How to Optimize Your Site for Featured Snippets

If you're looking to generate any reliable web traffic based on the percentage of relevance in search engines, you should consider optimizing your site content for featured snippets.

What Are Featured Snippets?

A Featured Snippet is a general term for any search result Google shows to a user. They show up as the page’s title, a link to the website, and a brief excerpt of a website's page content.

A featured snippet answers a question. It is the answer box displayed at the top of search engine result pages. It’s usually located just below paid ad content. These are also referred to as Position 0 in search engine results pages, or the position above the #1 ranked search result for the topic. They usually include an image, the source page’s title, and the URL. Beyond that, they also contain more information than a general snippet by summarizing the content of the page.

There are four types of featured snippets:

1. Paragraph: This is the most common type. In these, text is lifted directly from the source page and offered in a short, digestible bit.

2. List: Lists include two major subtypes: numbers and bullets. For numbers, think of recipes of DIY projects that pop up in searches where the order is important. Bullets are used when the list doesn’t require any sort of ranking system.

3. Table: This is a great option for looking at a large collection of data. If you want results of a poll, study, or any large dataset, these are how you’ll find them.

4. Video: The last type speaks for itself. Video is a newer addition to featured snippets but it’s a useful one to consider. With one click, you have access to potentially more information than a few lines of text or an infographic could offer.

Featured Snippets vs. Rich Snippets

The terms "featured snippets" and "rich snippets" are often confused and used interchangeably, but there is a notable difference between the two.

Rich snippets are typically general search results that have been enhanced and do not answer a question like featured snippets. Rich snippets also show the result in order of ranking with a much smaller image. And even though they're more detailed than featured snippets, rich snippets do not answer a question.

Featured snippets also bring higher conversion and click through rates over rich snippets. They’re also frequently linked to voice searches. When someone searches uses the voice search capabilities on a mobile phone or smart home device to ask a question, the answer offered is generally the one provided by that device.

How to Get Featured Snippets in Google

To get a featured snippet in Google and achieve that coveted Position 0 status, all you have to do is answer a question. More specifically, you need to craft content that provides the best answer to a question.

Consider leveraging lists and tables with succinct and helpful information on each of your website pages and your blogs. Also, take a look at your FAQ page and think about revamping that page so it does a better job of educating, informing and guiding your site visitors through your website's content and toward the goals and end results you have set. And of course, optimize all of your pages with relevant keywords and phrases your site visitors are most likely to use when searching for information about your industry, products, or services.

How can you be sure you're providing the best information possible?

1. Know your industry, competitors, and customers. You can do all the marketing and optimizations you want, but at the end of the day, your marketing and optimizations won't make any significant impact if you don't know or understand your industry landscape, competitors, and more importantly, your target customers. After all, how will you know what your target customers are searching for/how they're leveraging Google if you don't understand their basic pain points? Too, how do you know what opportunities or innovations you may be missing if you haven't taken a moment to look at your competitors or your industry? Before starting any marketing initiative, take a moment to do a comprehensive audit of your industry and competitors, and be ready to have open conversations with your customers and the internal teams that serve them day in and day out.

2. Research featured snippets related to your industry, products and services. Take a moment to do a quick Google search using one of your target keywords. When the results come up, look through the existing featured snippets related to your search. What kinds of featured snippets pop up? What information are they providing that you aren’t? What can you provide that they haven’t already done? What keywords are they using? What keywords are they not using?

3. Use SEO tools to find unique keywords and questions related to your topics. A good rule of thumb is to remember that it’s harder to reach that spot with any question that has an abundance of results. Instead of attempting to overtake the top result right off the bat, consider looking for keywords and questions that are frequently asked, but also unique to your situation. Here at Razzo, we're fond of Answer the Public and SEMrush for keyword and question research.

Ready to kick your digital marketing into high gear? Schedule an appointment with the Razzo team to discover how our online marketing services can help you achieve your business goals.