Google Rich Snippets Branching Out Across SERPs

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Looks like Google’s Rich Snippets have expanded beyond product reviews and people. Google introduced Rich Snippets as a way to “give users convenient summary information about their search results at a glance.”
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Rich Snippets for Long-Tail Keyword Searches

Now, rich snippets are popping up all over the place, especially when you do long-tail keyword searches. I discovered this yesterday, while doing keyword research for one of my clients. Instead of seeing a two sentence snippet that might have come directly from the Description Meta Tag for a particular web page, Google pulled sentence fragments that matched my long-tail search: event planning + trade shows + conferences + receptions

Here’s the cached page from Google with the keywords highlighted:

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Long-tail Keyword Phrases in Web Content

So, what does this mean for SEO? Unscrupulous webmasters may think it’s time to go back to keyword spamming. But a more effective strategy will be to continue writing relevant description meta tags, AND include long-tail keyword phrases in your copy in a way that will make sense and be relevant to your audience.

Need help optimizing your website for Google? Send me an email with your request to: gloria@gloriarand.com.