17 December 2009 | Author: M. Thomson SEO & Affiliate Consultant
NOODP, YDIR
First we saw Google make use of Titles and Descriptions from authoritive, human edited sources such as the Open Directory Project (DMOZ) and Yahoo! Directory. Google made this move because such sources were human edited, and this meant their data was more likely to be more accurate making it more credible than the information supplied by webmasters. Google then provided webmasters with a means to disable's Google use of such data with the NOODP, NOYDIR Meta tag.
Content Snippets
More recently we have seen Google change snippets of content from a webpage in relation to the users search query in preference to the supplied Meta description. This system is perfect for user experience as the snippet is more relevant to the users query, but it disables the website's option to show, for example, sales material or similar instead. .
Extended Descriptions
For more complex queries e.g. long tail searches, Google will often expand a website's snippet to allow more characters - this then overrides the set Meta description. Once again, this is useful for user experience and can boost click through rates as it provides a greater insight to the websites content in the results themselves.
Sitelinks
Google may also choose to show a list of Sitelinks underneath a webpage leading off to different sections of a website. Most commonly found for brand related search terms, Sitelinks offer the user the option to jump to sections without having to click through to the homepage first.
Search Options
Search Options is another feature that allows you to filter your search results with facets. For example, you can ask to be shown only images, news or videos for a query, results indexed over a certain period of time or results with images from the webpage included.
Rich Snippets
If you host reviews, products or location based data and markup your content with microformats or RDFa, Google may choose to show rich snippets of your content within the search results. For example, a product reviews with star rating.
Named Anchors
If a website has large amount of content on a single page and makes use of named anchors and a table of contents, Google will choose to show "Jump to" links to allow the user to immediately jump to that section of content within the webpage.
Breadcrumb URL
If you have a breadcrumb trail listed on your webpage, Google may opt to show the breadcrumb and its directories within the search results over your URL. Users can then select a breadcrumb and be transported directly to that section.
2010: Automatic Generating of Titles
Google has only once ever played with what the Title aspect of the snippet is e.g. NOODP, however the Title is the most prominent "click-through" aspect of a search listing.
In 2010, could we see Google automatically generating Titles for websites? As the most prominent aspect, Google could look to analyse the page contents, links, anchor text and users query to automatically populate a Title that is more effective than those potentially supplied by the webmaster
Using a combination of the "physical" factors detailed above and personalised search and toolbar data, Google could personalise the Title to appear more relevant to the user's query. Success could also be measured via your personalised history. Data could be made portable and be applied across accounts to find the perfect medium. Social search relationships could make this more applicable e.g. your friends may be more inclined to "like" what you "like".
With Google's datamining ability and its recent moves towards a more personalised search, it doesn't seem completely unlikely that Google might pursue this or a similar path. Although it would be a shock to the search community if it did.
Google to automatically populate titles in Snippets?
When Google initially started indexing websites, the webmaster had complete control over the snippet data that Google displayed within the search results. In those days snippet data included titles, descriptions and web address. However, as time has progressed, Google has made numerous alterations to the data displayed and this can have an effect that should be taken into account by webmasters.NOODP, YDIR
First we saw Google make use of Titles and Descriptions from authoritive, human edited sources such as the Open Directory Project (DMOZ) and Yahoo! Directory. Google made this move because such sources were human edited, and this meant their data was more likely to be more accurate making it more credible than the information supplied by webmasters. Google then provided webmasters with a means to disable's Google use of such data with the NOODP, NOYDIR Meta tag.
Content Snippets
More recently we have seen Google change snippets of content from a webpage in relation to the users search query in preference to the supplied Meta description. This system is perfect for user experience as the snippet is more relevant to the users query, but it disables the website's option to show, for example, sales material or similar instead. .
Extended Descriptions
For more complex queries e.g. long tail searches, Google will often expand a website's snippet to allow more characters - this then overrides the set Meta description. Once again, this is useful for user experience and can boost click through rates as it provides a greater insight to the websites content in the results themselves.
Sitelinks
Google may also choose to show a list of Sitelinks underneath a webpage leading off to different sections of a website. Most commonly found for brand related search terms, Sitelinks offer the user the option to jump to sections without having to click through to the homepage first.
Search Options
Search Options is another feature that allows you to filter your search results with facets. For example, you can ask to be shown only images, news or videos for a query, results indexed over a certain period of time or results with images from the webpage included.
Rich Snippets
If you host reviews, products or location based data and markup your content with microformats or RDFa, Google may choose to show rich snippets of your content within the search results. For example, a product reviews with star rating.
Named Anchors
If a website has large amount of content on a single page and makes use of named anchors and a table of contents, Google will choose to show "Jump to" links to allow the user to immediately jump to that section of content within the webpage.
Breadcrumb URL
If you have a breadcrumb trail listed on your webpage, Google may opt to show the breadcrumb and its directories within the search results over your URL. Users can then select a breadcrumb and be transported directly to that section.
2010: Automatic Generating of Titles
Google has only once ever played with what the Title aspect of the snippet is e.g. NOODP, however the Title is the most prominent "click-through" aspect of a search listing.
In 2010, could we see Google automatically generating Titles for websites? As the most prominent aspect, Google could look to analyse the page contents, links, anchor text and users query to automatically populate a Title that is more effective than those potentially supplied by the webmaster
Using a combination of the "physical" factors detailed above and personalised search and toolbar data, Google could personalise the Title to appear more relevant to the user's query. Success could also be measured via your personalised history. Data could be made portable and be applied across accounts to find the perfect medium. Social search relationships could make this more applicable e.g. your friends may be more inclined to "like" what you "like".
With Google's datamining ability and its recent moves towards a more personalised search, it doesn't seem completely unlikely that Google might pursue this or a similar path. Although it would be a shock to the search community if it did.
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