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When we're searching online, what makes us choose some sites from google results over others? That little sliver of information we see in a list of results is all we have on which to make a decision. How our websites appear in google search results is important - first impressions do count. We can't control exactly how our sites will look, but we have a fighting chance by doing the following:

Focus on the meta keyword and meta description tags. Although they're not as important as page titles, I think it helps to use them consistently and effectively. They are, of course, another opportunity to pack in some key search terms.

The meta description is often used as part of the google snippet (that little bit of text that describes your site in google's search results), so it is important that it accurately describes its page. Make sure it's a proper, grammatically correct sentence that's relevant to the page it appears on. I've tried to make all of my meta tags unique. It's a long, boring process, but for the industrious and persistent, it pays off.

I founda video by Matt Cutts, head of Google's WebSpam team on 'the anatomy of a search snippet'(click to watch it). It explains how Google builds the snippet.

The content of snippets for pages onmy siteis built from a combination of meta descriptions, page content, <H1> and <H2> tags and links. I can't seem to identify a pattern with this, and I think it might be affected by the user's search text.

For example, in the following google search result...

Paritor, Music and Teacher Administration Software. PARITOR SOFTWARE. Developers of teacher software, and music administration software for music and ...
www.paritor.com/ - 6k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
[ More results from www.paritor.com ]

• 'Teacher Administration Software, Private Teacher Software and...' is the beginning of the home page title.
• 'Paritor, Music and Teacher Administration Software' is an <alt> tag from our logo image that appears on the home page
• 'PARITOR SOFTWARE' is the <H1> on the home page
• 'Developers of teacher software etc.' is the first line of content on the home page, in which the words 'teacher software' and 'music administration software' are anchor text for links to other (internal) pages.

I've also noticed that my footer links sometimes appear in the google snippet, although I don't have a current example of this.

The search that returns this result is 'music teacher software'. This snippet tells the searcher who we are, what we do, what our products are and who they're for. By making good use of page titles, meta tags, alt tags, H1s and link anchor text, I'm influencing the appearance of the google snippet for each page ofmy site.

I think it's worth it because first impressions are important, and searchers makequick-click decisions. The snippet is all they haveto go on when faced with a list of results containing your site alongside those of your competitors; the snippet is precious.