In today’s lecture, we will read about “Featured Snippet” and how to build your website for it. If you want to learn basics about Snippet, check out this article Google Guide to Snippets.
Nowadays people used to invest on Paid Result to bring their website at top search result irrespective of investing in SEO efforts to get organic results.
How to beat Ads CTR:
Yes, we can beat the ranking of paid results via featured snippet which brings your result at position 0 of the search engine result page. Hence, with little investment towards quality content with a little mixture of SEO techniques, we can bring our website at position 0.
As per a recent survey, Features Snippet used to receive around 35% more clicks than the organic result i.e. 17%.
Important Definitions (not feature snippet):
Regular Snippet:
This is your organic result which you receive through your SEO efforts better your content better will be the ranking of your website.
Rich Answer:
This result pops up instant answers to your queries also known as Quick Answers.
Example include: 8 + 2 = 10.
Knowledge Graph:
This pulls information from a variety of sources and presented them above natural results in box type structure.
Example: Cheap Price Phone
Rich Snippet:
This is basically an improved version of the regular snippet with extra information enjoy rating, reviews, price, etc.
Example: Training Course Topics by Onlineseoblog
What is Featured Snippet:
It is the combination of a quick answer and knowledge graph where they pick the most efficient result from the set of organic result and present it to the user at position 0 along with the link to the article.
These types of result usually come for queries including who, what, how, etc. and it presents the user with a summary to its query along with the article to the link for detailed knowledge.
Note: All the results available at position 0 are not featured snippet. For ease, you can recognize them as a result available at position 0 with a link to the article.
Types of Features Snippet:
Let’s talk about various varieties we have under feature snippet:
- Paragraph Snippets
- List Snippets
- Table Snippets
- YouTube Snippets
Paragraph Snippet:
Paragraph representation of information comes under paragraph featured snippet. Google used to fetch the relevant paragraph from your article and present it to the user with the link to your article to provide better-detailed knowledge.
Note: Eligibility criteria must be clear to get eligible for a featured snippet. Eligibility criteria say your website must come within top 10 search results.
Numbered List Snippet:
The numbered list snippet usually appears for search queries like List the Steps, How to do, recipes, etc. which list down the steps.
Bullet Snippet:
This snippet shows the listing of results at position 0 of the search engine result page.
This often comes for:
- Ranked/Unranked Items
- Features lists, etc.
Difference between the Numbered List and Bullet List
Numbered List presents results in a chronological order i.e. ascending or descending but bullet list follow no chronological order.
Table Featured Snippet:
This one is the best among the entire featured snippet where Google pulls up the information in the form of a table and present it to the user in the best effective manner.
In, order to rank for table featured snippet include a tabular representation of information on your web page. Also, try to consider as many parameters as possible when preparing an article.
YouTube Featured Snippet:
Have you ever observed YouTube video clips pop up for the search query over the search engine result page is sometimes clipped or cut?
The clipped portion is basically the answer to our query, this is what YouTube featured stands for.
To get your video as an answer to the query optimize it correctly i.e. description should be relevant along with a catchy title.
Featured Snippet Two-For-One:
Sometimes, Google takes help of two websites containing similar content but signifying the same using different elements.
For example “X” website defines SEO using their content/writing skill and other using Images and hence Google may combine their content to present it to the user in the best effective way.
How to rank for Featured Snippet:
Keyword Research is the king:
Keywords are dominating their position from quite a long time. Here to rank the featured snippet we need to mold our keywords in the form of questions.
As featured snippet usually pop up for queries like ‘How’, ‘What’, ‘When’, etc. which forms queries in the form of questions.
Proper Heading Structure:
Make your articles scannable both for search engines and visitors. Well structured and formatted articles get eligible for the featured snippet.
Rank your website:
Google create featured snippet on their own irrespective of following any guide to rank for the featured snippet.
But one thing you must remember to rank your website in the top 10 search result using various On-Page and Off-Page optimization techniques.
Identify and Analyze Competitors:
You hit a search query and later found that your competitor is ranking for a long tail keyword for which you have an exhaustive scannable article. Analyze its article and come up with a more advanced one.
Content Matters:
Content matters a lot in deciding whether your website should be selected as a featured snippet or not. Some factors include:
- Scannable layout
- Avoid Grammar Mistakes
- Proper Heading Structure
- Alt tag Optimization, etc.
- Formatting Matters:
If your competitor is already ranking for a featured snippet, then carefully observe the format of the output. It could be a paragraph, table, numbered list, etc. You need to frame your content in a much more effective manner
Observe search results:
Observe the results popped up at your screen and analyze them carefully. Try to answer all the relevant questions in your article present at ‘other relevant searches’ or ‘people also ask’ section.
Concluding Featured Snippet:
The key takeaway from the article is:
- SEO Matters
- Content is the king
- Answer relevant Questions
- Provide output in relevant format i.e. Paragraph, List, Table, etc.
- Competitor Analysis
Do you know how Google Works: Check this out