How to Optimise Your Website for Featured Snippets

Google’s featured snippets give quick answers to the questions people are searching for without having to click through to a website. 

As searchers viewing featured snippets don’t have to click through to the website to see the content, it would be fair to assume that featured snippets would have a negative impact on generating traffic from the results. However, this actually is not the case. Research from HubSpot found that featured snippets dramatically increased the click-through rate (CTR) of results ranking within it.

Increased click through rate is not the only benefit that featured snippets have for digital marketers. Featured snippets are the ideal opportunity for digital marketers to beat competitors to top SERP positions, boost their conversions, and drive traffic right to their site.

In order to optimise your SEO strategy for featured snippets, you first have to understand exactly what they are.

What Is A Google Featured Snippet?

Featured snippets are often referred to as having ‘position zero’ in the search results. This is because they are usually at the top of the page, above organic search results and they take up a significant amount of space.

Google pulls the information for a featured snippet from a page that is ranking well in the SERPs, displaying the answer to a user’s query without clicking through to a website. They can contain numbered lists or bullet points, or answer search queries with a brief paragraph.

Any company, regardless of its size or budget, can get the coveted ‘position zero’, and you don’t need to be top with your current rankings to do so. In fact, 70% of snippets come from sites that aren’t in the top-ranking organic positions.

Ranking for a featured snippet can be more effective for driving traffic to your site than getting position 1 on the SERPs as they dominate the results page, providing significant exposure to your business. Here are some of our tips to get your business in the prime position.

Find Featured Snippet Opportunities

The best way to find featured snippets that you can optimise your content for is to work out the questions that your audience are trying to find answers to. You can do this by conducting a simple Google search for questions around your keywords. For example, an SEO company, like Digital Squad may look for simple search phrases like ‘What is SEO?’ or ‘How to do SEO?’ You can then see whether your questions are currently featured snippets that you may be able to rank for.  You can also look in Google’s ‘People also ask’ section at the bottom of the page that provides questions related to the search you entered for inspiration. Content generating sites like Answer the Public are also great for identifying commonly searched questions that may be found in featured snippets.

Do Your Keyword Research

Keyword Research is vital for any SEO strategy. Your keyword research skills can also be used to help you get featured snippets. If you already rank well for a particular keyword or keywords, it’s worth finding out if Google currently brings up featured snippets for those keywords. If they do, you can try to get a featured snippet by identifying and answering the common questions that people have about the topic. Then all you have to do is create relevant content that answers relevant questions and is formatted to include tags that relate to the questions. There are a number of tools available to let you know whether a search query will bring up featured results or not.

Answer Several Questions Concisely

Once a web page gets one featured snippet, it’s more likely to become featured in other related queries. As such, creating an article that answers several related questions is an ideal way to target featured snippets. Answer as many relevant questions as you can in your content, but be wary to stick to the word count for each section. According to SEMrush, the most common length of content in featured snippets is between 40-50 words. As tight and concise answers are more likely to be featured by Google, it’s a good idea to create sections, lists, paragraphs, and steps rather than running everything together. This can be done easily with a ‘How to’ or FAQs section on your website that addresses your audience’s questions.

Use High-Quality Images and Videos

When people hear information, they’re only likely to recall 10% of that information three days later. However, when paired with a relevant image people retain 65% of the information three days later. The takeaway from this? People like to learn visually, which is why using high-quality photos and videos can help you rank in featured snippets.

Uploading images to your content is simple – you can even use free tools like Canva to edit images with icons and colours that make them your own. Video is also great for engagement. In a 2018 HubSpot survey, 54% of consumers wanted to see more video content from a brand or business they support. Creating a simple ‘How To’ or Q&A video with a voice transcript can increase your chances of being chosen as a featured snippet.

Featured snippets are on the rise and are definitely something any forward-thinking digital marketer should be on top of. For help ranking for featured snippets or for your overall local SEO Wellington and Auckland strategy, get in touch with a digital marketing company Auckland. On top of that, the team at Digital Squad can help you with Google remarketing ads, Facebook Marketing Auckland, and AdWords Marketing Auckland.