Snippet

A snippet is the preview of a search result on the SERPThe Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is the page a search engine returns after a query. Besides the organic listings it often contains extra elements such as ads, featured snippets or AI Overviews.Open glossary entry →. It usually consists of three parts:

• the page titleThe title tag is an HTML element in the page that defines the page title. It appears in the browser tab and can be used as the clickable title in search results.Open glossary entry → (title tag),
• the URL or breadcrumbBreadcrumb navigation shows a page's path within the website hierarchy. It improves user orientation and complements internal linking.Open glossary entry → structure,
• the description, often from the meta descriptionThe meta description is an HTML element in the page that briefly summarises the page's content. Google can display it as the description in the search result.Open glossary entry →.

The snippetA snippet is the compact display of a result in the search results, usually made up of a title, URL and description. It is what users see before clicking.Open glossary entry → is, in effect, a page's advertising text in search. It strongly influences whether a user clicks, because on the results page a listing competes with many others. However, Google does not always use the stored meta description; it often generates its own excerpt from the page content when that better matches the query.

For a snippet to be convincing, the title, description and page content should align, the most important argument should come first, and a clear benefit should be evident. Good snippets are a quick lever to win more clicks from existing rankings.