A featured snippet on Google is one of the latest trends in search engine optimization. It gives your page the opportunity to attract a whole bunch of new visitors. The featured snippet has the power to improve your digital credibility and provide you with a higher rank in your niche searches.
However, it is not easy to come up with the right kind of featured snippet unless you prepare well for its execution. In this article, we will explain the logic behind this SEO feature and give you the most productive tips about how to create one.
Keep reading and you will get a precise definition of this term and the ultimate guideline for the featured snippet content optimization.
The Definition Of A Snippet
Featured snippets are data-rich summaries of website content generated by Google in any given search result. The task of a successful snippet is to keep users informed about the web page content before they even visit it.
Of course, it doesn’t mean that Google snippets are supposed to prevent users from visiting a website: on the contrary, its aim is to encourage people to learn more about your web presence. According to the recent study, almost 30% of Google queries today show featured snippets.
What you should be aware of is that featured snippets and their creation keep evolving. That’s why you need to stay up to date and follow the latest principles of SEO if you want to go one step ahead of your competitors.
Some analysis proved that conversion rates increased from 2% to 8% soon after the initiation of featured snippets, meaning that this type of optimization is highly desirable for brands and companies. Although it is sometimes difficult to estimate their efficiency prior to the execution, you should definitely give them a try.
Featured Snippets Classification
Featured snippets come in various models and forms. Each one of these has its own qualities and peculiarities, so let’s check them out here:
Paragraph
A vast majority of Google snippets are shown in the paragraph format. It gives you the basic explanation of the website content, with the additional possibility to bold and emphasize a few keywords or main phrases in the text. It’s a simple and data-rich paragraph after which the user is not left with any doubts about the information she or he might find there.
Lists
The Internet is all about listicles, bulletins, and numbers. That’s why we also have the list Google snippets. They help people skim through snippets faster, increasing the overall transparency of the text. List snippets are great for articles which explain how to do something. For instance, they are very useful when it comes to the do-it-yourself type of articles, or if you create a lot of “How To” content. Below, you can find a list snippet we’ve received on one of the blog posts we did on EduGeeksClub.com writing service.
Table
Some information is best presented in a table form, which is why Google also generates a lot of table snippets. If you think that your content is appropriate for this kind of presentation in Google search, keep in mind to use the <table> tag on your site. Such featured snippets are attractive and catchy. They enable you to grab more attention and improve the web page traffic.
Best Ways To Earn A Google Featured Snippet
There are a lot of small steps that you should take in order to earn a featured snippet on Google. However, the following six tips will do just fine for your website in the beginning. Let’s take a closer look.
1. Explore Your Niche
You shouldn’t start any business without a decent preparation. This is by no means different when it comes to SEO, so make sure to explore your niche deeply. Look for the frequently asked questions on Google and find out the basic inquiries from the industry.
Check out the most popular online communities and visit the pages such as Question or Quora. At the same time, you will find many valuable questions in your business emails and web page inquiries.
2. Analyze Keywords
SEO is based on keywords and your biggest chance to achieve a featured snippet is to find the most relevant keywords and industry-related phrases. Luckily enough, there are a few simple ways how to do this.
First of all, you can use free online tools like the KWFinder or the Google Keyword Planner. With these business intelligence tools, you can examine the most popular terms and phrases that could help you get a featured snippet. Additionally, phrases with 5+ words have a higher chance to be set as featured snippets because they allow search engines to display a more precise search result.
Make sure to find queries which actually constitute a question. Use the common journalistic rule called 5W1H (who, where, when, what, why + how) to dig deeper into the topic of interest. But if you aim at the paragraph type of snippet, you should search for the broader and more general questions as well.
Don’t forget to examine the Google search part with “people also ask” questions. It’s a valuable indication of the most popular search inquiries, which can give you additional input while trying to obtain a featured snippet.
If you want to make sure that your featured snippet keywords and inquiries are really the best ones, you can also use Google Trends to discover the hottest questions in the last few days or weeks.
3. Keep It Straight
If you want to make sure that the audience will find you, then answer the questions directly. Keep it straight, precise, and remove potential doubts from your sentences. The more precise you get, the more website traffic you receive.
Try to make your featured snippets short but data-rich and full of useful information. Add the most important keywords and you’ll get the perfect Google snippet. But if you realize that your snippet could end up being too long and confusing, react promptly and change the content so as to match the SEO preferences.
4. Outdo Competitors
You want to get the featured snippet but your competitors want the same thing, too. That’s why you need to work harder to get your foot in the door and earn the opportunity to see your own Google snippet online.
Everyone will probably answer the most common questions, so your job is to look ahead and anticipate new inquiries from your target audience. If you do this, you will have the best chance to earn a snippet and skyrocket website traffic.
5. Use HTML To Format Content
The success of your featured snippet efforts depends largely on the website formatting. You need to use the appropriate header tags like <h1> and <h2>, while answers should not be more than 55 words long. Additionally, accept the model with clearly separated (Step 1, Step 2, etc.) paragraphs and avoid unnecessary words anywhere in the content.
6. Answers Come First
Clearly separate answers from other content on your web page. That way, you will allow users to find information much easier. Additionally, you will enable Google to detect it and potentially create a featured snippet for you.
Conclusion
Most of the businesses have online presentations and they use them to advertise their products and services. However, they also use websites to answer some frequently asked questions and satisfy the curiosity of potential customers. That’s exactly why you would want to receive a Google snippet.
Following our SEO instructions, you will be on the right path towards achieving the featured snippet. Make sure to analyze our suggestions carefully and feel free to let us know in comments if you need additional explanations about this topic.