Google Featured Snippets: What You Need to Know

 

A couple years ago, Google introduced featured snippets, a strategy that provides users with a better experience when searching for information online. Years later, these snippets are not only giving users a better experience but also providing businesses an increased opportunity to significantly improve web traffic and brand recognition.

What is a Google featured snippet?

A featured snippet is a selected search result that’s displayed at the top of Google’s organic search result page just below the ads. It’s a box that includes a link to the source where information is pulled from. This tidbit of information aims to provide a direct response to an individual’s search query. Plus, featured snippets can take different forms including paragraph, list or table.

Why should we care about Google featured snippets?

  1. Featured snippets show up for many of the terms and queries your customers search for, giving your business an opportunity to gain brand recognition.
  2. Get a significant increase in web traffic. Recent studies have shown a significantly higher click-through-rate for those businesses featured in this premium position. Users typically click the attached link to learn more.
  3. The rise of voice search. Featured snippets appear mostly in voice search. This type of query is expected to increase significantly over the next three years which gives us another reason to work towards getting featured.

Where to Start

First, it’s important to understand what questions potential customers may have about your product or service or any issues they’re having along the buyer’s journey. After doing some research, organize some topics that answer the most frequently asked questions and create blogs or pillar pages that incorporate long-tail keywords into the copy. This will require some keyword research. Studies have shown that a majority of featured snippets are triggered by long-tail search queries, so working these into your content can give you a better chance of being featured.

Quick tips to optimize content to improve chances of being featured

  • Make subtitles a question and answer them in the paragraphs below
  • Make sure content reads in a friendly, conversational tone
  • Incorporate visuals to backup information and ideas
  • Use bullet points or lists to summarize key points
  • Include links to other high-quality content