and contain the main keywords.
- The SEO description or metadescription , on the other hand, is a brief summary of the content that appears below the title and should encourage the user to click.
Here’s what they look like in this example of a snippet or Google search result:
In addition to these core elements, snippets can include additional information such as the. URL, publication date, breadcrumbs, or structured data.
These additional elements help enrich the what are podcasts and audio commentaries? appearance of the snippet and provide more context, but some do not appear by magic and are a strategy that you must implement separately .
The 3 ways to stand out with your snippet on Google
If I have left you with any doubts about what this strategy is… It is about structured data , which is responsible for the famous rich snippets or enriched results appearing in Google.
But of the 3 ways you have to stand out with your snippet on Google, this is the most advanced.
Before that, you can resort to two other, much simpler options : optimizing the SEO tags in the title and meta description, or opting for featured snippets by knowing how to write your content.
Aim, aim, we’re going to see them.
1. Optimizing the title and meta description for SEO
The title or title tag is one of the most important on-page factors for SEO for two reasons:
- It is the main headline of the snippet and, as such, it grabs users’ attention so they click.
- It contains the main keyword of the content and, among other signals, Google uses it as a guide to position the page.
In order to accomplish these two tasks, the title must be concise (50-60 characters), and include the main keyword at the beginning, as far to the left as possible. Caption : image from Google Search Center
But since the most important thing is to persuade the user to choose our search result , there are some good practices when writing the title that, in my experience, work:
- Use numbers or lists (e.g. “7 tips for…”)
- Include the brand name at the end
- Use modifiers like “best”, “guide”, “2024”, etc.
Something similar happens with the meta description, which although it is not a direct ranking factor, it greatly influences the CTR .
In this case, its function is to summarize the content of the page in an attractive way so that the user confirms that our result speaks exactly about what he needs .
It should be a little longer and have between 150-160 characters, also include the keyword naturally and contain a call to action .
In this case
what has given me the best results Google Snippet: when optimizing it is using persuasive and emotional language, but above all alluding to a real need of the user or showing them the benefit of reading that content .
Like here:
Now… Optimizing these two snippet tags is something your competition can do too.
We can go further by applying SEO writing strategies to belize lists get Google to highlight our content and give us… a featured snippet !
We see it in the next section.
2. Getting featured snippets
Featured snippets, also known as “position zero,” are boxes that appear at the top of search results and offer a direct answer to the user’s query .
They can be paragraphs, lists, tables or even videos. Here’s what they look like:
Caption : Example of a featured snippet of a blog post
Google Snippet: By standing out above other search results or snippets on Google, they can greatly increase visibility and organic traffic.
Not to mention that they reinforce the authority of the website by being considered by Google as the best source to answer a specific question.
In my years as a freelance SEO and writing specialist, the queries that have generated the most featured snippets or zero positions for my clients have been:
- Questions like “how”, “what is”, “why”
- Searches for definitions or concepts
- Questions about step-by-step processes
- Comparisons or lists
Of course: the condition for this to happen is to structure the content very well with clear H1, H2, H3 headings , and use numbered or bulleted lists, as well as comparison tables when relevant.
3. Implementing rich snippets or enriched results
Rich snippets are enhanced search results that include additional information such as star ratings, prices, availability, etc.
Unlike featured snippets, rich snippets do not occupy a special position in the results. But rather enrich the appearance of the standard snippet regardless of its position.
This can cause a user to choose to click on your snippet even if you are not in the Top 3 results .