Google Improves Search Result Descriptions

Google recently announced two changes in the way it shows search results – longer snippets and enhanced search refinements.

The official Google blog talks about the changes in detail, but let’s talk about the snippets here. A snippet is the few lines of text that appear under the dark blue title in the search results.

So how does Google choose the snippet for your page? The search engine chooses snippets from three sources:

- If the meta tag description of the page is relevant to the search query, Google uses the meta tag description for the snippet.
- Otherwise, Google combines the most relevant part(s) of the page and uses that text as the snippet.
- If for some reason, Google is not able to crawl your page, Google will try to use the description of your site found in the DMOZ directory.

Why does Google go through this much trouble? Well, choosing the right text to use to describe a page can be essential to how well the search engine delivers results.

Up until last week, the image below shows how Google used to display the snippets for any description. As you can see, the blurbs were limited to 155 characters.



With the new change, when you enter a longer query (one with more than three words) Google will increase the number of lines in the snippet to provide more information.



These longer snippets give more information about the sites and enable the searcher to decide which site(s) has all the information he/she is looking for.

Now that Google increases the snippet size for a page, is it better to stick with the old limitation of 155 characters when writing the meta description tag for a page or should you go beyond the limit? DBE recommends staying within the 155 character limit so that the text doesn’t get cut off when searchers use shorter queries. The objective is to create a description that would entice the searcher to click through to your site. In addition to keeping the snippet short and sweet, we recommend writing the meta description tag so it includes a mention of your targeted keyword and gives an accurate, compelling overview of what the page is about. A snippet from a well-written description tag can help you gain a higher click-through-rate and drive more conversions.

Be Aware – Brand Awareness Tops Online Sales For Search Marketing Purpose

SEMPO recently released the results of its 5th Annual State of Search Survey for 2008. The survey covers a wide range of search marketing topics and provides perspective as it presents data from advertisers/companies engaged in search as well as from search marketing agencies like DBE.

One of the advantages of an annual survey is that it provides the opportunity to spot subtle yet significant shifts in trends. One of this year’s trend shifts that caught my eye was on this slide showing how advertisers responded to the question “What is your company using search engine marketing to accomplish?”


For the first time, the answer “To increase/enhance brand awareness” outscored the previous number one response “To sell directly online.” Granted the score was close (63% to 61%), and it was weighted by advertisers with over 500 staff, but still this is significant. In fact, the fact that the larger advertisers showed an even greater spread between awareness and sales (70% to 56%) just illustrates the point further – search is more and more a mainstream medium.

Reinforcing this shift is the continuing trend of search marketing poaching dollars from traditional media as reported in the survey as well as the dedication of budgets directly to search as a stand-alone line item.

I’ll let you chew on this for now and post some more observations soon.

How to Write SEO-Friendly Web Copy

Optimizing the copy on your website doesn’t mean stuffing it with keywords so that it’s an unreadable mess. This is a spam technique which can harm your site’s ranking. Google encourages webmasters to “make pages primarily for users, not for search engines,” so your first goal is to write for your target audience, bearing in mind the factors valued by the search engines (in much the same way that you might follow, or sometimes ignore, the rules of grammar in order to effectively communicate a message).

Here are a few tips for integrating keywords into your copy without sacrificing the overall quality of your writing:

• Use as many or as few words as you need to use to say what you need to say. However, a good rule of thumb is to shoot for copy that’s approximately 250 words in length. This gives you enough room to get your message across while naturally working in 3 to 5 mentions of the keyword.
• Use keyword variations. Let’s say your keyword phrase is “big blue widgets”. Instead of repeating “big blue widgets” over and over again, switch things up so some of the mentions appear as “large blue widgets”, “full-sized widgets in blue”, and so forth. This makes your copy read more naturally and helps your website show up for related keywords.
• If you’re a brick-and-mortar store that’s trying to rank for local search queries, place your address in the footer of each page, but also mention your location somewhere in the page copy. You could place your address in the footer as “700 Success Road, Princeton, NJ 08542”, then mention the areas you serve in your body copy (“serving Middlesex and Mercer counties” or “serving New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania”)
• Include keyword mentions in your headers. Header tags (H1, H2, etc.) are a great way to define your page’s structure and emphasize keyword phrases. (This is also helpful because people read differently on the Internet than they do on paper. Try to keep things scannable with headers, lists, and bullet points.)
• Include keyword mentions in your hyperlinks. Instead of saying “Click here for more information on our widgets” with the link embedded on “click here”, try writing “Visit our big blue widgets page for more information” so the link is embedded on “big blue widgets page”. This gets the point across to the reader while letting you work in another keyword mention. It also helps with SEO because the search engines look to link anchor text as an indication that a page should rank for a particular keyword.

By keeping these optimization tips in mind as you write, you can easily create copy that appeals to your readers and is also SEO-friendly.

False Prophets

One of our clients got an “SEO Tip” from an online advertising vendor the other day. Fortunately, they called us for verification before implementing it on their own. Turns out the “tip” was more of a “trick” that could actually have devalued our client’s website in the eyes of the search engines. Imagine this outcome after everything the client has invested and we have done to improve their visibility.

But how many others who got this so-called tip, who don’t have the benefit of expert advise and counsel, actually went ahead and did themselves a disservice while thinking the opposite to be true?

And this is the problem with an industry that lacks clear guidelines or standards or a one-stop resource that can help separate best practice from malpractice.

SEMPO is doing its best (and as Circle Members we at DBE are doing our part to help) but I sometimes worry that this is in effect preaching to the choir; the ones who already know the right way from the wrong way. How do we reach the myriad of vendors who, hopefully, honestly believe they are passing on some good advice and the equally myriad of webmasters who are willing to take this advice on good faith alone?

One can only hope the ROI mindset that has seen a revival in these economic times will drive more to avoid the snake oil promise of miracles and see the light of true search marketing tactics that lead to accountable success.