Before we learn how to get featured snippets on Google? Let’s discuss what are featured snippets and how they works?
What is a featured snippet?
The short snippets of text that appear on the top of the Google search engine result page to answer a specific query of Google search engine users are known as featured snippets.
The text of featured snippets is fetched from web-pages of Google index automatically.
Most commonly lists, steps, definitions, and tables are included in the featured snippets.
Now we will see how to get featured snippets?
Why Are Featured Snippets Important for SEO?
SEO is impacted by the featured snippets in two ways.
First, the featured snippet is a good opportunity to get more clicks through organic search results without getting higher rankings in Google search engines.
Featured snippets are also referred to as zero position from some SEO experts as it appears above the first position of search engine results.
It has been observed that almost 8% of all clicks are got by the featured snippets.
It means that you can increase your CTR to a great extent by ranking your blog post in featured snippets.
Due to featured snippets, zero-click searches are also increased.
You can also take zero-click searches when no one clicks on any Google search results. The reason is that most of the time featured snippets give answers to users which they are looking for.
So, it is important for you to see whether the search results have featured snippets before you select a specific keyword.
According to research by Ahrens without featured snippets, you will only get fewer clicks.
It does not mean that you should blow away a keyword if it does not have a featured snippet.
According to the research of SEMrush about 11.84% of queries or search terms have a featured snippet.
It shows that it is not easy to avoid keywords with featured snippets completely.
Moreover, it also means that you should also consider the factor of featured snippets along with search volume and competition while choosing a keyword.
What are the Types of Featured Snippets?
There are four types of featured snippets which appear in the Google search engine results.
- Definition Box: The box definition featured snippets is a text snippet that is designed to give a Google search a concise definition or description.
As an example, if you will search for “rich snippets” you will see a definition box of featured snippets at the top of the search results.
Google mostly uses definition boxes to answer queries starting with “what is”.
An example is given here: As we know the definitions used by Google search engines are mostly very short and sweet.
It has been researched by SEMrush that the length of the featured snippet definition is between 40 to 60 words long.
- Table Featured Snippet: In this type of featured snippet Google search engine fetch data from a web page and displays it in the form of a table.
You can see the example of the table featured snippets by searching a query like mattresses sizes.
- Ordered List Featured Snippet: The featured snippet in which items are presented in the form of a list is an ordered list featured snippet.
The ordered list featured snippets tend to be used by Google for queries that require a set of steps.
Ordered lists are also used by Google for lists in which things rank in a specific order. See the example of the ordered list featured snippets is “SEO tips to improve organic rankings”.
- Unordered List Featured Snippets: The unordered list of featured snippets is used by the Google search engine to present a list of items that don’t need a specific order.
As the list of keyword research tools is not in order of best to worst. That is only a list.
How to optimize for Featured Snippets?
- Find SERPs With a Featured Snippet
- Optimize For That Specific Featured Snippet
- The Table Featured Snippet
- The Ordered List
Find SERPs With a Featured Snippet:
Initially, you need to analyze a search result page of the Google search engine which has a featured snippet.
In this way, you will know that Google wants to display a featured snippet for that particular search term.
As it is already doing.
You can also analyze which type of featured snippet Google wants to display opposite to a particular search term.
This thing will make it easy for you to get featured snippets.
As an example when you search a query “best glass water bottles” then Google will display an unordered list featured snippet in search results.
You can look for search engine results pages with featured snippets in two ways.
In the first step, search a number of keywords one by one.
If you already have a list of keywords you want to target then you can search each one and note whether or not the results have a featured snippet for that particular term.
On the other hand, you can also use keyword tools such as Ahrefs or SEMrush to find the keywords with featured snippets.
As an example when you run a report of organic keywords on Backlinko by using the Ahrefs tool, you can filter out keywords that don’t already have a featured snippet.
Optimize For That Specific Featured Snippet:
The next step is optimizing your on-page content so that Google search engines fetch your content and display it in featured snippets.
Now we will see how you can optimize your website content to rank the four types of featured snippets.
For this, you have to provide a short text snippet of 40 to 60 words which they can use directly in the featured snippet.
If you will have the “What is” term above definition it will also be helpful for the Google search engine.
A website like HubSpot moves a step further as they design its content in little boxes which look like featured snippet.
You don’t need to go so far from our point of view.
But its main purpose is to show you that formatting also plays an important role for featured snippets.
The more your content looks like a featured snippet there are more chances of ranking your content in featured snippets.
The other thing you need to make sure that definition should be objective.
This means you don’t need to add an opinion on any of your website topics.
You must remember that the Google search engine does not want definitions to rank higher in the search results.
So, even if you have strong feelings or emotions about a particular topic you should put your emotions aside and write the best definition.
It is better to write a definition like an entry in a dictionary.
The Table Featured Snippet:
It has been analyzed that for table featured-snippets Google search engine fetches content from the tables.
In the other words, you can also say that the Google search engine does not collect data from the different parts of your web page and present it in the form of a table rather they scrape data that already exists in the form of a table.
Presenting most of your web page data in the form of tables is also one of the ways to optimize for the feature snippets.
In the end, it depends on your website code and how you set up your site for table featured-snippet optimization.
Generally, as long as your website HTML code contains a <tr> tag to present your web page data in a table it will be easy for Google to read your table content.
The Ordered List:
Here the main point is designing your page so that lists of items or steps are presented in a way that is easy for Google to read and understand.
You can list each item and step in the text of H2 and H3. You can present each of your items as a subheader.
Furthermore, to make your item’s order list steps clear to the Google search engine you can also include text like “1” or “Step #1” in every subheading.
Let’s take an example. You need to remember that consistency is one of the most important things.
You should present your steps in this way
#1, # 2, # 3, and so on.
OR like:
1.,2.,3, and so on.
But the most preferable is “Step 1” then “1”. Because it becomes easier for the users to follow. However, Google can understand both of them easily.
How to Rank for Featured Snippets in Google?
- Optimizing Page For Several Different Long Tail Terms
- Use Google to Find snippet opportunities
- Get Content Ideas on Answer the Public
- Doing Keyword Research
- Answering Multiple Questions
- Stay with the Optimal Word Count
- Using Headers
- Add a Section of “how-to” to Your Website
Optimizing Page For Several Different Long Tail Terms:
According to research made by Ahref, most of the featured snippets are shown up in the search results when people search for a long-tail keyword.
The queries used by people for voice searches are the best examples of this type of keyword or search term.
Use Google to Find snippet opportunities:
Thinking like an audience is one of the best ways to find snippets according to which you can optimize your content for snippets.
Like what types of questions people are asking and looking for their answers.
For a moment put yourself in the place of anyone who is a beginner in the marketing field and not knows about some common terms of marketing.
There are a number of acronyms and terms in marketing that are very difficult for a beginner to understand and that’s why most of the time they get confused.
Now perform a search like “What is CTA in marketing?” You will see a snippet in the form of a text box or paragraph when you will type this search term.
You may see a list of steps or series opposite to the search query.
If there is not any kind of list then you can also see the section “People also ask”.
These questions are related to the search query you just entered.
To see the snippets for each query you have to expand the phrase by clicking on the right arrow.
After that, you can see and read the full snippet related to each question.
It is also one of the quick ways to get content and competitors’ ideas in a single step.
Now with some effort and time, you can beat your competitors to rank your content in the featured snippets.
Moreover, you can also use websites like Answer the Public to identify the questions.
Get Content Ideas on Answer the Public:
As we know that by answering different questions you can rank your content in featured snippets which means you have to give answers in your content like what, when, where, why, who, and how.
For this purpose Answer, the Public is the perfect place to find out the questions which people are asking about a specific topic.
As an example, you are interested to know about apple pie.
You just need to type it in the search box and you will receive a great number of suggestions related to the topic and then you can answer these questions in your content.
You can also choose the angle which you want to take.
If you want to focus on the questions that start from the “what”.
From that particular group select a question and give its answer in your content.
That’s quite simple.
But you should remember one thing to make sure keywords are SEO-friendly it will be better to do keyword research.
Doing Keyword Research:
That’s the time to do some keyword research.
Maybe you are already doing it.
But your keyword research can also play an important role to get featured snippets.
Using one or more keyword research tools is also a good idea to rank in the featured snippet of Google search results.
Serpstat is one of the best tools which can help you to see which keywords can bring up featured snippets on search engine results.
You just need to enter a keyword, domain, or link and hover over the search results to see whether featured snippets come up for each keyword.
This is amazing to see which keywords or search terms your competitors are ranking in the featured snippets.
Moreover, if a particular keyword of your website is already ranking in the Google search engine result pages it will be great to know whether Google is bringing up featured snippets for that particular keyword or not.
If you see Google is bringing up featured snippets related to this keyword you can see which type of questions people are asking and according to this, you can also rank your keyword in featured snippets.
It will be better to answer more than one question in each of your website articles.
Answering Multiple Questions:
It has been researched that a keyword that is already ranked in the featured snippets of the Google search engine, it’s more likely to become featured for some related queries as well.
Because of this, you should structure your website content in such a way that you answer all the possible questions related to that particular keyword.
Instead of writing multiple articles, it is better to focus on one solid article which answers a lot of questions to get featured snippets.
Word count is also one of the important factors you need to consider.
Stay with the Optimal Word Count:
To feature your content in Google you need to keep your section concise.
You should try to make a section in your content rather than in the form of paragraphs, steps, or lists.
The normal length for a featured snippet is about 40 to 50 words according to the SEMrush tool.
This means that you should try to keep the length of each of your content sections between 40 to 50 words, it should not be shorter than 40 words or more than 50 words.
Using Headers:
One simple and quick way to format your content for featured snippets is by breaking up your content into sections.
To do this use the “Paragraph styles” section in your WordPress or on Google Docs.
With headers optimize your lists, steps, and paragraphs.
The most preferable header is h2. You can use h1, h2, h3, or h4, and make sure to organize your content subheadings with size.
As an example, the subheading under the h3 should be h4 not h2.
If you include Rule 1, Rule 2” or Step 1, Step 2 to each heading phrase, the Google search engine will place them in chronological order.
That’s why it will be beneficial to format your article in chronological order as Google will more like to feature it.
Add a Section of “how-to” to Your Website:
As we all know, featured snippets are a great way to get maximum traffic and new leads.
It is a smart idea to redesign your website in a way that allows you to optimize for “How to” content.
Some websites are creating complete sections on their sites to answer some specific questions of their readers.
This gives all of your website content that is devoted to answering questions.
But if you are not interested in making a “how-to” section then a Q&A area will be a good idea.
You can include frequently asked questions by people about your products or services.
Images or videos can also increase the chances of ranking your website content in featured snippets.
How to Get a Featured Snippet on Google?
Add Quality Images and Videos:
Videos and images are considered important ranking factors because most people like to learn visually.
It is not so difficult to add images in each step of your article.
Canva is a great tool to create your own images which you can use.
Either you can pick a free stock photo or upload your own images.
After that, you can select free icons, shapes, and other images.
Other than images you should also remember about video as it is really good for engagement.
Almost 65% of the people like to watch three-quarters of a video and 59% of the people believe that people like to watch a video combined with text.
The simple way to do it is to create a voice transcript for each of your videos.
Due to this Google will recognize the text and maybe rank it for featured snippets.
But your video content quality should be excellent. Try to add transcripts for each of your videos.
This will help you to combine your video efforts with keyword research plans and SEO to optimize videos for featured snippets.
It could be tough to maintain your position in the Google search engine.
But it seems that featured snippets are not going anywhere.
Instead, they will rise. This means that featured snippets pages are the most dominating search queries.
They are more than just plain link they are the first thing that comes up in the search engine result pages.
Featured snippet means the rank of zero position and it is the highest-ranking position that is possible without advertising.
Ranking for featured snippets is the best answer if you want to increase your site visitors, beat your competitors or want to boost conversions.
As you know completely about the featured snippets now so there should not be any excuse not to try and rank for featured snippets.
You should start by searching about which keywords or search queries your competitors are ranking for featured snippets with keyword tools like SEMrush.
Google can also help you to find some featured snippet opportunities.
You can use Answer The Public to get some great content ideas and try to answer as many questions as possible in each of your articles.
How do you make a snippet in 2022?
For each question keep your word count a brief maximum of 50 words.
Break up your article into lists and steps by using headers.
Must remember to add a Q&A or “how to” area to your website.
Add a good amount of images and videos to the possible extent.
Create voice transcripts for your videos because it will help Google to recognize the text and consider your videos for snippets.
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