Google will dynamically increase the search snippet depending on the search result to from the current maximum of 160 characters, to as much as 230 characters.
The change is designed to try and answer the user query within the search results – something that is good for users, but potentially a problem to website owners, who could see traffic from organic search decline.
Video Transcript
Hello, I’m Shannan, and on this edition of Digital Minute, we’re looking at changes to Google’s search snippets.
The big change is that Google’s search result snippets are getting longer, with the search engine increasing the length of a snippet to as much as 230 characters – depending on the search results.
Google confirmed last week that search snippets would increase to between 160 and 230 characters, with the length of the snippet being determined automatically.
If Google feels that it would be beneficial for the user, it will dynamically display a longer search result snippet based on a page’s content, and simpler queries will show a shorter version.
Google has insisted that website owners don’t have to do anything to take advantage of this, but this is a change that has many people in SEO concerned about. As Google tries to answer queries in the search results page, without having to direct the user to a brand’s website, that has the potential to reduce the traffic that you see from search.
We’ve taken a closer look at what this all means, over on our blog. Thanks for watching, I’m Shannon Berghaus, and that was your Digital Minute.
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