How Does Google Create Snippets for Search Engine Results?

Matt Cutts, a software engineer with Google, gives a great explanation on how Google creates the snippets found on search engine results. Here’s an example of a snippet for Starbucks:

As you can see the snippet consists of several important parts:

• Title – this information is gathered directly from the site’s title tag.
• Description – Google can pull this information from the meta description, text on the page or even your DMOZ directory description.
• URL – the URL that the snippet goes to.
• Site Links – for a select group of sites, usually highly branded sites, Google will offer additional links below the main site URL. These links take you to specific areas of site. And unfortunately, it’s all algorithmic so site owners have no input in what links Google points to.

Matt Cutts offers a more detailed explanation of Google Snippets on his YouTube Video:

If you’re interested in getting more education on Google, visit their YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/Google.