Knowledge base v2.13.0 · Community edition · data through 2 October 2026
Thing · Feature
The text under a result's title link, which Google creates automatically from the page's content and which robots rules such as nosnippet and max-snippet can limit.
Documented in
Google's AI features guide says a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet to appear as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, with no additional technical requirements.
Google Search Central · Day 2 · Controlling indexing
Google's robots meta tag specification says Google chooses the snippet length when no max-snippet rule is set, and with max-snippet:-1 chooses the length it believes most effective; it does not say that -1 produces longer snippets.
Google Search Central · Day 2 · Controlling indexing
Google's snippet documentation says snippets are created automatically, primarily from the page content, to preview the part that best relates to the user's specific search, so one page can get different snippets for different searches; sometimes the meta description is used instead.
Google Search Central · Day 2 · How does the index look like?
Google's Visual Elements gallery describes a text result as based on the page's textual content, with attribution, title link and snippet; attribution can include the site name, favicon and visible URL, and a rich result typically relies on structured data.
Google Search Central · Day 3 · How Search results are born
Google's AI features guide says there are no additional requirements, and no special schema.org structured data, needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode; a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet.
Google Search Central · Day 3 · How Search results are born
Slide and stage claims that name it, the ones Google’s documentation does not cover first.
A max-snippet value too short for a useful snippet may lead Google to show no snippet at all, John Mueller said.
John Mueller · Day 2 · Controlling indexing
max-snippet:-1 removes the length limit and can produce a longer snippet than having no rule, because by default Google keeps snippets to a length it considers reasonable instead of quoting a page at length.
John Mueller · Day 2 · Controlling indexing
The snippet shown for a web result is reconstructed from the tokens stored in Google's index: Google knows the position of each token in the document and rebuilds the snippet from those positions.
Google estimated that a snippet update takes 1-2 days on average and up to several weeks to months, because the page has to be reprocessed to extract the new text.
John Mueller said Google uses the snippet as a way of building AI Overviews and AI Mode answers, so if a page forbids a snippet, Google cannot use that snippet for them.
John Mueller · Day 2 · Controlling indexing
John Mueller said data-nosnippet is rarely needed but lets a site keep a specific piece of text, such as a business phone number, out of the snippet, so the page can still be found for it while searchers have to visit the page to see it.
John Mueller · Day 2 · Controlling indexing
AI Overviews and AI Mode use the same index structures and token-based snippets as classic web results, a point Google called important but not obvious.
Google said that when AI Overviews or AI Mode run a query fan-out, the generated queries are sent to Google's Search index and documents come back with their snippets, which then feed the AI-generated answer (part of this passage is unclear in the recording).
Google estimated that a title update takes as long as a snippet update: 1-2 days on average, up to several weeks to months.
The nosnippet rule stops Google from showing a text snippet or video preview for a page in search results, while the page's title is still shown.
John Mueller · Day 2 · Controlling indexing
Broken HTML can widen data-nosnippet: if a div marked data-nosnippet is not closed properly, the rest of the page can be blocked from the snippet as well.
John Mueller · Day 2 · Controlling indexing
The max-snippet:[number] rule limits a page's search result snippet to that number of characters (100 characters, for example), and max-snippet:0 shows no snippet, the same as nosnippet.
John Mueller · Day 2 · Controlling indexing
A text result on Google's results page is made of parts such as the attribution, the title link, the snippet and the site name.
Google generates the parts of a text result, such as title link and snippet, from its understanding of the underlying web page, even when the site owner provides nothing extra.
Broken titles and snippets caused by unresolved placeholders may hurt business, especially for e-commerce shops and affiliate-heavy sites, a community speaker warned.
Sören Bendig · Day 2 · Lightning session D: Rendering and JavaScript
Lead-generation, local-service and e-commerce sites should normally stay included, because AI answers cite and link sources. Sites selling paywalled or licensed content should test exclusion on a child property first. Use nosnippet only if you also want out of regular snippets.
Ibrahim Anjro · Day 1 · What's new in the world of Search
Before adding nosnippet or a low max-snippet value, weigh the cost in AI features: both limit how much of the page AI Overviews and AI Mode can use, and John Mueller described those answers as built from snippets.
Ibrahim Anjro · Day 2 · Controlling indexing
To hide one detail, such as a phone number, a price or a direct answer, instead of the whole snippet, wrap it in data-nosnippet on a span, div or section in the server HTML and validate the HTML so that an unclosed element cannot hide the rest of the page from snippets.
Ibrahim Anjro · Day 2 · Controlling indexing
Set max-snippet:-1 and max-image-preview:large on every indexable template unless licensing requires otherwise, and check that no CMS, plug-in or CDN setting adds lower snippet or image preview limits by default.
Ibrahim Anjro · Day 2 · Controlling indexing
There is no separate AI index to optimise for: when a page never shows up as a source in AI Overviews or AI Mode, first check that it is indexed, that no nosnippet rule blocks its snippet and that the site is not excluded in Search Console's generative AI setting, the eligibility conditions Google lists.
Ibrahim Anjro · Day 2 · How does the index look like?
Treat nosnippet, data-nosnippet and max-snippet as AI visibility settings too: Google lists them as the controls for content in AI features, and if AI answers are built from index snippets, as Google said on stage, a blocked or shortened snippet leaves AI Overviews and AI Mode less to use.
Ibrahim Anjro · Day 2 · How does the index look like?
After changing a title or meta description, wait at least a few days before judging the result in Search; if nothing changes after several weeks, check that the page was recrawled, since snippets and titles are only re-extracted from a reprocessed page.
Ibrahim Anjro · Day 3 · How long does it take to..?
Kit items about Snippets: their own words name it, or several of the claims they rest on do.
Do not add nosnippet or a short max-snippet unless you accept losing snippets and AI feature use
Rests on 6 claims, 4 of them naming Snippets; its own words name Snippets
Give every indexable page a unique, descriptive title element in the server HTML
Rests on 7 claims, 3 of them naming Snippets; its own words name Snippets
Allow full snippets and large previews with max-snippet:-1 and max-image-preview:large
Rests on 8 claims, 3 of them naming Snippets; its own words name Snippets
Use data-nosnippet on a span, div or section to keep one detail out of snippets
Rests on 6 claims, 3 of them naming Snippets; its own words name Snippets
Keep pages indexable and snippet-eligible, the whole technical requirement for AI features
Rests on 5 claims, 2 of them naming Snippets; its own words name Snippets
Plan releases and fixes around Google's processing times, and judge results only after them
Rests on 11 claims, 1 of them naming Snippets; its own words name Snippets
Make rendering robust: no slow API dependencies and no unresolved placeholders
Rests on 8 claims, 0 of them naming Snippets; its own words name Snippets
Also inglossary terms nosnippet and data-nosnippet, AI Overviews, max-snippet
John Mueller said Google uses the snippet as a way of building AI Overviews and AI Mode answers, so if a page forbids a snippet, Google cannot use that snippet for them.
AI Overviews and AI Mode use the same index structures and token-based snippets as classic web results, a point Google called important but not obvious.
Google said that when AI Overviews or AI Mode run a query fan-out, the generated queries are sent to Google's Search index and documents come back with their snippets, which then feed the AI-generated answer (part of this passage is unclear in the recording).
John Mueller said Google uses the snippet as a way of building AI Overviews and AI Mode answers, so if a page forbids a snippet, Google cannot use that snippet for them.
AI Overviews and AI Mode use the same index structures and token-based snippets as classic web results, a point Google called important but not obvious.
Google said that when AI Overviews or AI Mode run a query fan-out, the generated queries are sent to Google's Search index and documents come back with their snippets, which then feed the AI-generated answer (part of this passage is unclear in the recording).
John Mueller said data-nosnippet is rarely needed but lets a site keep a specific piece of text, such as a business phone number, out of the snippet, so the page can still be found for it while searchers have to visit the page to see it.
Broken HTML can widen data-nosnippet: if a div marked data-nosnippet is not closed properly, the rest of the page can be blocked from the snippet as well.
The max-snippet:[number] rule limits a page's search result snippet to that number of characters (100 characters, for example), and max-snippet:0 shows no snippet, the same as nosnippet.
A max-snippet value too short for a useful snippet may lead Google to show no snippet at all, John Mueller said.
Google's robots meta tag specification says Google chooses the snippet length when no max-snippet rule is set, and with max-snippet:-1 chooses the length it believes most effective; it does not say that -1 produces longer snippets.
The nosnippet rule stops Google from showing a text snippet or video preview for a page in search results, while the page's title is still shown.
Things named in the same claim, with the number of claims they share.