What is a featured snippet?
Featured snippets are areas of text that appear at the top of Google in an attempt to quickly answer the user’s query.
The idea is that Google can answer the user’s question without them having to click through to another site, this is frequently known as position 0. Below we’ll detail the benefits of targeting featured snippets as part of your SEO strategy and how best to do it.
The benefits of targeting featured snippets (position 0):
- Help your website secure a position that will more often than not appear at the top of page one.
- An additional SERP that can be effectively and easily targeted.
- They capture attention immediately – These stand out and often feature images and bold text.
- A quick way to outrank competitors – If your business operates in a highly competitive industry, targeting featured snippets is a quick and effective way to outrank others.
- Increase brand awareness – Featured snippets are well optimised for voice searches and make up a large percentage of answers, this can improve the visibility of your brand and validate your knowledge as an industry leader.
- Increase overall click-through rate.
- Increase conversions – Having content in a featured snipped legitimises your authority and therefore can lead to an increase in enquiries from those who have clicked through via a snippet.
- Improved domain name authority – Google’s trust in your website is important to move up the rankings, targeting featured snippets leads to higher visibility and in turn can your ranking increase in other areas as well!
Types of featured snippets:
- Paragraphs
- Table
- Lists
- Videos
How to rank for a featured snippet (achieve position 0):
- Long-tail keyword research. Use tools to find out the questions people are asking within your industry. Take a look at which of these already have featured snippets applied, and those that don’t could be great easy targets! We would recommend utilising tools such as Answer the Public, Buzzsumo and Google Ads Keyword Planner.
- Content needs to be clear, concise and succinct. Avoid large chunks of text and long answers to simple questions.
- Summarise popular content on your site that could be considered Tl;dr (too long; didn’t read. Analyse useful content on your website that produces conversions using Google Analytics and provide shortened summaries on the page to target featured snippets.
- Understand what the searcher wants from their query. Are they looking for a short list, table of prices/answers, video content etc? If you have an understanding of this tailor some of your page content to adhere or include videos within the page/article where necessary.
How can InSynch help?
InSynch have been SEO Experts for almost 18 years. We have helped 1,000’s of clients achieve business growth through search engine optimisation.
As SEO Specialists, we ensure we’re ahead of the curve with algorithm updates and all the latest tips so you don’t have to be!
Click here to book a free 30-minute consultation with one of our Digital Marketing Experts.