Sharpen Your SERP Display

byChrisGooden

14.2K followers

11 years ago

In your Wordpress Dashboard, when you go to "Pages", you see a list of the pages you created. Beside each page you see 3 columns of data

• Page Title
• Page Description
• Page Keywords

This gives a rough idea of what your SERP snippet could look like.

But where does this information come from? And how important is it?

How Important Is It?

From the SE point of view, whatever is said today will not apply tomorrow. Search engine technology is in a constant state of evolution. Currently Google updates its algorithm twice per day.

Having said that, it has to get its data from somewhere. All we can do is "suggest" that "this is a good place to start". The SE will make its own mind up whether to accept or ignore.

The more important value is what it does to our marketing ability. I use these columns to sharpen and focus the quality of my ability to deliver content.

Where does it come from?

Go into "edit" any one of your pages, and scroll down below the "edit" window.

In the lower section you'll find "Preview Snippet" showing you what your SERP entry will look like.

Below that there are the 3 columns of data you looked at earlier

• Page Title
• Page Description
• Page Keywords

Go into those boxes and start typing. You'll see your snippet change in real time.

The character limits are a good guide to "best practice". They are only a guide because current display is by pixel count, not character count, thus it depends on the screen resolution of the user's device.

How Do I Use This?

I use the "keyword" list purely as a reminder to me of my page's focus. Then I can use the "Title" and "Description" boxes to hone the snippet to how I want it seen, remembering to put the main keyword in both.

The items I've marked in green come from elsewhere, and I've hinted at their sources. I might revise the "Site Title" if it makes the snippet line incongruous.

The content I end up with I then copy/paste to my real page. Title goes to Title, Description becomes first paragraph.

To me this is the true value and importance of "Preview Snippet". Google can ignore it and get the info direct from my page, which is the SE's ultimate goal anyway.