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You are here: Home / Google / Google Testing 4 Line Description Snippets in Search Results

Google Testing 4 Line Description Snippets in Search Results

July 13, 2015 at 5:08 am PST By Jennifer Slegg

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google 4 lines descriptionGoogle is testing out longer snippets in the descrption for some Google search results, giving some results 4 lines of description over the standard two lines that you see in the majority of results.

google long description 1While Wikipedia triggered the first 4 lines of description as information sites, as you can see with the Hobbycraft result, commercial sites can trigger the longer 4 lines of description as well.

These are not in-depth article results, which no longer have the header above them, but which are still stylized between line breaks and run in sets of 3 results, usually near the bottom of the search results.  In-depth article results feature 3 lines of description and includes a source in the URL line, where as these new longer descriptions are 4 lines and display breadcrumbs and not URLs.

Here is another example, this time it is eBay that is getting the four lines of description, interestingly enough it is two different search results but with identical descriptions.

google long description 3Here is how it appears within the webpage itself, and you can see how after the featured snippet, the second longer descriptions stand out.

google long description 4

 

When looking at the eBay example, it was taken from one of the eBay listings, and one near the bottom of the page.  There was nothing special about the structured markup on the page that wasn’t included in the many eBay listings above the one Google selected.

google long description 6They also show up on mobile search results with 6 or 7 lines of description, which makes some of the results dominate the mobile screen.

google long description 5They don’t appear to be happening on very many searches at this time, but they are showing internationally.

 

H/T Anthony Lavall via Rob Kerry.

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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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Latest posts by Jennifer Slegg (see all)

  • Google Quality Rater Guidelines: The Low Quality 2021 Update - October 19, 2021
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  • New Google Quality Rater Guidelines, Update Adds Emphasis on Needs Met - October 16, 2020
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  • Analyzing “How Google Search Works” Changes from Google - July 8, 2020

Filed Under: Google, SEO

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Comments

  1. MamboMan says

    July 13, 2015 at 8:09 am

    great!

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Jennifer Slegg (2051)

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