What Are Featured Snippets?
Featured Snippets are brusque snippets of text that appear at the circus tent of Google ’ s search results in order to cursorily answer a searcher ’ second question. The content that appears inside of a Featured Snippet is mechanically pulled from vane pages in Google ’ s exponent. Common types of Featured Snippets include definitions, tables, steps and lists .
Why Are Featured Snippets Important for SEO?
Featured Snippets impingement SEO in two ways .
first, Featured Snippets are an opportunity to get more clicks from the organic search results… without higher Google rankings.
In fact, many SEO experts refer to the Featured Snippet box as “ Position # 0 ” because it appears above the traditional # 1 spot .
According to Search Engine Land, a Featured Snippet gets approximately 8 % of all clicks .
indeed if you ’ re able to get your contented in the Featured Snippet, you can give your organic click-through-rate a dangerous promote .
For example, we were recently able to rank in the Featured Snippet for this keyword :
According to the Google Search Console, our organic CTR for that page is 13.7 % .
second, Featured Snippets increase the number of “ no-click searches ”. In other words, when a Google exploiter doesn ’ metric ton chatter on any of the search results .
That ’ randomness because the Featured Snippet frequently gives person the answer they ’ re looking for .
therefore, before you decide on a specific keyword, it ’ second authoritative to note whether or not the search results have a Featured Snippet. If so, according to an industry report by Ahrefs, you ’ ll get fewer clicks compared to SERPs without a Featured Snippet .
That ’ s not to say you should automatically toss out a keyword if there ’ s a Featured Snippet. After all, SEMrush reports that 11.84 % of all queries have a Featured Snippet .
Which means that it ’ s going to be street fighter to wholly avoid keywords with a Featured Snippet .
It ’ s more that, along with competition and monthly search volume, Featured Snippets should factor into your process for choosing keywords .
Types of Featured Snippets
There are 4 main types of Featured Snippets that appear most often in Google ’ s search results .
1. The Definition Box : This is a snip of text designed to give searchers a direct, concise definition or description .
For example, when you search for “ full-bodied snippets ”, there ’ s a definition box at the top of the results .
definition boxes are normally used by Google to answer “ what is ” queries. here ’ s an exercise :
As you can see, the definitions that Google tends to use are curtly and sugared. In fact, SEMrush found that the average definition Featured Snippet is between 40-60 words long .
2. The table : This is where Google pulls data from a page and displays it as a board .
here ’ s an model :
3. The rate list : This is a number of items presented in a specific order. Google tends to use Ordered Lists for queries that need a set of steps .
They besides use ordered lists for lists that rank things in a specific order, like this .
4. The ungraded tilt : This is Google ’ second manner of presenting a list of items that don ’ t need to be in any particular rate .
For case, our list of keyword inquiry tools international relations and security network ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate in order of best to worst. It ’ south merely a list .
Which is why Google just presents each tool that we list as a simpleton list, without any information that ranks them one way or the other .
How to Optimize For Featured Snippets
Find SERPs With a Featured Snippet
Your first gear step is to look for a search results page that already has a Featured Snippet .
( In early words, Featured Snippet opportunities ) .
That way, you KNOW that Google wants to show a Featured Snippet for that term. In fact, they already do !
besides, you can see what type of Featured Snippet Google wants to show for that condition ( The Definition, Unordered List, and so forth ). Which makes optimizing your foliate for that specific type of Featured Snippet ace simple .
For exemplar, when you search for “ best glass water bottles ”, you can see that Google has an Unordered List Featured Snippet at the top .
There are two ways to look for SERPs that have a Featured Snippet .
first, you can search for a bunch of keywords one-by-one. so if you have a list of potential keywords to target, you can search for each one and jot down whether or not the results for that term have a Featured Snippet .
second, you can use a cock like SEMrush and Ahrefs to zero-in on keywords with a Featured Snippet .
For example, when you run an organic Keywords report on Backlinko using Ahrefs, you can filter out any keywords that don ’ t have a Featured Snippet already .
Optimize For That Specific Featured Snippet
following, it ’ sulfur time to optimize the content on your page sol Google chooses to use your contentedness in the Featured Snippet .
hera ’ s how to optimize your content for the 4 most popular types of Featured Snippets .
The definition : You need to provide Google a short-circuit ( 40-60 word ) snip of text that they can directly use in the Featured Snippet. It besides helps if you have “ What is x ” directly above your definition .
here ’ s an model of this type of setup on one of our pages .
And because we ’ ra giving Google a word-for-word definition they can use, we got in the Featured Snippet position within a few months .
HubSpot takes this a gradation far. They actually design little boxes in their content that expression good like a Featured Snippet .
I don ’ t think you need to go this far. But it does go to show that format is KEY for getting your contented in the Featured Snippet. specifically, the closer your capacity looks like a Featured Snippet, the more probably it is that Google will use it .
The entirely early thing to keep in mind is that you want your definition to be objective. In other words : wear ’ triiodothyronine include an opinion on the subject either way .
Remember : Google doesn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate want opinions showing up as definitions. therefore, even if you have a impregnable feel about the subject, do your best to write the definition without any emotion. In fact, you should write the definition like a dictionary entrance .
For example, you can see that our definition for “ nofollow links ” sounds like it was pulled immediately from Webster ’ s Dictionary .
The table : From my own analysis I ’ ve found that Google tends to get content for mesa Featured Snippets from tables .
In early words : they ’ rhenium not collecting data from versatile parts of your page and presenting it in mesa shape. rather, they ’ re basically scraping tables that already exist .
For model, check out this table Featured Snippet.
Read more: Tetris Echalk – Apps Store
well, when you look at the source of that capacity, you can see that it ’ s literally the claim like table .
As another case, we recently compared the top 4 backlink checker tools .
And one of the ways that we optimized for the Featured Snippet was to present a set of the data in the form of tables .
How you code these tables depends on how your site is set up ( and whether or not you use WordPress ). But in general, a long as your HTML uses the
to present the data in a table, Google should have an easy time “ reading ” your board .
The Ordered list : The key here is to lay out your page so that the particular steps or lists of items are presented in a room that Google can easily understand .
specifically, you want to wrap every detail or step in H2 or H3 text. And show each detail as a subheader .
To make the order of your items or steps crystal clear to Google, you can even include text like “ Step # 1 ” or “ 1. ” in each subheading. here ’ s an example :
The most crucial thing to keep in mind is that consistency is keystone. so if you present step # 1 as “ Step # 1 : Do X ”, preceptor ’ t make your second footstep : “ footprint 2 : Do Y ” .
rather, present your steps like this :
gradation # 1, Step # 2, Step # 3…
Or like this :
1., 2., 3…
I personally prefer “ Step # 1 ” over “ 1. ” because it ’ mho easier for users to follow along. But Google can understand both .
For exemplar, this post lays out a 9-step SEO strategy .
Each footprint in the process uses the exact same format ( “ Step # 1 ”, “ Step # 2 ”, etc. ) .
We besides wrap each step in an H2 tag .
Optimize Your page Around several Different Long Tail Terms
Ahrefs discovered that the huge majority of Featured Snippets show up when people search for long-tail keywords .
( long tail keywords=terms that people use in search engines that are extremely long and super specific )
Queries that people use for voice search are arrant examples of this type of search .
here ’ s an exemplar of a traditional search .
And here ’ s a colloquial, hanker tail translation of that same research question .
The takeout here is that you don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate just want to optimize your subject for Featured Snippet keywords that lots of people search for ( like “ what is SEO ” ) .
You ALSO want to optimize for Featured Snippets that show up when people search for variations and long tail versions of those terms .
For example, you can see that we added sections to this page that are designed to rank for a bunch of unlike long tail Featured Snippets .
It ’ mho about like a mini FAQ page .
then : how do you know what long tail keywords to target ?
I recommend checking out the “ People besides Ask boxes ” in the SERPs .
These are associate questions that Google considers close related to the keyword you merely searched for .
For exemplar, one keyword that we ’ re in the Featured Snippet spot for is “ YouTube Description ” .
And that ranking is a direct solution of optimizing our content for the definition snip .
That said : there are lots of long tail queries that we could answer on that lapp page. Queries that Google shows us right in the search results .
Speaking of scaling…
Scale Your Featured Snippet SEO Efforts
If your page ( and site ) has agency, you can rank your unmarried page for dozens of Featured Snippets .
The key to scaling this up is to add lots of definitions, ordered lists and other formats that Google loves to put into Featured Snippets on your page .
For case, you can see that HubSpot has one “ main ” definition at the top of most of their pages .
But they besides toss in respective questions and answers on a individual page .
Improve Your Google Rankings
It ’ second one thing to optimize your capacity for Featured Snippets. But the truth is : if your foliate doesn ’ metric ton already rank on Google ’ s first page, your find of getting in a Featured Snippet is much zero .
In fact, according to the Ahrefs sketch I mentioned earlier, 99 % of all Featured Snippets are from pages that already ranked on page 1 .
This makes common sense if you think about it : the first gear page is a list of Google ’ sulfur best, most believe subject about that topic. So they ’ ra not about to pull information from a web site on page 11… flush if it ’ sulfur formatted perfectly .
so besides formatting your content the correct manner, you besides need to rank on page 1 to have a real number shot of getting in the Featured Snippet box .
For exercise, this page from our locate ranks “ # 0 ” as a Featured Snippet .
And we only got featured there after we cracked Google ’ s first page for that terminus .
Learn More
How to Optimize for Google ’ sulfur Featured Snippet Box : This television shows you how to increase the odds that you ’ ll rank in Google ’ randomness Featured Snippet section .
How To Be Featured On Top Of Google : An upbeat, in-depth tutorial on Google Featured Snippet optimization .
