Search Header Optimization For Website Snippets

Search Header Optimization For Website Snippets. The basic rule for building site snippets is that the title for the snippet is taken from the title tag of the relevant site page. However, many site owners notice that in the search results for certain requests, the title generated in the snippet may differ from the title, and sometimes even very significantly. Why does it happen? Are headings in site snippets always generated only from title tags?

In most cases, search engines for the site title in the snippet only take information from the title tag. But in some situations, search algorithms either make changes to the title text from the title tag or even take a completely different text to compose the title. Then the page title and the generated snippet title will be different.

When the title tag is not optimized?

This happens most often when the title tag is not optimized. For example, it can be too long or too short, it can be repeated on all pages of the site or it can duplicate the title text of other sites. Search engines in such cases will try at their discretion to optimize the data from the title tag in order to form the most relevant title for the site snippet.

Of course, it would be possible to provide search engines with the opportunity to decide for themselves which title for the snippet is better and to rely completely on the action of search algorithms. But the problem is that the headings received after such “optimization” are not always successful: in many cases, they significantly reduce the site’s CTR. And when there are no clicks on the links to the site, then there is no benefit from getting the site in the TOP-10 of search results.

Prevent Incorrect Title Formation.

In order to prevent incorrect title formation in the site snippet, it is important to know exactly how search engines can change the text of the title tag for this purpose. For example, in some cases, search engines independently add the company name to the text from the title tag. This is typical for fairly general search queries, for which title tags for different sites in the search results are usually very similar. Adding a company name, in terms of search engines, helps users better navigate search results.

Search engines for the title in the snippet can take the name of the company from the data of the main page and the page “About Us”, as well as from link anchors leading to the main page. Therefore, sometimes instead of the name of the company, incorrect information – phrases “About Us”, “Home”, “About the Company” – appears in the snippet header.

If sites from different regions compete in a search result for a particular query, then search engines can add the name of the city in which the company operates to the site’s snippet header. Search engine information in this case, as a rule, is taken from the contact information of the company, if the site is registered in the catalogs of search engines, then one of them.

In quite rare cases, search engines can change the order of blocks of text in the title tag to form a snippet title. This situation can be observed in particular when the text in the title tag begins with less important, according to the search engine, information. And search engines can put in the first place in the title the phrase from the title tag, which more closely matches the search query.

Strong tag.

Search engine information can be taken not only from the title tag, but also from the H1-H6 headers, the strong tag, link anchors, and even breadcrumbs. Therefore, in order not to be in a situation where search engines will use incorrect headers for website snippets, you need to pay attention to optimizing the title tag and optimizing other elements that can affect the snippet title.