Suppose you search a query in the browser – “What is meant by featured snippets?”. You will most certainly observe a short summary of the answer to the question. That is basically a featured snippet. Widely acclaimed as one of the most powerful SEO tools, featured snippets are the position zero boxes at the top of the search engine rendered pages (SERPs). When you enter a search query, the Google search engine hunts down and indexes several pages and showcases the website content that it tags the best for answering the user’s question.
This blog addresses a lot of unknown insights about this indispensable weapon named “featured snippets” – their types, importance, strategies to implement, and much more. Let’s buckle up and get started!
Noticeable Variants of snippets on the web
Speaking of featured snippets, you may come across different types of these answer boxes while surfing the internet. They are:
Paragraph snippets
One of the most readily seen snippets on SERPs, paragraph snippets encompass contents in a paragraph format. Search engines extract stuff from <p> tags of the website code and present a summarized answer to the user quickly.
List Snippets
Here Google selects content from the <ul> and <ol> of the website code. It is presented for queries expecting a step-by-step serialized guide to a process.
Carousel
For any queries regarding products, recipes, or movie recommendations, the search engine provides a carousel snippet on top of the result page to scroll and choose from.
Video
Providing the best SEO-optimized video (mostly from YouTube), these types of featured snippets mainly answer “How to” questions.
Tablet
These types of snippets list answers in a tabular format, about different categories of data, preferably used for comparison.
Paramountcy of websites securing a position in featured snippets
Increases authority of brand
Just think of the authority and prominence a business brand will get if its website is listed in the featured snippet section. This will register its impression of being the best at what they do!
Revamped Click through Rate (CTR)
Although it may seem that click-through rates may decrease owing to viewers getting their answers by just going through the featured snippet at a go. However, studies confirm the increase in CTRs and dwell rate of the website featured in the snippet, as customer highly rates the authenticity and quality of the website.
Caters to Voice search optimization
Websites featuring in these snippets are highly voice-search optimized. This is a prowess that the Google search engine greatly considers in its indexing of webpages.
Marks itself ahead of its competitors and enhances user experience
The highest user experience is ensured through these rich snippets, as they offer answers to the user in the fastest way possible. Moreover, securing a place in that box catapults you ahead of your competitors and promises huge traffic.
Tips and tricks for webmasters to secure their creation in the snippets
Pay attention to structuring your content
To grab the best, you need to be the best, as simple as that! Refine your web content by following a structured pattern. The particular schema markup shall be abided by, for securing your place in paragraph or list snippet. Refer to the documentation provided by Google for Structured Data Markup for best guidance. Use abundant bullet points and stylize meta descriptions to achieve the desired.
Conduct a pro-level keyword research
Though being tagged traditional, efficient keyword research is the key to achieving the most optimized SEO in your content. Incorporate long-tail keywords, by investigating common searches and FAQs to understand the user sentiment.
Never compromise on the quality of the content
Always remember to write for your people, not for the search engine. Optimizing the content of your site for the engine indeed helps it to rank you higher, but never compromise on the comprehensiveness and standard of the web content.
The secret sauce to securing a position in the featured snippet is providing concise and crystal-clear answers to user queries.
There should always be room left for learning and tweaking
The journey to perfecting your SEO game is never-ending. Some of the readily used hacks to getting featured in the snippet section today, may not be enough a while later. Thus, in order to skyrocket the success of your business, you need to study and analyze SEO trends always.
Wrapping Up
While you may create content for featured snippets separately, it’s generally advisable to optimize your existing content to meet the requirements. A common confusion that exists in this context is between the terms “Featured snippets” and “Rich snippets”. Both are quite different in their presentation. While you now know what the former is, rich snippets are additional information presentations of a website in organic searches.
In conclusion, follow the above strategies to optimize your website for securing a featured snippet position, and keep the hustle continuing!
Sandeep Goel is the founder and CEO of Obelisk Infotech. He is a 1st generation entrepreneur working for over a decade and providing digital marketing services worldwide helping startups and building visibility for businesses through content and digital marketing.
He started his career as an SEO Analyst with US clients, which helped him polish his search engine optimization skills and gain a better understanding of digital culture and enhance his sales and marketing skills.
He also loves to write and regularly shares his views on blog sections. He is instrumental in company growth by creating and implementing processes, platform partners, and technologies to streamline operations at the micro and macro levels.
Founder (Obelisk Infotech)