Featured snippets on Google can be a powerful tool for on page SEO. Rather than looking at the top 10 search engine links, there are many websites that are now optimizing for the featured snippets section on a search engine directory. Featured snippets can be just as effective as ranking for the whole page and they just require a single paragraph of optimization.
Featured snippets require occupying just a single position rather than shooting for top 10 search engine results. There are particular character limits that you need to be aware of as well as a need for producing quality content to gather the right number of clicks.
What are featured snippets in search engine results?
A featured snippet is a small piece of text that’s extracted from Google results that answers quick queries that a person may search for. Google will display these featured snippets in organic search engine queries to answer an immediate question from the person searching. In most cases they are presented in a paragraph format but they can also come in tables and lists.
Featured snippets are also available as responses for voice queries. Many people call featured snippets answer boxes or knowledge graph features. If you’re able to answer questions directly in the featured snippet, your search engine result suddenly goes from the 10 blue links all the way to the pane above search engine results.
Featured snippets normally come in these formats:
Paragraph:
A paragraph snippet is an excerpt from the page and it usually answers a query within a few sentences.
List:
These are bullet point lists that often come out as numbered content. These lists are often presented in recipes and how to instructions.
Table:
A table snippet is a table that’s present on a page. If you have a table tag over content , it can fit into a designed page. These can be popular for items such as recipe conversion charts, measurements and part lists.
How do you gain eligibility?
In order to qualify your page for featured snippets, you need to have a page that’s in the first page of search engine results. 99% of these pages rank within the top 10 list but having this snippet could give you an instant boost if you are ranked further down the page.
Receiving a featured snippet and keeping it can often be challenging. A featured snippet can be right down when the answer to the query is not considered to be effective. Google regularly tracks snippets to make sure that they are providing the answers to users. If the user has to ask a similar question or sort through page results, a snippet is often downgraded.
To optimize your snippet:
Focus on writing technique:
A featured snippet needs to answer a query quickly and with direct language. This means keeping the answer short and sweet. Reading a large paragraph or as simple query may not be advantageous especially for users on voice search.
Keep it short:
Snippets are usually around 40 to 50 words and are limited to 300 characters. Google will often decline longer snippet lengths because they simply don’t fit inside the text box or read well on mobile devices. Display limits for each list snippet works differently and it is easy for items to get truncated if they appear too long.
To get a snippet feature:
Rank your page:
You’ll need to check on your website current rankings and track appropriately to make sure that you can make adjustments. Achieving a top 10 search engine result for queries within your niche is the first and most important step.
Examine SERP data:
Research SERP data to examine your competition’s snippets. It could be very easy for you to displace some of your competition if they have irrelevant data in their snippet.
Identify content or questions that haven’t been answered:
Think about your competition and some of the featured snippets that they have placed up. If there are several questions that haven’t been answered, this could be the perfect opportunity to add your own snippet candidate.
Write your snippet:
Start with an answer limited to 40 or 50 words on target queries that you have identified. Make sure that this is formatted well using a section header, a good quality of concise writing and in an active voice. If you are attempting to displace another snippet, make sure that the answer you are submitting is more concise and under the word count of your competitors.
Update your page and index again:
After publishing the content, go to the Google search console and make sure that you are indexing the URL again. Google will quickly make the change and give you a featured snippet. Usually the change takes around 24 hours to take place but it can take up to a month to two months in some cases as well. If you aren’t seeing your featured snippet after two months, you may want to make changes and try again.
Consider these top ideas if you are attempting to index your page using snippets.
