If you have a website, then you would naturally want to get ranked on the first page of Google. What if I tell you that a major SERP opportunity awaits you! It’s not just useful but very relevant feature rolled out by Google. It is known as – The Featured Snippets.
It’s a great feature. And just like all good things in life – the featured snippets must be earned. It helps to make your website stands out, making it more visible, and helping marketers promote the website better. Once you get a Google featured snippet, the increase in your website’s organic traffic will surely increase. Featured snippets are actually the information content that you see in Google’s SERP just after the sponsored posts and ads.
So What Is Google Featured Snippet?
Google featured snippet is the selected search result that you see on the top of Google’s organic results below the ads. The featured snippet is the answer to the question put across by the user. This brings an added brand exposure in a very brief and direct format.
You don’t have to click through various links because you have a SERP directly featured for the search query. The search query put in the Google’s search box takes you directly to the snippet taken from the webpage featuring it.
Amazingly, Google featured snippet doesn’t affect the organic reach or result which is an advantage. It’s always featured at zero position and has no effect on your search results. Featured snippets feature on the top of knowledge graph results but they slightly differ in the organic search listing. That’s the reason Google gives credit via a specific link in the search.
Types of Featured Snippets
1. Paragraph Featured Snippet answer questions like Why, How, Who and What in text form. You will see a text box on the image or the text box in the paragraph. It is one of the most popular feature snippets with a total share of 82%.
2. Numbered List Featured Snippet usually gives the results in steps or a process and is a common snippet coming in the search result. This snippet breaks the process down to numbered steps, making information very simple and understandable for readers.
3. Bulleted List Featured Snippet is not just SEO friendly but most content managers and digital marketers use it to get ranked on Google’s SERP for listed items. With listing on track, it becomes easier to know about the organic reach of the website.
4. Table Featured Snippet appears for specific information and makes up for 29% of the total of snippets in Google. The information depends on the formatted query or text in the search – featuring lists, rates, data, and pricing. This snippet features more than four rows, always giving statistical data in a tabular form. All the lists, rates, data, and pricing are featured in the table-featured list.
5. YouTube Featured Snippet features a video, showing a specific clip from the video. This makes video optimization a must for video’s text, description, and tags to make a cut in organic search results.
6. Two-for-One Featured Snippet is text from one site and image from another which appear in Google’s SERP from time-to-time. The result depends on the exact text in the search query and can change with the query.
How Top Performing Featured Snippet Look?
- Top featured snippet is easy to scan or skim. Long form content that performs great is not just written in mobile friendly manner but it has on average 22 headers and subheaders.
- About 83% of featured snippet has secure (HTTPS) URLs according to SEMrush Sensor.
- The content should have an average Flesch-Kincaid reading level was 7th grade so writing crisp and simple is important.
- The featured snippet has on an average 12 images with ALT text. Great visuals in your overall content are the key.
- You content must be backed with proper citing – an average of 33 external link citations.
- Mobile experience can’t be ignored with average scores for Google Mobile-Friendliness being – 95/100 and that for Google Mobile-Usability – 95/100.
Tips for Making Your Content Snippable!
Keywords Are Important – Optimize your keyword research if you want to get featured in snippets. You can use a tool to get featured on the list. You can also check the rank of the keyword and then optimize it for the snippet. Get your keywords ranked accordingly to your search query. Always focus on long tail keywords and common questions.
Use Google For Snippets – If you know about your potential audience, then it will become easier for you. Each question related to search has a snippet. If you ask in the text form, the answer is in a paragraph. You can read the question by following individual snippet. You can use Google’s ‘People also ask’ section to know about different snippets that are popular.
Use SEMrush Tool – It’s the best analytical tool for featured snippets. You can easily find snippets that your competitors earned and the ones that are already ranking. You can know more about this through organic research and advanced filter option. You can then optimize your keywords for content.
Use The Right Image Size – The most common format for the image is a 4.3 aspect ratio and this is the ratio that is normally featured in Google snippets. Focus on the right size to earn and optimize featured snippets.
Place Snippable Content On Top – You must always place the ‘snippable’ content on the top to get featured. If the content is featured somewhere in between, then the user may simply click off the page before reading the relevant content. Snipped content that features on top ranks better.
Hit The Optimal Word Count – Keep the content you are aiming to get featured as snippet very crisp and to the point. Segment lists, paragraphs, and steps into separate sections rather than clubbing them together. And yes word limit of each section matters. Try keeping the content to about 50 words and no less than 40 words. Headers for each section help in breaking the content more visually.
And For Conclusion…
Google featured snippets play an important role in a search query and will continue to evolve with different search options. The future of ‘Featured Snippets’ eyed by Google is for mobile and voice searches.
The size of website doesn’t matter because it is the value of your content. So you must pay close attention to not just optimizing but building an ‘architectured’ content that is cross-checked for all dos-and-don’ts of featured snippet.
Yes, it’s an opportunity worth working for but proper tools and optimization must be used. This is why I have shared some deep insights and tricks that can help you earn a featured snippet. Follow this guide and make the most!
