Today, Google published an article about how search results are improved when quotes are used in a search term. Initially, using quotation marks allowed you to search for a specific word or phrase, and the results filtered out all other options (for example, “caesar salad” would not return results for Julius Caesar). The latest updates from Google improve the snippets displayed when search results are displayed.

These snippets usually show a preview of the page they are linking to, but previously only the selected part of the page. If quotes are used in a search, the snippet will now show where that word or phrase is on the page, as shown in the image below.

According to Google, this was not because before: “quoted material appears in parts of the document that do not allow the creation of useful parts”. However, feedback from people using these searches showed that the quoted phrase was liked and found helpful to appear in the snippet.

One caveat that Google has pointed out is that citation search doesn’t work for local results where listings will appear next to a map, and it’s something the company will address in the future.