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Google Testing Huge 7-Line Snippets in Search Results

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google 7 line snippetsGoogle appears to be testing some search results showing up to 7 lines of description text in the Google search results.

Ross Hudgens was the first to spot the very long snippet:

google 7 line snippetI also was able to see 7 lines in the mobile search results for the same search query.

google 7 line snippet2

A couple of things that are noteworthy about the particular result page linked – first, the results are in a Pinterest-style with photos and descriptions of many different smoothies.

Secondly, the description itself is taken from different places on the page, each separated in the Google search result snippet with “…”. The first part of the snippet is from the description at the top of the page while five different “pins” provide partial snippets for the remainder of the search result.  Lastly, the result also has site links as well, which lead to an individual “pin” page for each one.

Bill Slawski also points out that the meta description for that page is only 18 words long, so it isn’t influencing the length of the snippet.

Others who weren’t seeing the 7 lines were seeing the first two results with 4 lines of description, yet they aren’t the “in-depth answers” we normally associate with any Google organic search result with 4 lines in the description snippet.

google 7 line snippet3Google isn’t new to testing out longer description snippets in their search results.  This summer we spotted them testing 4 line descriptions in the search results, and those are still actively displaying now.  Ross Hudgens initially thought it could have been a bug when he searched, but others reported seeing the same 7-line snippet for the same query.

These 7 lines definitely do stand out, but it is hard to say whether it is actually useful.  In an age where people skim, are people actually reading any more than the first couple lines of the description?  And does a query such as “smoothie recipes” even need that long of a snippet?  I could see it perhaps for something more technical or in-depth, but Google uses in-depth article results within the organic search results for that.

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Jennifer Slegg

Founder & Editor at The SEM Post
Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing, working in the industry for almost 20 years. When she isn't sitting at her desk writing and working, she can be found grabbing a latte at her local Starbucks or planning her next trip to Disneyland. She regularly speaks at Pubcon, SMX, State of Search, Brighton SEO and more, and has been presenting at conferences for over a decade.

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Comments

  2. This just feels so long and awkward! And the ellipses throw me off. I think I get it from a UX perspective (the more info, the better?) but I’m really curious to find out what the feedback would be from general users.

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