Google has increased the number of Featured Snippets it shows to searchers for their queries.
As a result, organic pages are pushed down the SERP.
In this article we will learn:
- What featured snippets are
- Different types of featured snippets
- Why featured snippets are important
- How to get featured snippets
So, let’s dive right in.
What’s a Featured Snippet?
Featured Snippets are snapshots answering searchers questions.
Featured Snippets are displayed in the SERP, so the searcher doesn’t have to click on the actual web page.
Google gives searchers a better user experience by displaying these snippets:
- Above organic SERP results
- Below ads
Featured snippet types
- Paragraph
- List
- Table
- Video
- Accordion
- Rich Answer
- Tool or Calculator
Paragraph
This type of Featured Snippet answers searcher’s queries in a paragraph format.
The most common snippet, counting for 50% of all Featured Snippets.
List
This type of Featured Snippet answers searchers queries as:
- Bullet points
- Numbered list
Usually answering queries that are:
- Process driven
- Step-by-step
- Lists
The next most common snippet, counting for 37% of all Featured Snippets.
Table
This type of Featured Snippet answers searchers queries that involve:
- Data
- Information in a table format
Video
This type of Featured Snippet answers searchers queries as embedded videos on the results page.
Video featured snippets are presented in a visual/auditory format.
Accordion
This type of Featured Snippet answers searchers queries with additional information that can be expanded to reveal more on the subject.
Rich Answer
This type of Featured Snippet answers searchers queries as short call-outs in bold with additional information.
This featured snippet is presented for answers that are:
- Factual
- Metric-based
- Dictionary definitions
Tool or Calculator
This type of Featured Snippet answers searchers queries with interactive tools for answers that are user-specific.
These tools appear for queries that are:
- High-level
- Concrete
A few examples of tools that Google shows for these queries are:
- Calculators
- Conversions
- Time zones
- Weather
- Game scores
Why are Featured Snippets Important?
Featured Snippets have increased the click-through rate (CTR) of results ranking in it.
For example, ranking your content page first on Google, below the featured snippet, for a keyword with 10,000 search volume.
Your content page would get 1,700 visits, but the Featured Snippet spot would get 3,700 visits.
Basically, you get more clicks for your content when it appears in the Featured Snippet.
And Featured Snippet clicks increase as the search volume for a query increases.
How to get a Featured Snippet
- Answer question-based queries
- Using schema isn’t necessary
- Organise web pages with headings and paragraph tags
- Use definitions for non question-based keywords
- Create steps for solving problems or answering questions
- Keep content between 54-58 words
- Target international audiences
- Backlinks aren’t so important for Featured Snippets
Get your content to appear in the Featured Snippets with the following:
Answer question-based queries
Out of 850,000 question-based queries, only 19% have a Featured Snippet.
Using schema isn’t necessary
The majority of websites ranking in the Featured Snippet don’t use Schema.org markup data.
Even Gary Illyes, a Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, said structured data doesn’t help your content rank in the Featured Snippet.
Organise your web pages with headings and paragraph tags
It’s important to have a clear page structure and content relevant to keywords.
Target search queries should appear in your headers, as h2, h3, h4, etc.
And place your content in <p> tag below the header to appear in the Featured Snippet.
Use definitions for non question-based keywords
Google takes paragraph snapshots for non question-based keywords to display in the Featured Snippet.
So, it’s better to define the topic of the keyword in question.
For example, for the keyword “content marketing,” the definition would answer “what is content marketing.”
Create steps for solving a problem or answering the question
For question or problem queries, answer with a detailed step-by-step process.
Structure the steps in a list format or using h3 heading tags.
Keep content between 54-58 words
Paragraph-style answers between 54-58 words to perform the best.
Basically, Featured Snippet content with 54-58 words appears more frequently.
Target international audiences
Featured Snippets with the same query have different content from Google.com and Google.co.uk to Google.com.au and Google.ie.
Take advantage of this by targeting international audiences.
Backlinks aren’t so important for Featured Snippets
When your content ranks in the top 5 results of Google, backlinks and other authority signals are less important compared to ranking in the Featured Snippet.
Even relatively unknown websites with less SEO authority can be ranked above high authority websites by using page structure and other practices mentioned.
Conclusion
To increase your website content’s visibility with Featured Snippet box:
- Audit the keywords you currently rank for
- Count how many are question-based queries
Once you have this list:
- See where you’re currently ranking
- How your content is structured
- Then re optimise your content based on the advice in this article
Now it’s over to you.
Tell me your results from features snippets and how you got there.
Let me know in the comments below.
Pingback: Technical SEO - XXMG