With the development of technology and the Internet, so many incomprehensible words have appeared that it is impossible to remember them all at once. Faced with the unknown, you run into the Internet. After all, only there you can find these very unknown words and find out their interpretation.
One of these concepts was snippet. Find out what it is, what it is needed for and by whom.
Interpretation
So, a snippet, as Wikipedia says, is a piece of text or program code that can be used in a search engine, text editor, and development environment. After such a determination, few will understand what it is in reality. Let's try to explain easier.
So you go into the browser, drive any word into the search bar. Here is a window with pages found for a specific request. We look at the first line. That's it, along with the title, link to the page and the text below, is a snippet. This information relates to search engines.
Program Interpretation
But there is another interpretation of the snippet. MODX Revo is a program that helps to manage the site, develop and support development. In it, the concept of snippet can be interpreted somewhat differently. This is a program element that consists of php code and processes any logic on the site. In general, MODX snippets can be dynamic content such as a menu, blog, news list, etc.
Text editors
Software developers also need to understand everything about snippets. What is this they need to know if it is necessary to create a block of repeating text. In order not to enter it constantly manually, you can automate the process using a snippet.
Text editors most often have a special function that works in this direction. She can manage the whole complex of snippets, which is represented by the catalog. Such processes make it possible to view, add, modify, delete, sort, and much more.
Diversity
When you find out that these are snippets and why programmers and web developers need them, you can move on to classification. Their diversity is caused by the degree of "interactivity". So distinguish: static, dynamic and script blocks.
Static, as the name implies, are snippets with immutable text that can be selected for implementation in the desired document. However, all available settings are not available to the user. He cannot correct or change them. There are similarities with macros in programming languages.
Dynamic, respectively, more flexible. Has unchanged text and dianamic elements. The user easily works with such blocks, can change values for components, adjust their positions during selection and insertion into a snippet. An example of this type is data that depends on a specific time, date, or requests from other users. Dynamic blocks are like macros or patterns.
The last type is a script snippet. What is it and how does it work? In general, the block consists of macro language or script code. It is the most flexible to configure. It can change in the software component. Its changes may vary by application.
Optimization
But since snippets in the development environment are rarely of interest to users, we will not talk about them. But this concept in the field of SEO is interesting and important. Even ordinary users encounter it every day when they browse pages on the Internet.
But first, it’s worth explaining to those who don’t know what SEO is. Now this area is developing very actively. Many create websites and try to take first positions in search results. To do this as efficiently as possible, use optimization tools. Some resort to the help of online services, but they provide only temporary leadership in the right positions.
In order for the site to be in the top for a long time and consolidate its primacy there, you need to turn to the SEO-server. He carries out a whole range of operations to improve the quality of content on the site, its appearance and positions in the search engine. Creating a snippet in this case is an important step for promoting a resource.
What for?
When you look for the information you need, you read the snippet or go directly to the site. So in this case the block is informative and descriptive. For some, it’s enough to read the announcement of the site to understand whether to go. On information resources, snippets often immediately interpret the main topic.
In addition, the snippet helps to deal with two identical terms. If you do not need a castle, but a castle, then it’s by the block in the search results that you will understand on which site you will find information about the structure, and on which not.
Task
For a seoshnik, the question of how to make a snippet should be paramount. Its formation is a responsible process, since an interesting and vibrant block will attract the attention of buyers, customers, and readers. Of course, before working with snippets was extremely important and influenced the optimization and promotion itself. Now, technically, this process does not represent anything important, but acts on the user like a beacon.
Composition
The site snippet is often mistakenly considered only a brief description under the link. In fact, this is the whole block, which consists of a title, a link and a brief announcement. Every element is important here. The title should contain important keywords, especially if the resource is commercial. The link can be made more beautiful by changing incomprehensible letters into Russian. And the short description also often uses keywords and special characters to attract attention.
The impact of operating systems
It should be understood that it is not always possible to influence the formation of a snippet. For Google, it’s enough to write the necessary information in the meta tags. If the search likes your description and is relevant, it will be happy to take it for a description. The length of this announcement cannot be more than 160 characters. More precisely, it can theoretically, but in your own interests, prescribe all the necessary information in a clearly defined volume. So a potential client will receive all the data before acquaintance with the site.
Yandex is a bit more complicated in generating a snippet. There is a theory that description attracts him little. He prefers to tear out text from a page that has keywords. In this search engine, the block length is 240 characters.
Beauty in detail
To make the snippet look beautiful, different symbols are often added to it. For example, organizations put an icon near the phone. To show delivery speed, some optimizers add an airplane. If the site is about love affairs, you can add hearts, stars, etc. to the description.
There are also extended snippets. They are usually found in large online stores, various institutions and organizations. The extended snippet, in addition to the usual block, has an additional one. For example, if we have an online store in front of us, then popular categories of goods, promotions, recipes, vacancies, etc. are often used. It is interesting that an extended snippet appears only if you specify the name of a specific company, store, organization in the search.
conclusions
Summarizing, it is worth noting that when talking about snippets, it is still more often remembered exactly the information block in the search results. A programmatic interpretation of this concept is less likely to be in demand because it is highly specialized and necessary for web developers and programmers.