Google Bulleted Snippets

The official insider’s blog written by those who work for Google, for those who use Google, is a series of posts updating Google users on the methodology that goes behind the new designs and creative changes we see on our day-to-day visits to the SERP giant. Google has recently launched ‘Google Bulleted Snippets’, with the official word and reasoning posted on their blog and explained in relatively simple terms as one of their most recent innovations to hit the site. The point of the bulleted snippets is to reveal the most relevant content to the searcher about the website they are pursuing. Google is constantly updating the service currently, as it was only revealed at the end of summer 2011.

Google has taken it upon itself to start parsing tables and lists in what they believe to be a more suitable and helpful manner for customers and consumers. However, they have not reached out to all websites and appear to be placing a huge amount of importance on those websites with the best-organised coding. Content that has been formatted well and succinctly is placed above other potential bulleted snippets because it is easier to present to the audience and run as part of the trial and error of Google’s new venture.

Google and its evaluators of what the human mind wants have once again locked into the angle that stares most of us in the face: simplicity. Using the well-structured format of tables and lists from these websites, they can categorise them into bulleted snippets, which will allow searchers to garner information easily and quickly, deciding whether this is the right website for them. Consumers want information broken up for them, highlighted into clear-cut sections, which is why headings and lists in SEO are so important and presumably will catch on as another Google SEO trademark, and fast.

As we wait for these bulleted snippets to extend their global takeover, the larger websites with the most content will be the first to experience these types of changes within their Search Engine Optimisation. As the trend continues, I’m sure we will see smaller websites also appearing with bullet lists, yet the key to any of these websites’ success and which will catch the eye of Google SEO (as well as the consumer) is good content and good formatting.