Does anyone know what causes the long meta description snippet?

[Ria_]

You know the ones I mean... Google have been infrequently displaying some meta descriptions as 3-4 lines long for some time now. But recently, I've been noticing them more. Not sure whether it's just a coincidence that I've been seeing more for my searches, or whether Google are displaying more in this format.

Does anybody know what causes Google to prefer the longer meta description or extended meta description for some results?

[Ria_]

Is this here to stay, do you think...? I'm so wary of Google's changes, I don't think I'll be lengthening my titles to make better use of the width until the dust settles a bit.

EDIT: http://www.thesempost.com/new-title-description-lengths-for-google-seo/ (inb4 Google rolls back to the previous layout in one week's time.)

[Ria_]

I did notice the wider SERPs in my logged in browser this morning. There's been so many layout updates recently, as well as other odd fluctuations, who knows what Google's up to...

I just wondered whether there's any significant difference in CTR for results with longer descriptions. And if it's an improvement, can we optimise our on-page content for it, the same way that we can optimise to increase our likelihood of appearing as a featured snippet, to nudge Google into considering showing the elongated description for our result.

[KevinBrinkman]

It seems that this is the new standard within Google. Here is a recent article (May 11) form Jennifer Slegg about this topic. Search results are about 600 pixels wide.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

I think that Dr Pete mentioned in there that Google pretty much have open license to do what they want (which we know they do) and if they feel that one or more results deserve more exposure because they answer the question so well, then they will do this.

Also, be aware that in the last 24 hours, Google announced that they are making their search results pages wider which means more room for Titles and Descriptions, so this might also be playing a part in what you are seeing.

I still think that Pete's post sums up everything needed to know about this. I think this explains it pretty well.

"If all of this seems confusing, that's probably because it is. Google is taking a lot more liberties with snippets these days, both to better match queries, to add details they feel are important, or to help build and support the Knowledge Graph."

-Andy

[Ria_]

Thanks, Andy. This was an enlightening read and I'm grateful for you sharing it, but I don't feel as if it really answered my question. For some search queries, I'm even seeing half of the 1st page results displayed with long descriptions. Surely, this has got to be more than before? But what's so special about _those _results that causes Google to opt for the longer snippet?

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Rather than go into duplicate details here, Dr Pete did a post on just this a little while back.

Read it in all its glory here

-Andy