People turn to the internet for answers to all kinds of problems and questions. They might want to know “what year was Queen Elizabeth born,” “how do I fix a leaky sink,” or “what is SEO”? For the most part, people want short and descriptive answers.
To effectively provide people with the information they need, Google offers featured snippets to help filter content. These short answers are what people most commonly look at and trust. On mobile, featured snippets are what get read as the answer to a question, and as voice search is growing in popularity, featured snippets are becoming increasingly valuable.
What are Featured Snippets?
Google results are no longer being displayed as just plain links, especially in the top results. The first search result returned when you type a search query is a featured snippet. Here is an example:
A featured snippet is an answer that is provided instantly to a search query by a user. Featured snippets are short and informative answers that the Google search engine thinks is most accurate and from a high-ranking page. It is usually in a box feature just above organic result. It is also referred to as Rank 0 or Answer box in other instances.
Featured snippets give a summary of a search response and make it much easier for people to get a sense of what the page is before visiting it.
Google continually changes its features, and it is essential to know how and when they change so that you can effectively take advantage of the features.
There are different kinds of featured snippets, depending on the user’s search query. They include:
Text snippets – These snippets appear with just text at the top of the search results. There are instances where the text snippets appear with an image or picture beside them. They are also referred to as paragraph snippets and are the most common.
List Snippets – Usually presented in search results as a list or points of items to answer the user’s search query.
Table snippets – These snippets present search results in a tabular form.
Video Snippets – Video snippets are usually a section of a video that answers the user’s search. These results tend to come if Google feels that a video can give the best answer.
How Featured Snippets Improve SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process by which a site or content owner can be able to increase and maximize the number of visitors to their site. Having search engine optimized pages, helps your content appear as the first or among the top search results to a particular search query.
Featured snippets improve SEO in several ways:
Maximized authority of your page – When you have a featured snippet, it means that Google has chosen your content with regards to that specific search query. It indicates that you have the best answer that a user needs for their query.
Helps beat competition – You beat competition whenever your content is chosen as a snippet. It means that your site is being ranked first among others that may be providing the same information.
Increase traffic to your content – Appearing in the snippets helps increase the number of visitors to your site. Increased traffic helps you retain the top spot in page ranking.
Featured Snippets and Voice Search on Google
Voice search and featured snippets function together through integration. When a user poses a search query, the answer’s retrieval is through a featured snippet. The featured snippet should, therefore, be optimized for voice search. In this way, features snippets are the key to improving your mobile search results.
If you ask Siri or Alexa, “How old is Obama?” She will read you a response forma web page and show you that page. The part of the page she shows is a featured snippet.
Top Tips for Getting a Featured Snippet
Although there is no guaranteed way of getting a featured snippet because Google automatically does the selection, you can increase your chances with the tips listed below.
Incorporate subheadings, tables and lists. – This practice helps Google discover your content, especially for searches that need listed or tabular results. When it is easy for Google to access your content, it is much easier to get a featured snippet.
Analyze and search keywords – You need to know and use the keywords for specific searches on your content. Try testing with a tool to check whether a given search query will assist you in getting featured results.
Answering multiple questions – One easy way of getting a featured snippet is ensuring that you provide several answers to questions that revolve around a given search query. Having various related matters in the same place increases your chances of getting a featured snippet.
Research and uncover snippet opportunities – Featured snippets work based on the search queries of the users. It is therefore essential for you to think like the users, and understand the nature and kind of information they need concerning your content. What are the questions they are asking and what answers do they need? Once you have this, optimize your content to reflect the need.
Takeaways
The current search trends, voice search, highlight featured snippets. Featured snippets increase traffic immensely, especially on mobile, and show the credibility of your website. When writing content keep featured snippets in mind. Try to write a direct answer to a question your audience might be asking.
Author
Colibri Digital Marketing a B Corp-certified digital marketing agency based in San Francisco. Schedule a meeting with us and get your free digital marketing strategy session here!
