How to Control What Shows Up in Google Search Results

What is a Snippet?

When you search on Google, you see a short description under each website link. This description is called a “snippet.” It’s like a preview that tells you what the webpage is about before you click on it.

For example, if you search for a sewing store, you might see: “Get everything you need to sew your next garment. Open Monday-Friday 8-5pm, located in the Fashion District.”

(an example of snippet)

How Google Makes These Descriptions

Google reads your webpage and automatically picks the most helpful parts to show as the snippet. It looks at your page content first, but sometimes it uses something called a “meta description” if that explains your page better.

The cool thing is that Google might show different snippets for the same page depending on what people are searching for. So your page could have different previews for different searches.

Making Better Snippets

You can’t directly tell Google exactly what to show, but you can make your snippets better by writing good content on your page and creating quality meta descriptions.

The better your page content, the better your snippet will be.

3 Ways to Control Your Snippets

1. Stop Snippets Completely

If you don’t want Google to show any description for your page, add this code to your webpage’s head section:

<meta name="robots" content="nosnippet">

Example: This might be useful for a private company page or a page with sensitive information.

2. Set a Maximum Length

To control how long your snippet can be, use this code:

<meta name="robots" content="max-snippet:100">

Example: The number “100” means your snippet can be up to 100 characters long. You can change this number to whatever you want:

• max-snippet:50 for short snippets
• max-snippet:200 for longer snippets

3. Hide Specific Parts of Your Page

To prevent certain sections from appearing in snippets, add this to any HTML element:

<div data-nosnippet>
  This text won't show up in Google search snippets
</div>

Example: You might use this for:

• Internal company notes
• Technical details meant only for logged-in users
• Promotional banners that shouldn’t appear in search results

<p>Our bakery offers fresh bread daily.</p>
<div data-nosnippet>
  Internal note: Remember to update prices next month
</div>
<p>Visit us at 123 Main Street.</p>

In this example, only the first and last sentences could appear in search snippets.

Quick Summary

• Snippets are the short descriptions under search results
• Google creates them automatically from your page content
• You can prevent all snippets with nosnippet
• You can limit snippet length with max-snippet:[number]
• You can hide specific content with data-nosnippet
• Better page content leads to better snippets