There is a hilarious Snippet in a Search Results Page on DuckDuckGo from the Wikipedia page that states “The theory of Gravity is a Hoax…” I don’t know where DuckDuckGo pulls their snippet from, but if they are like most search engines, it either comes from the pages meta description, the Open Directory Listing, or from content from the page. For those who are unfamiliar, the snippet is the content in black below the links to the site, which is usually the Page Title, although it depends on the query, etc…
There are a lot of ways to track and measure your SEO efforts. Odds are, you probably use Google Webmaster Tools Search Query Report to regularly check on your impressions and clicks in Search Results, and your average position to see how you are ranking for which keywords. Odds are, you optimize around improving your rankings and watching your impressions grow first and clicks grow second. Maybe you go deeper and see how your CTR looks in various positions. There is an excellent post today on SEOmoz.org from YOAST, a noteworthy SEO who has a bunch of wordpress SEO plugins, etc.. His post talks about how SEO folks are marketers and should therefore be focusing on improving more than just ranking positions. They should optimize for Click Through Rates, which by the way are definitely a signal in search rankings, and becoming more and more important. Once pont Yoast says struck as so important I decided to blog about it…
“Am I making good on the promise I’m making in the SERPs with my title and description, on the page that people land on? That is the question you should be answering when you got that ranking. And when the answer isn’t a very clear “YES!”, you’ve got more work to do, even though you’ve achieved that ranking.”
Odds are if you are a website owner, and you have someone else doing your SEO, you run a bunch of searches checking where you rank. You probably don’t even realize that the SEO has the ability to manipulate how your listing actually appears in results. How it appears is your advertisement to the world, when you are lined up right next to all of your competitors, that is your one shot at convincing customers to click through to your website. It doesn’t get more important than that moment… This is basically what you are paying for with SEO…Now, like most SEO, you don’t have absolute control, many algorithms are at play… but you can certainly optimize for better click through rates that help you stand out from the competition.
More Importantly, What appears in your listing Title and the Snippet below it are a PROMISE YOUR ARE MAKING TO PEOPLE WHO CLICK ON IT…. Do You Ever Check To Make Sure You Are Making Good On That PROMISE?!
If you ever wonder why you aren’t converting all of your visitors, or why your bounce rate is so high… This is a simple test you can do… find your listing in the search results. Check how it appears, what it says, what promises does it make to searchers? Than click through to your website and see if you deliver on that promise in a clear and immediate fashion.
I recently consulted with a Baby Stroller website that has great Search Visibility, but low conversion rates. I checked one of their top performing keywords and their listing said, ” An In-Depth Review” in the title, but when you clicked on the page, it showed the category page with all of that brands listings, but no reviews anywhere to be found. In this instance, I think they are better off putting the review up there, and maybe trying to capture an email address or drive a like based on the review instead of changing the snippet.
So, if you are an SEO or a website owner, make sure to check your listings to make sure you are delivering on the promise your listing implies.
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