What Are Featured Snippets? | Ross Kernez
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What Are Featured Snippets?

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Ross Kernez is a digital marketer, community builder, mentor, and author. He is the founder of NYC-based SEO Meetup, a group of 2900 marketing professionals who meet monthly to network and discuss the latest trends and happenings in the industry.
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As search online behavior changes, Google is continually evolving its search engine to help searchers find the right information as quickly as possible. One recent modification that Google has made to its search engine was the introduction of featured snippets. 

 

Featured snippets are short answers and snippets of information that Google provides at the top of search results. Featured snippets offer quick answers to common or short search queries. 

Image Source: https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2019/04/01/google-featured-snippet-guide-2019/

 

There are several types of snippets that Google may show based on search queries. Each type of featured snippet displays information in a particular way best suited to meet user intent. A few of the most common featured snippets are:

  • Lists: Google may display helpful lists in a featured snippet to quickly explain steps, processes, or items.
  • Paragraph: Based on the search query, Google may display 40-50 words to explain a topic related to a specific search query quickly. 
  • Tables: Google may display a table for some search queries based on comparisons, pricing, or different models. 
  • Videos: Google can insert a YouTube video in the featured snippet box to direct searchers to relevant videos like music videos and how-to videos on YouTube. 

 

Now that we have a basic understanding of the different types of featured snippets, let’s dive into why featured snippets are important for your business and how to optimize for each type. 

Featured snippets sit in a prominent position at the top of Google results. Since featured snippets highlight information from a webpage, there is an ongoing debate on whether featured snippets have a positive or negative impact on websites. 

 

On the one hand, some SEOs fear that featured snippets could “hijack” website content and result in fewer people clicking through to a website as the searcher discovers the necessary answer right in Google SERPs. 

 

On the other hand, some SEOs argue that featured snippets place your site in a prominent position, and this helps build a brand, position your company above the competition, and can boost traffic to your site. 

 

You can capture featured snippets to help drive more qualified traffic to your site. You will need to consider the type of content you produce, your business goals, and the intent of your users when writing content to get found in featured snippets.

If you want to stay ahead of your competition, then you will need to optimize your content for search engines and people. Featured snippets are just one way for you to outrank your competition and grow your online presence with some simple copywriting tips to trigger your content in featured snippets. 

 

Here are some things to keep in mind as you optimize your blog posts and webpages to improve the likelihood that your content will appear in the featured snippet section of SERPs:

  • Repeat search queries and questions in your content for desired featured snippets. 
  • Provide a concise answer to questions throughout your content to improve your chances of appearing in a featured snippet. 
  • Use lots of relevant information throughout your content like graphs, videos, tables, lists, etc. This approach will help your audience and provide Google with more options to feature your content as a featured snippet. 
  • Follow acceptable on-page SEO practices like removing pop-ups, etc.
  • Make your page easy to navigate by using headers throughout the content like H2 and H3 tags. 

This is one of the harder of the various featured snippets to optimize your content for. This type of featured snippet will display at the top of search results with a short (40-50 word) explanation based on a search query and a link to the original content. 

 

Paragraph featured snippets are a great way to increase traffic to your site, and you can optimize your content to help secure more of these featured snippets by: 

  • Summarize the answer you are trying to address in the first paragraph of your blog post and pages. 
  • Keep your summarization short and don’t exceed 40-50 words. 
  • Use proper on-page formatting with H2, H3, and H4 tags. 
  • Use exact-match questions in tags throughout your content. 

 

You will find a list in the featured snippet section for “how-to” search queries like processes and recipes. This information is displayed in either a bullet list or a numbered list along with a link to the original web page for further reading. 

 

This type of featured snippets are great for many sites, and you can secure more of these types of featured snippets with some simple optimizations: 

  • Use proper HTML table formatting with <ol> or <ul> table structures. 
  • When using steps in your header tags, be sure to specify each step in the headers. 

Google may include a table in the featured snippet section for search queries about data, comparisons, or pricing options. Tables are usually only 3-4 columns wide and 6-7 rows long. This featured snippet also links back to the original content with a link below the table. 

 

If you want to claim more table featured snippets, then you can use simple on-page optimizations like: 

  • Use proper HTML <table> formatting and structure. 
  • Don’t use CSS or other languages when placing a table in your content. Google seems to prefer HTML tables over other languages. 

 

For how-to and process search queries, Google may add a video in the featured snippet section. This information will allow searchers to view the YouTube video. 

 

Optimizing for video featured snippets is pretty straightforward, and you can take a few necessary steps to help your YouTube videos appear in relevant SERPs:

  • Include a simple answer and overview of your video in the first two sentences of the video description. 
  • Add a transcript of each video when uploading the video to YouTube. 

SEO and content marketing are rooted in getting your message found in search engines. You can optimize content to get found at the top of search results by capturing featured snippets. 

 

Not only do featured snippets help you stand out from the competition, but they also build the authority and trust of your brand. This is because online searchers inherently value information at the top of Google compared to content at the bottom of SERPs. 

 

Use the above ideas and recommendations to increase your chances of securing featured snippets to grow your digital marketing strategy today!

About Ross
Ross Kernez is a digital marketer, SEO expert, community builder, mentor, and author. He is the CEO of SEO Meetup, an annual marketing conference and a group of 3,000 marketing professionals in the United States who meet monthly to network and discuss the latest trends and developments in the marketing industry.
About Ross
Ross Kernez is a digital marketer, SEO expert, community builder, mentor, and author. He is the CEO of SEO Meetup, an annual marketing conference and a group of 3,000 marketing professionals in the United States who meet monthly to network and discuss the latest trends and developments in the marketing industry.
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