As you can see, the search snippet is a valuable indicator of [...]]]> Google’s Matt Cutts uploaded the following video to his blog last night. In the video, Matt discusses the anatomy of a Google search result. In particular he discusses the search snippet and the many different ways that Google’s algorithm “generates” this snippet.

As you can see, the search snippet is a valuable indicator of relevancy for a searcher. It basically tells the searcher a little bit about what content is on the page in relation to their search query. As Matt mentioned, Google will sometimes generate this snippet using your page’s meta description tag or Google can pull some text from one or more areas of the page. By optimizing its meta description tags and the content on its pages, a franchise company can increase search engine traffic to its website. Including information such as an individual location’s physical address, areas served, etc. in that page’s meta description tag and body text, a searcher is much more likely to see relevant information in the snippet. Then (hopefully) they will visit your site.

Thanks to Matt for making this video.