Optimizing your content for SEO or, in simple words, writing your content in a way that drives more traffic is a difficult task.
Google offers so many different ways of getting your content to rank higher. All you need to do is grasp those opportunities. And one such opportunity is Featured Snippets.
So here’s a quick guide to teaching you about Featured Snippets in Google.
It is quite the battle to rank higher on a SERP(Search Engine Result Page). Featured Snippets on a SERP are pieces of information you see before the search results on different websites.
There are various types of Featured Snippets which will also be discussed here. So, stay put and let’s dive in!
What are Featured Snippets?
A featured snippet is a short piece of information displayed at the top of a SERP that quickly answers the question asked in Google’s search query.
Often, a Featured Snippet is ranked Position 0 as it ranks at the top of other organic search results. Moreover, the content inside Featured Snippets is also taken from one of the websites of the SERP.
The battle is to get Google to choose your webpage for Featured Snippets. But the question is, why should you work for this Position #0?
This is because every time the user reads a Featured Snippets, they are more likely to click on that same site and hence more traffic.
What are the types of Featured Snippets?
Broadly classifying, there are 4 types of Featured Snippets that are most commonly seen in Google’s search results.
1. Paragraph texts and definitions
This type of snippet provides brief information regarding word definitions, descriptions, etc., on a topic. For example, if you type “What is economic development,” you will see a Featured Snippet from a blog describing the topic.
Such Featured Snippets most commonly appear for “what is” questions. According to a study by Semrush, Featured Snippets are generally 40-60 words long on an average.
2. Table Box
Another type of Featured Snippet is the table form. It can be information in a table regarding dimensions of objects, earnings of companies in a year, etc.
If what the user asks for is displayed in a table form on a top website, then Google pulls down that table into the Featured Snippet section.
3. Videos
Oftentimes, you must have observed Google recommends Youtube videos when you type something. Yes, these also count as Featured Snippets.
So, if your website has a YouTube video on its page, chances are your site gets ranked at Position #0 this way.
For instance, if you search “Java programming tutorials” or “how to braid hair,” you will see video links as Featured Snippets.
4. Ordered Lists
Just like the information in a table, if the content is written in an ordered manner step-wise such as various steps of baking a cake, then that also becomes a Featured Snippet.
Ordered lists are also used to rank things like movies in a particular order.
5. Unordered Lists
If Google wants to present some information point-wise but in no particular order, then unordered lists are used.
For example, “kinds of musical instruments,” “different brands of bags,” and more.
How do Featured Snippets Affect SEO?
- If Google chooses a Featured Snippet from your website, it is basically a shortcut to the top position of the SERP.
- A study by Ahrefs showed that Google chooses featured snippets from the top 10 ranked pages.
- In some cases, featured snippets also reduce the number of clicks if the user is satisfied with the information displayed.
- That’s why avoid targeting keywords with less number of Clicks Per Search(CPS).
- In 2020, Google introduced featured snippet deduplication which meant that the site owning the featured snippet would not again be displayed on the first page of the SERP.
- A study by Cyrus Shepard showed that this led to a 12% loss in traffic.
- You can thus choose to opt out of featured snippets. It is not recommended by us because you may also lose your position in the top search results.
7 Amazing Tips to get featured Snippets
Here is a set of tips that would help you to optimize for featured snippets.
1. Search for pages with Featured Snippets
As you must know how important keyword research is, similarly, you can utilize featured snippets for specific queries.
Just type queries or questions in the search bar and look for which of these queries featured snippets appear.
Type in keywords related to your website’s blogs or a future blog you’re planning to write.
However, manually writing keywords is a lengthy and time-consuming task.
Hence, you can opt for this keyword overview tool by Semrush. This tool will show you which keywords have featured snippets, which keywords are less preferred, and which have more features.
By looking at keywords with featured snippets, you can now understand how you should write your content accordingly.
2. Make your content concise, clear and fact-based
When you’re content is clear, objective, and fact-based, then you have more chances of getting featured snippets.
Good snippets provide the exact information about a topic that a user is looking for.
A featured snippet should be such that it makes the reader click on that page to read more.
DO NOT use big words or complicated sentences to make your point.
3. Adhere To The Word Limit
Most snippets are only 40-60 words long, with the sweet spot lying at 50 words(mostly).
So try not to write long paragraphs about a specific sub topic in your blogs.
4. Create “How-To” tutorials or FAQs Section
Snippets are commonly found for users asking “how to” queries.
Hence, you have a much greater chance if you include such tutorial sections in your blogs.
You can observe some sites completely dedicating one section of their page to answering users’ queries.
5. Add Images and Videos
Since there are different types of snippets, you can use different forms of content like tables, ordered lists, unordered lists as well as videos to get snippets.
You can easily add images from Canva.
It can also be utilized for constructing videos in a simple way.
6. Include Effective Headers
Including headings and subheadings not only enhances your content, but also makes it more appealing to readers.
The heading and subheadings should be added in a very systematic, simple, and easy to read manner.
Use bullet points, numbered lists, tables and more such features to make it more attractive.
You can also check out the SEO Content Template by Semrush to know which headers to include for which keywords.
7. Use Answer The Public
If you’re stuck on what to write content about, you can go to Answer The Public.
On this site, you can type any topic of choice, and the site displays what kind of questions the public wants to be answered.
You will find many questions starting with what, how, where, which, when, who, why, where, etc.
Take ideas from these questions and try to create a blog layout around these queries.
This way, you can write a blog if you’re running out of ideas.
Make sure to do keyword research beforehand on the words you’re searching.
Wrapping It Up
We know Google is a lot to keep up with. But featured snippets are a great feature by Google, which is here to stay.
Featured snippets aren’t just simple boxes of text; they actually determine a distinct position. Follow all the above steps to make your blog eligible enough for snippets.
And if you do end up getting a featured snippet, your blog traffic will increase many folds, organically.
Drive more traffic to your website as well as social media handles(through your site) simply by creating content in a specific manner.
Wishing you all the best!
Keep learning, investing, and growing.
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