Everyone knows featured snippets are powerful. Featured snippet opportunities are key to using keyword research tools, finding keywords that trigger featured snippets and optimizing for different types of featured snippets. Every SEO wants to get into any available featured snippet spot for their content.
If you need help to get into featured snippets or want to improve your current rankings then this post is for you! In this post we’ll cover 10 ways to optimize your website for Google Featured Snippets and increase your chances of showing up in search results.
What Are Featured Snippets?
Featured snippets are a highlighted summary of a website’s content that shows up at the top of the Google Search Results Page (SERP). Google’s featured snippets have become a part of Google’s SERPs and are now considered organic position #1 so they’re super important in SEO.
They provide quick, concise and relevant answers to users’ questions without having to click on any specific result. So they’re super valuable for users looking for information and websites looking to get more visibility.
What are the Types of Featured Snippets
Four types of featured snippets can show up in search results. Here are the types:
- Paragraph snippets: These are blocks of text or paragraphs from a website’s content that directly answers the user’s question.
- List snippets: These are numbered or bulleted lists from a website’s content that provides step by step instructions or information related to the user’s question.
- Table snippets: Also known as table featured snippets, these are tables from website content that provides organized information in a table format. For example a table of nutritional values of different foods can show up as a featured snippet in search results.
- Video snippets: These are clips that show up at the top of search results and provides answers to user’s questions in video format.
Benefits of Google Featured Snippets
Now that we know what featured snippets are and the types let’s talk about the benefits of Google Featured Snippets and why you should optimize for them.
- More visibility: As mentioned above featured snippets show up at the top of Google’s search results so you’ll get more visibility in front of users.
- More clicks: With a featured snippet of your web page you’re providing quick and relevant information to users so they’re more likely to click on your website for more.
- Enhanced credibility: Featured snippets are a vote of confidence from Google’s organic results which can help increase your brand or website’s trust and credibility.
- Competitive Edge: With featured snippets you can outrank your competitors and steal clicks from their search results.
Now that we know the benefits of featured snippets, let’s dive into the ten ways to optimize your website for them.
10 Ways to Optimize Your Website For Google Featured Snippets
Optimizing for featured snippets requires technical skills, content optimization and understanding of user search intent here. Optimizing for featured snippets is important as it shows up in both traditional and voice search results. Here are 10 ways to optimize your website for Google Featured Snippets:
Conduct Keyword Research
Keyword: conducting keyword research is important in optimizing your website for featured snippets as it helps you know what users are searching for and what type of content shows up in featured snippets. To conduct keyword research use tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to find long-tail keywords (keywords with more than 3 words) and questions related to your industry. Also use tools like Seed Keywords to find related keywords by creating a search scenario and gather keyword suggestions from friends, followers and customers.
Research data shows that the more words in the query the more likely a SERP will return a featured snippet. For example keywords with 1 word accounted for only 4.3% of featured snippets. Keywords with 5 words had 17% chance of being a featured snippet. And 55.5% of keywords with 10 words showed up as a featured snippet. So it’s best to focus on long-tail keywords to increase your chances of getting a featured snippet.
Understand User Intent
Understanding user intent is important in optimizing your content for featured snippets. This means knowing the questions your target audience are asking and the type of information they’re looking for when they search. Tools like Answer the Public or Google’s “People also ask” feature can help you find questions related to your keyword.
To further optimize your strategy find featured snippets by doing competitor analysis to find the featured snippets your competitors are ranking for. Also analyses the content that’s ranking for featured snippets and understand why it was chosen. Is it a list, table or paragraph format? What keywords are they targeting that snippet? This will help you tailor your content to user intent and increase your chances of getting featured snippets.
Structure Your Content for Featured Snippets
Google loves well formatted content and it’s important to focus on featured snippet optimization by formatting and structuring your content to increase your chances of getting featured snippets. One way to do this is by using headers (H1, H2, H3) to break up your content into sections or subtopics. Also use bullet points, numbered lists and tables to break down information into bite sized chunks.
This makes it easier for Google’s algorithm to extract information from your content and display it in featured snippets. For example if your content is titled “10 Ways to optimize Your Website for Google Featured Snippets” use subheadings and numbered lists to present each method clearly. Also include schema markup to structure your content so search engines can identify and display related questions in featured snippets.
Use Question-Based Content
As featured snippets are direct answers to user’s questions, it’s important to create content that answers common user queries. Targeting specific search queries that trigger featured snippets can be done by using keyword research tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz’s Keyword Explorer and SE Ranking. This can be done by using question based titles or headings in your content. For example instead of titling your blog post “10 Ways to optimize Your Website for Featured Snippets” you can rephrase it as “What are the 10 best ways to optimize Your Website for Featured Snippets” This helps Google’s algorithm understand the purpose of your content and increase your chances of getting featured snippets.
Provide Concise Answers
Featured snippets are meant to provide quick and brief answers to user’s queries so it’s important to provide clear and brief answers in your content to appear in search engine results pages (SERPs). Use short and direct sentences and avoid jargon or fluff. Also use formatting techniques like bold, italics and bullet points to highlight the most important information. Also make sure to state your answer in one sentence with clear and concise meaning so it’s easier to get featured snippets.
Include Images and Videos
Visuals like images and videos can make your content more interesting and informative so it’s more likely to get featured. Featured snippets are brief text excerpts that appear at the top of Google’s search results, rich snippets are enhanced organic search results that can include reviews, images or other types of information. Use high quality images or videos that are related to your content and include alt text for images for accessibility.
Also use descriptive titles or captions for your visuals that provide context to the information being displayed. This will help Google’s algorithm understand your content better and increase your chances of getting featured.
Add FAQ on Web Page
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) pages are great for featured snippets as they provide direct answers to user’s queries. Use Google Search Console to track search queries, see which queries bring clicks and analyze the organic click through rate for pages that are ranking in the Featured Snippet. Organize your FAQs into categories and use question based headings and subheadings. This will make it easier for Google’s algorithm to understand the structure of your content and display it in featured snippets.
Also including schema markup on your FAQ page can increase the chances of it getting featured. This structured data provides Google with information about the content on your page so it’s easier for search engines to understand and display in featured snippets.
Optimize Content for Voice Search
As virtual assistants and voice search is growing, optimizing your content for voice search can also increase your chances of getting featured. Targeting voice search queries can help you leverage featured snippet opportunities by focusing on conversational keywords and long tail phrases. People use more natural language when speaking than typing so focusing on conversational keywords and long tail phrases can help you target voice search queries.
Also make your content more conversational and use question based titles or headings can also increase the chances of getting featured.
Be Better Than The Competition
One of the most important factor to get a featured snippet spot is to create high quality content that provides value to users. Optimizing for featured snippets can increase your chances of getting into these top positions, increase visibility in both traditional and voice search results. Analyze your competition’s content and make sure yours is more comprehensive, accurate and informative.
Update and improve your content regularly to stay ahead of the competition and get featured. This helps with featured snippets and overall search engine ranking and visibility.
Do SEO Properly
Optimizing for featured snippets also means doing SEO properly such as featured snippet optimization, using relevant keywords, meta title and description and site speed. These will help you get featured and overall organic traffic.
Also make sure your website is mobile friendly and responsive as more and more users are accessing the internet through their mobile devices. This can also increase your chances of getting featured as Google prioritises mobile friendly content for featured snippets.
Here are some SEO tactics that work for featured snippets:
- Perfect URL structure: Make sure your URLs are short, ideally 3-4 words.
- Title tag: Use Coschedule Headline Analyzer and SEO mofo snippet optimization tool to create attention grabbing title tag that meets the character limit.
- Meta description tag: Use SEO tools to optimize pixel usage and craft user centric, keyword specific meta description that drives maximum clicks.
- Internal links: Make sure Google can identify the most important pages on your site. If you get featured, use it to boost the rankings of your top performing pages.
- Image Alt attributes: When you include graphics, use descriptive alt text. This will help Google understand the purpose of the image. Top performing content usually has images with alt attributes.
- External links: Inform Google about the external websites you trust and show your credibility through proper citations.
- Link building: Build backlinks to help Google understand your website’s authority.
- Heading tags: Use question keywords as above.
- Schema markup tags: Help Google understand what your page is about and recognize elements like tables.
Conclusion
In summary getting featured can boost your website’s visibility and traffic to your pages and content. Follow these 10 ways to optimize your website and content and get featured and drive more traffic to your website.
Remember to update and improve your content regularly, stay ahead of the competition and provide value to users. So keep creating and get featured!
