Enhanced search snippets

Google has tuned up the SERPs again, this time with enhanced search snippets. Where a page warrants it (and I’ve only seen Wikipedia examples so far) a listing in the SERP can have relevant hyperlinks within it, that go straight to section in a page.

Here’s an example for a “Typhoon Cyclone” search:

Clicking “Mechanics” takes you direct to the section using the page’s # anchor tags:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_cyclone#Mechanics

The highlighted links are content section headings found in the main page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_cyclone) that appear to be determined by the Contents listing in that page. I say “appear to be determined” because the contents listing on that page begins…

1 Physical structure

1.1 Eye and center

1.2 Size

2 Mechanics

3 Major basins and related warning centers

…and the snippet ignores the “Physical structure” content heading. Maybe this is because that phrase is not peculiar to weather systems, but then why is “Mechanics” included?

For SEO purposes this is worth exploring, but needs the correct anchor tagging on a page. Because of the lack of non-Wikipedia examples I’m guessing that the page anchors referenced in the snippet need to be from a really high authority site. There’s a full commentary at the Google blog.