How to Rank On Google Featured Snippets
Featured snippets allow you to claim a spot on the first results page of Google, even if your competitors still occupy position #1. Featured snippets take the potential traffic away from competitors, who are occupying different positions in the organic results. They also positively affect your business – by appearing as content at the top of the page, your brand name is more likely to come up when someone searches for your services. Featured snippets are also sometimes referred to as rank zero. This blog explains some strategies that you can employ to rank on Google featured snippets.
Google knows that people want answers quickly. The featured snippet was introduced in 2014 as a way to improve search results and provide quick, accurate information. It is an answer box from a top-ranking web page – the answer you’ll want when you are searching for information on Google. Google featured snippets may appear usually in the form of a paragraph, bulleted/numbered list, table, or video. Instead of directing users to click through to another page, Google displays information relevant to the query right on top of the search results for users to see at a glance.
Here’s what the featured snippet for “how to develop a photographic memory” looks like:
According to a study by Ahrefs, about 30% of the clicks from the #1 ranking pages can be diverted to featured snippets leading to traffic diversion as well.
Often featured snippets show up at the top of search results as a snippet of text and are often displayed in the four most common forms such as photographs, bulleted or numbered lists, tables, or videos.
How You Can Optimize For Google Featured Snippets
There is no rule of thumb for ranking for the featured snippet. However, long tail keywords and questions are said to trigger featured snippets in their SERPs. By optimizing your pages around these long-tail keywords and questions, the search engine can use them as potential answers. Besides, using the dynamic serving tags on your pages can improve the likelihood of their snippets being displayed on the first page of Google search results.
Here’re a few tips that we think can help you in ranking for Google featured snippets:
a) Focus on Using & Optimizing the Long-Tail Keywords in your Pieces of Content
To get featured snippets, you don’t necessarily need to target the most competitive keywords for your content. Optimizing your pages around these long-tail keywords and questions, the search engine can use them as potential answers and display them as featured snippets for those queries.
Optimizing your pages around these long-tail keywords and questions, the search engine can use them as potential answers and display them as featured snippets for those queries.
Unfortunately, Google does not provide any official tool for webmasters to check which keywords are actually triggering featured snippets in the SERPs. To make featured-snippet-oriented keyword research, you need to use a tool like KWFinder or you can simply search the related questions to those long-tail keywords in the Google search console.
b) Your Organic Ranking Matters
Getting featured in the snippets is not an easy task, but there’s one thing you can do to increase your chances: Make sure your website ranks well for particular queries. Getting featured snippets is more about content and performance. You need to make sure that your content is the best on the topic and does not contain mistakes.
Google displays featured snippets in the search results whenever a searcher asks a question that can be immediately answered with a direct quotation from an authoritative website. This is done to ensure that nothing less than the best content will be displayed. The fact that featured snippets are focused on the top-ranking pages means that your organic ranking has more influence on what users see in them, compared to ads or other types of paid results.
Since Google uses only high-quality and trustworthy content on top 10 ranking pages to provide the best answers for their users. So it’s most likely that if your site is placed on the first page of some search results, it will also be featured by Google as an answer. If your goal is getting featured in the snippets, the general rule is that you’ve got to be on the first page of organic search results.
c) Talk About the Most Important Information First
The inverted pyramid style is used for news stories to answer the most important question first. This is a popular sequence structure, used in many fields of literacy. It also works well for featured snippets as it helps you answer the most important question first (and therefore get ranked) by utilizing supporting details afterward.
The most important question any business can answer is “why.” Start with answering it, and then proceed with the supporting details for the rest of your content: product features and benefits, case studies and testimonials, videos, facts, and statistics – all there to help people find a solution to their problems and make a purchase.
d) Format Your Content Correctly
Google likes to display content that is structured in the most user-friendly way possible. This means that you need to format your answer to be similar to a listicle or a table, depending on what kind of featured snippet you are trying to optimize your content for. In addition, you mustn’t set keywords in H2 tags – Google will look down upon them and see them as spammy.
Structuring your content well is a crucial step for featured snippet optimization. Create a table if the particular query displays a table featured snippet, and make sure your content is in the form of a list with items or structured headings if it shows a listicle.
Also, using the proper HTML tags becomes crucial. The best way to optimize your content for featured snippets is by using HTML tags that are closely related to the content you’re providing. Google will use these tags to understand your content structure, allowing it to find hidden patterns in it, and use them for a detailed description of each result. By using these tags correctly you are telling Google that your content provides a one-of-a-kind experience for those who want more information on your subject.
e) Use the Words That Evoke Stronger Emotions
Words that stress queries or evoke stronger emotions create better chances of getting your content on the featured snippets. Research by getstat.com established that words such as “often,” “cause,” “becoming,” “difficulties,” etc. when inculcated in the potential user search queries create higher chances for your content to rank on the featured snippets.
The use of these words in a content snippet is intended to signal to Google that the information in the writing is more relevant to users. In some cases, this also indicates that the writer has a more advanced understanding of the subject matter.
f) Remember that There’s No Ideal Word Count to Appear As Featured Snippets
Google doesn’t provide an exact minimum length for featured snippets, and neither should you. Create high-quality, valuable content that is relevant to your audience.
You’ve probably heard that the ideal length for featured snippets should be around 40-50 words, but that’s not always true. Google doesn’t provide an exact minimum length required to appear as a featured snippet, because the size of the snippet you see is determined by a number of factors including – but not limited to –the information in the snippet, the language, and platform.
Wrap Up
Featured snippets are snippets that show up in search engine results when a user types something into the search engine. The snippet consists of a title and a summary to explain what your website has to offer, along with internal linking if you have linked to other parts of your site within this article. Your pages will take on one of three possible featured snippets, depending on how well you optimize them for users’ queries and how much information it contains.
Google featured snippets are basically schema search result codes that Google displays on top of your main listing in the form of visual elements along with the title, description, and URL. The most common form is a box on the right-hand side of the page displaying information directly from your content. Featured snippets give you a chance to show off your writing skills, but more importantly, it gives you better visibility as it’s a featured element on top of Google’s search results – and therefore easier for people to notice and read.
Getting featured on your featured snippet can be beneficial for your content strategy and SEO. Google credits the featured snippet to give users the most useful information regarding their search queries. If you can get a premium position in this search, it would be easier for visitors to find you aside from ads. With the help of these snippets, you get more traffic and these also help you boost your social engagement with the search engine.
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