Featured Snippets

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What Are Featured Snippets? And How to Get Them?

Before this article came, whenever we did a regular search on google search we usually noticed different types of results and even search volume. We noticed results like a knowledge panel, blue links, a video snippet, carousel snippets, and snippets with images that led us to talk about Rich Snippets last time, and today we’ll talk about what has featured snippets and how to get them. 

But wait…

Did it ever come to your mind that "I thought rich snippets and featured snippets are the same?" 

How does it differ from just regular snippets?

Hold on, they may sound the same, both are snippets but the difference between the two is, that a rich snippet is an upgraded organic search result, whereas a featured snippet is an answer to a query that appears at position zero above the organic search results.

Still confused? Better review the article about Rich snippets. Today, let's focus on featured snippets.

Featured Snippets

Short excerpts from a webpage appear at the top of Google's search results in a section called "Position Zero" to quickly answer a user's question. Google takes featured snippet content from pages that have been indexed automatically. The most common forms of highlighted snippets are definitions, lists, steps, and tables.

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What is a featured snippet?

Google is continually experimenting with and improving the search results pages (SERPs). From the layered look Google presently offers users, a user from the search engine's early days would probably not recognize the site. Curated recipe links, top stories, and information panels are now ubiquitous search features, but it all started with the basic highlighted snippets.

Featured snippet ultimate goal is to pull directly a content that could be a basic answer, simple answer, or direct answers from a web page, together with a link to the referring page, the original page title, and the URL, to expose the best response to a question above all other organic results. 

Why do you think it's important? Remember to always mind the user's intent, what is he or she looking for? 

Why are featured snippets important?

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A featured snippet is crucial since it adds another SERP feature that you can control. Featured snippets, which are usually found at the very top of the results page, provide you more visibility to searchers and can help you increase brand recognition and better conversion rate.

How featured snippets influence search and SEO

In 2014, Google introduced highlighted snippets, which we believe is one of the most significant SERP developments in the last decade. For both users and SEOs, highlighted snippets have changed quite a few things. Getting to the top organic position quickly produces organic traffic, fewer clicks—on occasion, branding opportunities with featured snippets, after SERP deduplication, featured snippets, and you can choose to not receive featured snippets.

Now we have learned the basics, let's dig more about its types. 

Types of Featured Snippets

Google will present several types of highlighted snippets based on your inquiries or questions, as mentioned briefly before in this post. They come in a wide range of forms and sizes this include several popular variations or types:

• Paragraphs 
• Bulleted Lists
• Numbered Lists
• Videos
• Tables

Paragraphs

Paragraph snippet or paragraph style is by far the most prevalent type of featured snippet, accounting for around 75% of all snippets. 

To see an example of this type of featured snippet, type particular keywords and terms into the search field. Among them are the following: How to, Who is, How to do, What is, How to get, Why is, and How is.

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Bulleted lists

Bulleted lists or List snippets (together with numbered lists) are the second most popular type of featured snippets. This sort of featured snippet is most easily obtained for articles that rate or list certain products or concepts. For best of lists, ranked and unranked items, and feature lists, Google usually returns a bulleted list. For example, if you search for "top mobile phones sales 2021" on Google, you'll get a bulleted list from Gizchina.

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Numbered Lists

Another typical variety is numbered lists. They are extremely similar to bulleted lists, with the distinction that they are presented with numbers rather than bullets. This is commonly used in instruction manuals or cookbook recipes to identify steps. For example, if you search for "guide how to meditate" Google will give you a guide from Mindful.org.

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Videos

Featured clips are another term for these types of featured snippets. The same terms that appear in paragraphs also appear in these. A search for "how to play piano" on Google is an example of this type. When you do this, a video content from Pianote YouTube channel will appear in the zeroth position, highlighting a 1:14 minutes- interval that directly answers the search bar inquiry.

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Tables

Table snippet highlighted snippets help organize material and make it easier to read and comprehend. They account for around 7.28 percent of all featured snippets. For example, if you Google "crime rate in the US by state," you'll find a table listing all US states, Homicide Rate and Total Firearm Deaths.

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How to get a featured snippet

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Remember to not to focus too much on Google; instead,  we'll have to think  more about the user intent I've said in meetings, and there's a reason for it.

Google attempts to deliver the best possible answer to its users in order for them to continue to use its search engine. Business owners should aim to deliver the best possible response in order to gain visitors' business. These two concepts come together when You Ask, They Answer which is combined with search engine optimization.

You're providing Google exactly what it wants to provide to users by addressing user inquiries in straightforward English with enough context to allow them to make an informed decision.

Keep track of which queries have featured snippets when conducting keyword research on your site. Examine how the competition is meeting their demands and consider how you may outperform them. What unique perspectives on your industry can you offer? How can you make the best first impression on potential clients? What is the best way to format your response such that it is most valuable to a customer?

These are the kinds of questions you should be asking yourself while you produce website content. When combined with our blogging strategies, they have a better-than-average chance of snagging the featured snippet and driving good traffic down the funnel to you.

How to Optimize For Featured Snippets

You’ve come this far, so now we’ll learn how to optimize featured snippets  getting ideas from your competitors. Let’s start with:

Identify Competitors’ Featured Snippets

In Semrush, enter the rivals' URL and search for keyword groups that own featured snippets.

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You now wish to:

• Export the spreadsheet.
• Sort them into various categories of featured snippets.
• Sort them by the number of searches.
• The low KD score should be highlighted.
• And bring them together to begin preparing.

Gather The Keywords For Each FS-owned Content

After you've finalized your content subjects, it's time to look for keywords in the content that currently has featured snippets.

To see more information on the keywords ranking on highlighted snippets, click the down arrow beside the selected term in Semrush.

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Understand Searcher Intent

Understanding the search intent behind each triggering question is one of the most critical concerns when optimizing for highlighted snippets.

There are three categories of persons who look for your keywords:

• Potential clients.
• Influencers are those who can influence potential clients to buy from you.
• Also, your rivals.

The content for the first two will be written by you. While everyone will look for different things, it will always be for information (and “navigational” when users want to click through them).

Because a featured snippet could only have one search intent, check the four categories based on whether they wanted:

• A specific answer. A user search query is a question for which a precise answer is required. This form of FS has a lower CTR since consumers are often looking for a precise answer and do not want or need to read much farther.

This form of FS can aid in brand development, but it is unlikely to generate significant traffic.

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• A quick answer. As mentioned in the kinds section above, the user expects a paragraph or list form of a featured snippet. Users will click on the results if they want further information. This form of search query boosts CTR and brand awareness.

• A comparison. This type of search query returns a featured snippet in the form of a table. The table content exceeds the size limit for Google Featured Snippets. As a result, this form of search intent is likely to increase CTR.
• A video. Finally, if consumers are seeking "how-to" answers with a video attached, it will have the highest CTR. Recognize the various sorts of informational search intent present in the search query. They are relevant to the types of highlighted snippets that are offered and can assist you in planning and optimizing your content.

Run A Competitive Analysis

Return to Semrush and use the SEO content template tool there. Select the desired area and click the green button after entering your keyword or content topic.

To plan the content optimization for featured snippets, you'll receive the following SEO tips for your material.

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Create/Update The Content Outline

You now have the content subjects, targeted keywords, featured snippet type, search intent, and a pool of SEO recommendations from competitors' snippets.

You must establish a content outline if you are writing new material. If you've already written the essay, you may need to revise the outline in light of the mentioned information.

Create Content Better Than The Competition’s

• Cover the fundamental information that users anticipate from material depending on the user's search query and intent.
• Include statistical data, rich media, examples, pointers, and other features that rival competing blogs.
• To improve the readability of the content, use simple and shorter language.
• Concentrate on research-based information rather than opinion-based content. Citations aid Google's understanding of your material.

Always strive to create the finest material possible which will provide value for years to come. 

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Validate The Content

Check that the content you've created fulfills your requirements for:

• Your target market.
• User search intent has been defined.
• Keywords that are specifically targeted.
• Suggestions are provided.

This check is necessary to guarantee that you're on the proper path to obtaining a featured snippet.

Organize Your Content For Readers & Search Engines

Users and search engines can easily scan, interpret, and understand well-organized content.

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Add Question Keywords In Heading Tags

Without question keywords in the heading tags, organizing your content to receive featured snippets is insufficient.

Choose relevant query keywords with a lot of searches and include them in your header tags. The majority of Google's highlighted snippets begin just after a heading tag.

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It's all about using the proper question keyword phrase in the right spot.

 Add Relevant Graphics

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Graphics are very important when it comes to owning a featured snippet, especially for paragraph and listicle types.

To improve the user experience and prevent appearing generic, utilize real-life pictures or custom-made graphics instead of stock images.

Include as many images as your material calls for.

Implement SEO Tactics

Users can access your content now. Now you must swiftly assist Google in comprehending the page's content.

Here are some SEO strategies for featured snippets that work:

• Perfect URL structure: Keep your URLs to three to four words in length.
• Title tag: Create a creative title tag that fulfills the pixel criteria with the Coschedule Headline Analyzer and the SEOmofo snippet optimization tool.
• Meta description tag: To get the most clicks, use SEOmofo to make the most of the pixels available and develop user-centric and keyword-specific meta descriptions.
• Heading tags: Use question keywords, as discussed above.
• Image Alt attributes: Make sure you provide descriptive alt text for all graphics to assist Google to understand what the image is about. Images with alt characteristics appear in the majority of the best-performing content.
• Internal links: Assist Google in identifying the most important pages on your site. If you get a featured snippet, you should use it to boost the rankings of your most important pages.
• External links: Let Google know which external sites you trust, and use your citations to establish trustworthiness.
• Schema markup tags: Allow Google to detect things like tables and understand what your website is about.
• Link building: Build links to assist Google to understand the authority of your website.

Keep Optimizing Your Content Until You Achieve A Featured Snippet

Check the results at 7, 14, and 21 days after putting this method of optimizing for featured snippets in place.

If impressions improve, we’ll work harder to increase clicks. In Google Search Console, keep track of impressions, ranks, and CTR, as well as traffic and visibility in Semrush.

Conclusion

It takes a lot of study and planning, and you never know when you'll see results (especially if you don't have many top 10 rankings yet), but consider this: being included in Google search results is an incentive to improve your content. Along the process, you'll accomplish the following crucial objectives, hundreds of new content ideas will be discovered (and thus will rank for a wider variety of various long-tail keywords).

You'll learn to do more research on each issue (and thus will build more incoming links because people tend to link to in-depth articles) and you'll discover how to effectively format your content (and thus achieve a lower bounce rate because it will be easier to read your articles) to achieve your ultimate goal, that is to be the best at answering the searcher's questions.