Featured snippets are one of the most important functionalities of SERPs that help you rank high to generate traffic to your website without having to earn backlinks or update your content significantly.

Featured snippets are brief excerpts from a web page that appear as a special box displayed prominently at or near the top of the search results page (SERP) to quickly answer a user’s question. Being highlighted by featured snippets gives you a chance to get extra exposure for your brand in search results, beat out your competitors, boost conversions and drive traffic to your site.

In this article, we’ll take a look at what featured snippets are, why they’re effective in generating traffic, and how you can optimize your content to have more chances to get them.

What Are Featured Snippets?

Featured snippets are organic search results in a SERP, in the form of a block designed to quickly answer a user’s question with a small snippet from selected content. Featured snippets are displayed at the top of the search results pages of Google and other search engines, below the ads but above the first result of a user’s query, which is why it is also called position zero.

Featured snippets in addition to being placed above all other links in the search results, occupy the most space on a search results page.

Here is an example of what featured snippets look like:

The goal of featured snippets is to improve the user experience by giving users a recommended answer to their query and having that content appear directly in the SERP. Google automatically analyzes the query and selects the best snippet of content already ranked in the first position (but it can also extract them from less well ranked SERPs) and place it after the paid ads but before the ranked results which are better related to the user’s intention in order to quickly answer his query.

Thus search engines by featured snippets help users to find answers more easily, without having to browse a large number of websites in the SERPs. The featured snippets contain a link to the website where they come from and usually increase its traffic.

This makes ranking for a featured snippet much more useful and effective than ranking for number 1 in attracting visitors to your site.

Why Are Featured Snippets Important?

Featured snippets are important to you as a marketer because they attract the reader’s attention and increase the chances of visiting your website. Google results since the introduction of featured snippets in 2014 now contains much more than just links. Featured snippets are the first thing most people see when they search for a word or phrase, which has made them an important part of any search engine optimization strategy.

Here are some benefits that featured snippets can have for your website:

• They increase the visibility of your brand

Featured snippets appear above all other search results and are larger and more prominent than standard search results, giving your website great visibility. They are even more visible on mobile devices, where they are often the only thing users see at first.

• They increase the credibility of your brand

Having your content featured in a featured snippet makes your website more appealing and becomes a reliable source of information, in line with Google’s recommendations for a specific search query in your niche.

•  SEO

Featured snippets increase your share of voice in the SERPs, which is undoubtedly one of the most important SEO key performance indicators. In addition, not only you don’t have to pay extra advertising fees to rank, but you don’t have to be number one in your industry to earn a place in position zero.

• Optimization for voice search

Since Google reads featured snippets aloud in response to voice search queries, quoting your site name, featured snippets help build brand recognition through voice search. By 2020, 50% of searches will be performed using voice-activated personal assistants like Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana, and Siri.[1]

• Improve Click Through Rate (CTR):

Featured Snippets get more clicks in organic search results without getting a higher ranking in Google. In fact, according to Ahrefs, a featured snippet in the top position receives only 8.6% of clicks on average, while the page ranked just below it receives 19.6%.

Since featured snippets are designed to answer a user’s search query without the user having to click on a link, they don’t necessarily result in more clicks. Unless users are looking for more in-depth information, they can easily find what they are looking for by clicking on your featured link.

In January 2020, Google introduced the de-duplication of featured snippets. This means that it would no longer repeat the result on the first SERP if a web page result is already displayed in a featured snippet.  Previously, the page that had the featured snippet would also appear in the search results, somewhere on the first SERP.

So if your page would be ranked first without the featured snippet, having a featured snippet is not always an advantage, because the CTR of the featured snippet is lower than that of the first SERP result. But if your page is in a lower position, with featured snippets, you have the opportunity to outrank those who are ranked higher.

So, if you manage to place your content in the Featured Snippet, you can give a considerable boost to your organic click-through rate and get ahead of your competitors. On the other hand, it is usually easier to reach the first SERP than to rank number one for a keyword. 

But if you can get a featured snippet for a keyword, ranking number one for that keyword will be easier. A study conducted by HubSpot found that the CTR of their high-volume keywords increased by more than 114% when the results appeared as featured snippets.

Read more: Top 10 Ways to Increase Your Organic Click-Through Rate (CTR)

• Increase the number of no-click searches

Featured Snippets often give users the answer they are looking for and they don’t click on any of the search results. Featured Snippets, therefore, help to remove users who are not looking to buy. This means that if a user clicks on your link to get information about a product, they are more likely to be looking to make a purchase.

What Are the Different Types of Featured Snippets?

It is essential to know the type of featured snippet that Google displays for the search queries you want the snippet for. Featured snippets are not uniform. There are several types that Google and other major search engines use, depending on the type of information the user is looking for.

The most common forms of featured snippets are:

Paragraphs, Lists, Tables, and Videos.

•  Paragraph – Definitions, answers, etc.

In the case of paragraph search results, Google provides users with a few lines of text to answer a specific question, provide a definition, or give a brief overview of a topic, possibly with an image.

• Lists

List snippets typically present an answer in the form of an introductory line of text followed by an ordered or unordered list of a web page to classify objects, show the steps in a process, or identify different products. There are two types of listicle excerpts: ordered and unordered lists.

Ordered lists are lists of items or queries that require a series of steps or to be presented in a specific order.

Unordered lists are lists of items that do not need to be presented in a particular order. For example, if your article presents a list without being sorted in descending order, Google presents your list as a simple list, without any information to sort them one way or the other.

. Table

The table featured snippets include an introductory line followed by a table to help users visualize the data for different types of comparisons. Tables are one of the best ways for users to organize complex data, and Google pulls them directly from the page to display in the SERPs.

Here is an example of a table:

•  Video (usually from YouTube)

Google typically provides information in the form of featured snippets from various YouTube channels, which is one of the largest search engines in the world, or simply shows a particular video clip from a video. Video snippets are videos that typically appear in “how-to” searches and tend to highlight step-by-step instructions.

How Do I Find Featured Snippet Opportunities?

Now that we’ve gone over the basic types of featured snippets, let’s talk about how you can rank for them.

1. Do Keyword Research to Find Featured Snippets

Google is constantly evaluating snippets and search rankings to determine which ones provide the best answers to certain user queries. However, the best thing you can do to earn featured snippets is to create high-quality, targeted content that has a high chance of being chosen and this all starts with keyword research.

Keyword research can help you determine the type of content you need to produce to get noticed. In the case of featured snippets, keyword research can also help you identify specific queries that are already ranking for Position Zero so you can pursue them.

Keyword research will also help you target other keyword-related information. There are several ways to find the right keywords for featured snippets.

Manual keyword research: 

If you write a new content that you’re optimizing for a specific keyword, type that keyword into Google and see if a featured snippet comes up. If it does, you have the opportunity to make that snippet your own.

Multiple studies confirm that the majority of featured snippets are triggered by long-tail keywords. In fact, the more words typed in a search field, the higher the probability of seeing a featured snippet.

Google tells you directly what people are interested in when they search for your topic. When doing a keyword search with featured snippets in mind:

-Aim for question-type search queries (those that contain question words, such as “what,” “why,” “how,” etc.) as they are the easiest to identify.

– Be sure to answer the questions that most of your customers and target audience are asking. Target the informational intent, not just the questions.

To dig deeper, be sure to check out Google’s “People Also Ask” sections. Often, you’ll find this section under a featured snippet. This gives you a clear idea of which questions Google thinks are related to each topic.

If you click on a question, more and more questions will appear which gives you more opportunities to expand on a topic. This way you can answer as many questions as possible in a single blog post.

Sometimes when you do a Google search for that keyword, no featured snippet appears. This doesn’t necessarily mean that Google doesn’t want to display a featured snippet for that search; it may just mean that there isn’t a good snippet to include for that keyword yet. If you write and optimize your content correctly, you could get the very first featured snippet for that keyword.

Use a keyword research tool

There are many keyword research tools to help you with this task. It’s helpful to use a keyword research tool like Serpstat that combines keyword research with featured snippet research and allows you to see which keywords trigger featured results.

You can even monitor your competitor in Serpstat and then filter their top-performing queries by the presence of response boxes.

Read More: 

4 Best Keyword Research Tips to Improve Your Ranking

Jaaxy Keyword Research Tool Review

2. Optimize Your Content with On-Page SEO 

The easiest way to get a spot in featured snippets is to produce quality content and format it in a way that Google likes. That’s why you have a good chance of winning featured snippets for search queries for which you have already achieved high rankings.

Therefore, it is essential to optimize your content to rank on the first page of search results for the targeted keyword before aiming for the featured snippet. In fact, if your page is not already ranked on the first page of Google, your chances of appearing in a Featured Snippet are practically zero.

 According to the Ahrefs study, 99% of all Featured Snippets come from pages already ranked on page 1. By answering users’ questions in simple language that is detailed enough for them to make an informed decision, you are giving Google exactly what it wants to offer users.

You need to convey the best answer to users with optimized content. On-page SEO is the main step to achieving this.  Try to rank by identifying the questions your audience has about a topic and provide unique information about your industry by following on-page SEO techniques.

By diagnosing on-page SEO issues, you can correct them to improve your organic ranking. Here are some SEO tactics that work for featured snippets:

–  URL structure: Use user-friendly URLs by keeping them short.

– Title tag: Try to create catchy title tags by adding question keywords. For this, you can use Coschedule‘s title analyzer.

– Meta description tag: Write user-centric and keyword-specific meta descriptions to generate the most clicks.

– Image alt attributes: Optimize your images by using descriptive alt text to help Google understand the content of the image.

– Internal links: by creating internal links you help Google to identify the most important pages of your site.

– External links: external links show a Let Google know which external sites you trust

– Make your website easy to navigate and explore.

– Make your website fast and mobile-friendly.

– Target your content to search intent and keep it fresh.

– Make your page readable and user-friendly

Read more: On-Page SEO:10 Essential Factors for Ranking on the First Page

3. Identify Your Competitors’ Featured Snippets

When it comes to featured snippets, you need to take into account the competitive analysis. You need to find the featured snippets for which your competitors are currently ranking and then start modifying your content for perfect optimization.

To find Featured Snippets on SERPs, you can search for keywords one by one to see if the results for that term have a Featured Snippet or not. You can also use a tool like SEMrush and Ahrefs to target keywords with a Featured Snippet.

Once you have identified your competitors’ pages that already have a Featured Snippet, you can also see what type of Featured Snippet Google wants to display for that term. So it is very easy to optimize your page for that specific type of Featured Snippet.

4. Identify the Keywords You Are Already Ranked For On The First Page

If your content is already ranking well for the term you are tracking, but is not in the scope of the featured snippet, optimize your existing content to gain one. As we mentioned above the higher you rank, the more likely you are to generate featured snippets.

So focus on your content that is already ranked in the top five results. To identify the pages, you want to optimize for featured snippets, you can use the organic search feature of SEO tools like SEMrush and look for keywords that your pages are ranking for but don’t currently have featured snippets. You should also filter the results by position to get the keywords for which you have a good chance of ranking for these snippets.

5. Format Your Content for Featured Snippets

Formatting your content is essential for your content to appear in the Featured Snippet. The more your content looks like a Featured Snippet, the more likely Google will use it. Structure your content according to the format of the snippet you want to appear.

Google likes well-structured, factual, and number-based content, steps, and lists. In general, well-organized content is easy for users and search engines to browse, read and understand.

By adding a table of contents with anchor links, you can structure your article. This not only makes it easier for Google to identify potential featured snippets, but your readers will also get a better user experience.

By understanding what type of snippet best fits your topic, you’ll be able to organize your content and give it the best chance of being part of a featured snippet.

Try formatting your content to fit one of the featured snippet types.

How to format paragraphs for featured snippets?

To optimize a paragraph snippet, you should write a short snippet between 40-60 words for your targeted keyword to give a brief overview, provide a definition of that topic, or a direct and complete answer to a specific question.

Be careful in keeping your answers brief and to the point. According to Hubspot, most paragraphs featured snippets are between 40 and 58 words long.

Image source

In your paragraph presenting the answer to the question, be sure to list useful numbers and names while being very concrete as well as adding a relevant image. Especially when presenting a definition, do not include your opinion on the topic.

How to format list articles for featured snippets?

Content structured as a list is more likely to become a snippet. If you’re aiming for a list snippet, make sure the items are structured in numbered lists or bulleted lists. To answer a question instead of writing a huge chunk of text, organize your article into numbered sections or a few steps, this helps Google pull quick answers from your article.

List type featured snippets, usually start with a short introductory paragraph or line followed by a numbered or bulleted list of steps and are displayed for search queries that start with “how-to” or “best ways to”.

Layout your content with numbered H2 or H3 tags to create a list structure with all the steps or items in the list while following a logical structure to improve the likelihood of Google presenting your content as a snippet. Make your content well-organized, readable, and scannable.

If you’ve already used H2s for introductory sections, create a new H2 to start the list, then use H3 headings for each item in the list. This shows search engines that your response is well presented and relevant to the search query.

How do you format articles for table featured snippets?

Tables organize data more easily and allow Google to understand it quickly which has a big impact on getting featured snippets. So, if you’re looking for a table, put your answers in a table because Google doesn’t collect data from different parts of your content to present it as a table but essentially retrieves tables that already exist.

For a table snippet, write an introductory line, followed by an excerpt from an HTML table that is presented in the featured snippet. In general, as long as your HTML uses the <tr> tag to present the data in a table, Google should be able to easily “read” your table.

Add a video

You can also think of suggested clips as video or YouTube snippets. Many suggested clips are triggered by “how-to queries” and they tend to focus on a single, detailed question or topic.

6. Answer Similar Questions in Your Content

If you want to gain featured snippets, focus on developing solid content that answers all related questions in one place. Make sure your content is very well structured to answer similar questions in a concise manner.

By answering similar questions, your content will be likely to rank for many similar queries. So you need to ask questions in your subheadings and provide an immediate answer.

Google prioritizes core content, divided into logical subsections and structured so that users can find many relevant answers in a single article and with attention-grabbing images. It’s not just about creating long articles.

Focusing on articles that cover more related issues in a single article normally makes it long. Answering similar questions in well-structured, easy-to-read content can also build more loyal users.

That’s why creating solid content answering many specific and related questions from your audience is a very useful strategy for appearing in a featured snippet. It’s better to identify synonymous and closely related questions while remaining coherent throughout your content than to create a separate page answering each specific question.

Importantly, when you target a specific keyword, you need to think of it as a question that you want to give the answer your audience is looking for throughout your in-depth and coherent content.

7. Understand the Researcher’s Intent

One of the most important considerations in optimizing featured snippets is to understand the search intent behind each triggering query. Typically, people ask exactly what they want with the search queries how to, what, when, where, why, or who.

In this case, your content should give the exact answer to that particular query. By optimizing your content with these phrases, you can send the message that your content will answer questions or solve problems.

Optimize your content for voice search

Remember, one of the purposes of the featured snippet is to power voice search. Google reads featured snippets when users make voice queries on mobile devices or Google Home. This means that you need to take into consideration that the answer that will be delivered by the featured snippets are as close as possible to the users’ search intent and make sense in this context.

8. Add High-Quality Images and Videos

 Adding high-quality and eye-catching images to your content not only attracts attention but helps your readers understand your messages better. Images also play a crucial role in getting ranked for featured snippets, especially paragraph, and listicle type.

Paragraph featured snippets with images are even more eye-catching than paragraph snippets without images. Try to use custom images rather than stock images.

Take advantage of online design tools like Canva that allow you to create original and personalized visuals without necessarily being a design expert. Don’t forget that all your images should have alt text and a title that better answers the query.

Since Google will take a random image of the page, make sure that all the images in your content are attractive and also think about updating them. Don’t forget to also use high-quality videos as they have an incredible engagement rate especially if they answer a specific question.  You can use voice transcripts to allow Google to use your text as a featured snippet.

Read More: 13 Best Online Graphic Design Tools for All Skill Levels

9. Use Structured Data

One of the most effective tricks to gain featured snippets is to add structured data to your content. Structured data helps major search engines, like Google, Yahoo, and Bing, to understand your content better and faster, and create rich snippets about it which, in turn, will help you increase rankings and earn featured snippets.

You can use Schema.org which presents a universal search language and simple coding techniques to make it easier for search engines to understand your content.

10. Continue to Optimize Your Content

Increasingly optimizing your existing content to provide an accurate and clear answer to the query will increase your chance of getting featured snippets. Even very minor adjustments such as better defining the topic, using even more concise wording, or formatting your content better tend to work well.

Once you have made improvements, you can track the differences in impressions, CTR, and rankings in Google Search Console. Continue this process until your page is generating featured snippets.

Conclusion

I hope that the tips provided here have been useful to you. By following these tips, you should be able to greatly optimize your content to get featured snippets for your site. Since pages with featured snippets are dominating search queries and this trend is increasing, learning these tips and skills to earn featured snippets helps your business grow tremendously.

Most of the practices listed here for getting featured snippets like keyword research and organizing your content, also help keep you on the first page of SERP. By optimizing and making small adjustments to your relevant content already ranked on the first page of SERPs you can earn featured snippets.

Since Google as well as other search engines are always looking for a better page to place in position zero, once you have earned featured snippets, continue to optimize your content to always stay on top.