How to Improve Your SERP Snippet

November 13. 2020

For the more inexperienced readers, it might seem that improving the SERP snippet is not worth the effort. After all, among all the things that you have to do in order to make a decent website and promote it, why should you bother with SERP snippets? Well, as it turns on, tackling SERP snippets is not only useful, but it can be downright mandatory for quality online traffic. So, to help you out, we are going to explain why it is important to improve your SERP snippet, and how to do so efficiently.

Why is it important to improve your SERP snippet

SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) snippet is the little bit of text regarding your web page that Google shows on results. While it may seem irrelevant to some of you, it is often the determining factor in whether or not a person will click on your page in Google’s results. The actual amount of people that click on your page is calculated through CTR (Click Through Results). The higher the CTR, the better the SEO. The better the SEO, the higher your page will be in Google’s results. Therefore, it should be fairly obvious that tackling the SERP snippet is well worth your time. So, let us now take a look at the actual practices of improving it.

Improving SERP snippet

The bare minimum that SERP snippet should include is SEO title, date of publishing, web page URL, meta description. As you can see, there are not a lot of things that you have to tackle in order to get good SERP results. But, it is vital that you tackle them properly. SERP is the embodiment of quality over quantity. The better quality your SERP info is, the better the results.

Using a tool

An experienced web developer may know what constitutes a decent SERP. But whether you are a beginner or an experienced manager, you need tools to aid you. The first tool to use is Yoast. The free version is more than enough for standard users, and can easily help you reach page 1 in Google search results. With it, you will be able to customize SEO title, slug, meta description, and focus keyword. It will show you how your SERP snippet will look like, and therefore enable you to optimize it. If you don’t think Yoast is enough for you, you can also try:

• Yotpo’s Search Enhancements
• Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool
• Data Highlighter
• Rank Ranger’s Google SERP Features Tool

URL optimization

With the right tool at hand, you can start optimizing individual elements of the SERP snippet. The first thing to note is the URL. Always keep in mind that URLs need to be short and sweet if Google is going to take notice. You can opt for using as many keywords as possible in your URL as a strategy. But, this can easily backfire due to keyword oversaturation. This is why we advise you to alter your URL so that they are short (three, four words at the most) and informative.

SEO Title optimization

The title of your article is the first thing that your readers will see. Therefore, it stands to reason that it needs to be as optimized as possible. Luckily, this is hardly something that you alone have to deal with, which is why there are helpful tips to adhere to. Some of the more standard SEO title formats are:

• How to + keyword – Example: this article.
• Number (usually odd) + superlative + exact keyword – Example: 13 Best Ways to Increase your SEO results.
• Superlative + long-tailed keyword – Example: Top reasons for hiring SEO professionals.

These are just some of the many ways in which you can structure your SEO title. Your goal is to implement the desired keyword is as natural way as possible. As you can see, these titles resemble what a user might type into Google. Therefore, the closer you are to your user’s exact question, the more likely your article is to come up.

Meta description

Meta descriptions are not only useful for helping readers understand what is in your article, but they are also necessary for Google SEO. Know that Google is becoming smarter and smarter in filtering bad SEO practices. So, the sooner you incorporate proper meta descriptions, the better. Luckily, there are only a couple of rules that you need to follow:

1. Start with a verb – Your readers are always looking for something specific. Be it advice, guide, or a product, they know what they are looking for. So, you need to make sure that the meta description showcases what they are looking for asap. Avoid prolonged intros or obscure references. Here, again, try to be short and sweet.
2. Include a CTA – Help you readers understand how you will help them out with a Call to Action (learn more, call us, etc..)
3. Use focus keyword – Every meta description needs to have the focus keyword. The more naturally you can use it, the better. There are tools that can help you with keyword research.
4. Never duplicate – No matter how easy it may seem, never duplicate a meta description. If Google finds you doing so, you can say goodbye to decent SEO results.

Website speed

The final advice we are going to mention on how to improve your online presence is to make your website efficient. Know that your average reader is quite impatient. Even if you improve your SERP snippet, you will easily lose online traffic if your page takes too long to load. So, do your best to make your function well. While there are methods that can help you to a certain extent, there is no substitute for hiring a professional. Ideally, you will have the same person design and maintain your website for you.