Digital marketing has an ever-changing landscape, and a small business’s success relies heavily on its website’s Google ranking. Creating a dedicated web page that ranks well can be a challenge, and not just because the competition is fierce. Business owners, web admins, and SEO strategists must keep up on the latest Google features to stay ahead.
Gone are the days when Google search results were simple blue links. Now, products include much more information, often in the form of a Google featured snippet. Nearly everyone has seen a Google featured snippet, and using them correctly can give a website a significant ranking boost.
What are Google Featured Snippets?
Google featured snippets appear as the first organic search result under the ads box. They attempt to answer the searcher’s question immediately without them having to click through links to find more information. For example, Google displays a list of 10 dog breeds on its results page after searching “friendliest dog breeds.”
Types of Featured Snippets
Lists are not the only way that Google’s featured snippets are displayed. Google uses three general types of featured snippet, including:
- List: A bulleted or numbered list, similar to the example given above.
- Paragraph: A box of text, such as providing a brief history of a topic.
- Table: Results displayed in a table, such as sales statistics for a company.
How to Rank High with Google Snippets
SEO experts insist that Google featured snippets are crucial to the site’s performance, going far as calling it “position #0.” In this position, websites featured receive a lot more clicks from organic search results, regardless of the site’s Google rank or website design.
Websites also receive more “no-click searches,” meaning the searcher is satisfied with the Google featured snippet answer and doesn’t click on the actual website. That may seem undesirable to some business owners, but there are profound benefits, including increased brand recognition.
Additionally, Google is the top search engine because it prioritizes user experience. The more convenient it is, the more people use it, which can only help businesses generate traffic. Here is some information on how to rank higher with Google featured snippets.
Check out Competitor Snippets
Before business owners and web admins can boost their site’s ranking, they should know what kind of competition they are up against. There are several analytics tools available that can show what featured snippets a competitor earned. The results help a business know what their optimized content should include.
Check with Google
Small businesses and web admins should put themselves in their audience’s shoes and search for their questions. The results that Google displays in the featured snippet section shows what content competitors use to capture that audience.
Clicking on the questions under the “People also ask” section gives even more insight into the kinds of questions competitors answer. Simply click on each related item underneath the featured snippet and note what content gets displayed.
Answer Several Questions
An excellent way to earn one or more featured snippets is to create in-depth content. An article that answers multiple questions about a topic is more likely to be featured as a featured snippet response to various problems. This is especially true if the site has already earned a Google featured snippets spot via its SEO services.
Focus on Formatting
Website content should be optimized for the type of snippet it’s trying to earn. List content should have clear headers as Good reads heading tags to categorize information. For paragraphs, website content should have a short section that summarizes the information in the article. The reader can always click on the link to get more detailed information on the snippet’s subject.
Watch the Word Count
While it is essential for content to answer several questions, Google won’t feature content that is too long. Articles should be concise and have multiple headings, lists, and paragraphs from which Google can sample. The most common featured snippet length is between only 40 and 50 words.
Include a How-To Section
How-to sections are an easy way to organize featured snippet content. Other similar options are FAQ or Q & A sections. These are easily managed lists that give the user the information they want. If they want more information, they can easily follow the link to learn more.
Use High-Quality Videos and Images
In digital marketing, high-quality, visually engaging content is king. Images and videos do not get a spot in the featured snippet, but including them adds credibility to the content. Google favors websites with this content, increasing the site’s chance of getting a snippet spot and boosting its search engine rank.
The Bottom Line
Google featured snippets that offer businesses an invaluable boost to their organic search traffic. Any small business that wants to earn a Google featured snippet without all the work should check out the SEO services from Internet Marketing Team.