Google launched the featured snippet in 2014. Originally called the “answer box,” the featured snippet appears at the top of organic search results so users can get to the info without clicking through to external sites.
Some observers consider the featured snippet to be a win, similar to the top organic position. Others believe it hurts traffic because it usually replaces page 1 listings and thus clicks.
Nonetheless, getting featured snippets is the goal of many traders. But optimizing snippets is different than for traditional rankings.
To show, a page must rank first organically on page 1 — the higher, the better. The next step is optimization of the featured snippet.
Featured snippets answer questions concisely, such as through paragraphs or short lists. But knowing which questions to answer is not easy.
Optimizing for Featured Snippets
1. Research. Learn what Google considers a good answer to a search query. Many third-party tools can help. SE Rank Competitor Analysis stores a snippet of the search results page for each query it tracks to see how the featured snippet has changed over time.
This tool also filters user-defined search queries to those that trigger featured snippets beyond your own.
SE Ranking Competitor Analysis allows users to identify featured snippets in addition to their own.
Ahrefs can check the featured position of any website, whether you are tracking domains or keywords or not.
Ahrefs can check the featured position of any website.
Knowing competitors’ top snippets helps understand opportunities. But chasing every opportunity makes no sense.
Featured snippet is smooth. What shows up today may disappear tomorrow or change based on the query or even the search tool. That’s why comparing current snippets with older ones is useful.
Therefore, optimize for long-running snippets and popular queries.
2. Focus on intentions. What is the searcher trying to achieve with a particular query? What is the best answer to that need?
Search results for “daffodils” (plural, at left) are different from “daffodils.” Click image to enlarge.
The featured snippet view will also help identify the best format. That’s where researching competitor snippets really helps. Never copy competing answers. Instead, try to understand why Google chose it. Then make a better version!
3. Consistency. Make optimization of featured snippets a routine. One web page can generate a dozen featured snippets. Identify the keywords, then record the best answer format for each of them.
Start this section with headings H2 and H3 to properly direct Google.
See how you rank in the top 10 positions, and narrow down to “snippet-y” positions – for example, question and comparison keywords. Then you can simply check the SERPs in an incognito browser, using the keywords you’re ranking for that are likely to serve up featured snippets.
Why are featured snippets important for SEO?
Why is featured snippet important? Featured snippets are important because they represent additional SERP features that you can secure. Usually located at the very top of the results page, featured snippets offer searchers greater visibility and can increase brand recognition.
Do rich snippets help SEO? Do Rich Snippets Improve SEO? Rich snippets don’t improve SEO directly. Having structured data markup on a page alone will not increase its chances of ranking higher in search results. At least, that’s what Google says about structured data.
Are featured snippets rich results?
Featured snippets show the extracted page content in the highlighted box as result 0, while rich results (also known as rich snippets) are page listings enriched with additional visual or interactive elements that make them stand out.
What are rich results?
Rich results are experiences on Google Search that go beyond standard blue links. They are backed by structured data and can include carousels, images, or other non-textual elements. Over the past few years, we’ve developed the Rich Results Test to help you test structured data and preview your rich results.
Are featured snippets good?
We display featured snippets when our systems define this format to help people more easily find what they’re looking for, both from a description of the page and when they click on a link to read the page itself. They are especially helpful for those who use mobile devices or search by voice.
Is it worth optimizing for featured snippets?
If you’re ranking first for a keyword that doesn’t have a snippet, it’s best not to optimize your content for that keyword. If you’re used to optimizing your pages for search engines in general, you’re also likely to rank for featured snippets organically.
What are the benefits of featured snippets?
What Are the Benefits of Featured Snippets?
- Increased Website Traffic. Perhaps the most obvious benefit of getting featured snippets is more traffic to the website. …
- Conversion Improvement. …
- Brand Awareness Improvement. …
- Increase Website Authority. …
- Improved Keyword Ranking.
Why are Google snippets important?
We display featured snippets when our systems define this format to help people more easily find what they’re looking for, both from a description of the page and when they click on a link to read the page itself. They are especially helpful for those who use mobile devices or search by voice.
Why is the decision as to what search results snippets to show so important?
Why is the decision about what search result snippet to show so important? The snippet for a page in search results can determine whether or not someone can click from the search results page. If you rank highly with a page, but no one chooses your page from the search results, that will be pathetic.
What are the benefits of snippets?
What Are the Benefits of Featured Snippets?
- Increased Website Traffic. Perhaps the most obvious benefit of getting featured snippets is more traffic to the website. …
- Conversion Improvement. …
- Brand Awareness Improvement. …
- Increase Website Authority. …
- Improved Keyword Ranking.
How Google’s featured snippets work Google search help?
Featured snippets come from web search listings. Google’s automated system determines whether a page will be a good featured snippet to highlight for a particular search query. Your feedback helps us improve our search algorithms and the quality of your search results.
What are Google snippets?
Featured Snippets are short text snippets that appear at the top of Google search results to quickly answer searcher queries. Content appearing in Featured Snippets is automatically pulled from web pages in Google’s index.
What is a featured snippet in SEO?
A featured snippet is a highlighted snippet of text that appears at the top of the Google search results page in what is known as ‘Position 0’. They provide users with quick answers to their search queries. Featured snippets are more likely to appear when users enter informational search queries.
How does a featured snippet work?
Featured snippets come from web search listings. Google’s automated system determines whether a page will be a good featured snippet to highlight for a particular search query. Your feedback helps us improve our search algorithms and the quality of your search results.
How do you write a feature snippet?
In fact, it’s very easy to rank for featured snippets with organic content alone. You just need to know how….How to get featured snippets in 4 steps
- Keyword research with low keyword difficulty and high audience relevance. …
- Structure your content for the searcher’s needs.
What are the types of featured snippets?
There are four types of featured snippets: paragraph, table, list, and video. Each of these can be valuable for increasing search volume to your website.
What are rich results?
Rich results are experiences on Google Search that go beyond standard blue links. They are backed by structured data and can include carousels, images, or other non-textual elements. Over the past few years, we’ve developed the Rich Results Test to help you test structured data and preview your rich results.
What are AMP Non-rich results? Non-rich AMP results generate the largest number of clicks per 100 searches, with a CTR of 92%. AMP articles, on the other hand, have the lowest CTR of just 15%. AMP articles are rich versions of AMP results.
What is rich test?
Rich Results Testing is the latest tool developed by Google to help you test structured data and preview your rich results. The test returns the errors and warnings that Google detects on your product page.
What is a rich search result?
Improved results in Google searches with extra visual or interactive features. Previously known as “rich card” or “rich snippet”.
What are rich snippets in SEO?
Rich snippets are snippets that have a higher click-through rate. People prefer to click on results that give them more information. If your snippet click-through rate increases, you’ll get more traffic from those search results.
How do you get rich results?
Here are some tips on how to maximize your rich results:
- Provide partial answers or additional information to get people to click through to your page. …
- Create content in a format that search engines like. …
- Make sure your onsite experience matches. …
- Optimize your site with organic search best practices.
What is the rich snippet?
Rich Snippets. Rich snippets are snippets that have a higher click-through rate. People prefer to click on results that give them more information. If your snippet click-through rate increases, you’ll get more traffic from those search results.
How do you use a rich snippet?
How to Create Rich Snippets
- Identify which details you want Google to focus on.
- Define your web pages using the Google Structured Data Markup Wizard.
- Create microdata for your web pages using the data types you choose.
- Create new HTML from this microdata.
- Tag your content with this microdata.
- Test your rich snippet.
- Be patient.
What is rich snippets in digital marketing?
Rich Snippets is a term used to describe the structured data markup that site operators can add to their existing HTML, which in turn allows search engines to better understand what information is contained in each web page.
What is meant by rich snippets in SEO?
A custom result snippet in Google search results is described as a rich snippet. They include additional information that is not stored in the meta description of the affected target site, but is stored as structured data in its source code with the help of markup.
What are SEO snippets?
A snippet is a single search result in a search result set and generally consists of a title, URL, and description of the page. The snippet content matches the search query section and you’ll see the keyword highlighted in the snippet description.
What is a rich snippet in SEO?
Rich snippets are snippets that have a higher click-through rate. People prefer to click on results that give them more information. If your snippet click-through rate increases, you’ll get more traffic from those search results.
What are rich snippets in Google?
Today, we’re announcing Rich Snippets, a new snippet presentation that applies Google’s algorithms to highlight structured data embedded in web pages. Rich Snippets provide users with convenient summary information about their search results at a glance. We currently support data about reviews and people.
What is the best way to increases the chances of getting a featured snippet?
10 Ways to Increase Your Chances of Featured Snippets
- Identify common questions in your niche or field. …
- Ask that question explicitly in your content. …
- Use your question in at least one header. …
- Give a clear and concise answer to the question. …
- Provide more in-depth information following your direct answer.
Is it worth optimizing for featured snippets? If you’re ranking first for a keyword that doesn’t have a snippet, it’s best not to optimize your content for that keyword. If you’re used to optimizing your pages for search engines in general, you’re also likely to rank for featured snippets organically.
How are featured snippets chosen?
How featured snippets are selected. Featured snippets come from web search listings. Google’s automated system determines whether a page will be a good featured snippet to highlight for a particular search query. Your feedback helps us improve our search algorithms and the quality of your search results.
How does Google often refer to featured snippets?
Google will display the highlighted snippet for many search queries on the first search results page. This snippet rating is often referred to as ‘Position 0’.
Do featured snippets change?
Just to give you some numbers, the Featured Snippets for the best information keywords experienced: 36% fewer URL changes over 30 days compared to baseline. 31% fewer URL changes over 90 days compared to baseline.
How do I get more featured snippets?
All you have to do is run a regular domain search and click on “Organic Research.” Then, simply click on “Featured Snippets” at the bottom right side of the page. You can even filter keywords by clicking the “Advanced Filter” option to include featured snippets.
Why are featured snippets not showing?
Your Marked-Up Content Is Invisible to Users If a site has multiple pages, or multiple pages with marked-up structured data, rich snippets may not appear. If Google, or the user, can’t see the information you’ve flagged with structured data, Google sees it as misleading.
How many types of featured snippets are there?
There are four types of featured snippets: paragraph, table, list, and video. Each of these can be valuable for increasing search volume to your website.
What are the types of featured snippets?
There are four types of featured snippets: paragraph, table, list, and video. Each of these can be valuable for increasing search volume to your website.
What is a paragraph featured snippet? Text Feature Snippets (or Paragraph Featured Snippets) A text or paragraph feature snippet is just a small piece of text that should provide an answer to your question. Usually just an extract taken from the content on a web page, with a link to the page in question.
Why are snippets featured?
Featured snippets come from web search listings. Google’s automated system determines whether a page will be a good featured snippet to highlight for a particular search query. Your feedback helps us improve our search algorithms and the quality of your search results.
Are featured snippets good?
We display featured snippets when our systems define this format to help people more easily find what they’re looking for, both from a description of the page and when they click on a link to read the page itself. They are especially helpful for those who use mobile devices or search by voice.
Are featured snippets rich results?
Featured snippets show the extracted page content in the highlighted box as result 0, while rich results (also known as rich snippets) are page listings enriched with additional visual or interactive elements that make them stand out.
When were featured snippets introduced?
When we introduced featured snippets in January 2014, there was some concern that they could cause publishers to lose traffic. What if someone learns everything they need to know from the snippet and doesn’t visit the source site? It quickly became clear that featured snippets did drive traffic.
What is the difference between rich snippets and featured snippets?
Featured snippets show the extracted page content in the highlighted box as result 0, while rich results (also known as rich snippets) are page listings enriched with additional visual or interactive elements that make them stand out.
What is meant by rich snippets in SEO?
A custom result snippet in Google search results is described as a rich snippet. They include additional information that is not stored in the meta description of the affected target site, but is stored as structured data in its source code with the help of markup.
What is a featured snippet?
A featured snippet is a highlighted snippet of text that appears at the top of the Google search results page in what is known as ‘Position 0’. They provide users with quick answers to their search queries. Featured snippets are more likely to appear when users enter informational search queries.
What is the rich snippet?
Rich Snippets. Rich snippets are snippets that have a higher click-through rate. People prefer to click on results that give them more information. If your snippet click-through rate increases, you’ll get more traffic from those search results.
How many words is a featured snippet?
The optimal length of a featured snippet paragraph is approximately 40 to 50 words, or about 300 characters.
What does a featured snippet look like?
A featured snippet is a highlighted snippet of text that appears at the top of the Google search results page in what is known as ‘Position 0’. They provide users with quick answers to their search queries. Featured snippets are more likely to appear when users enter informational search queries.
How big is a snippet?
For example, when you search for “rich snippets†, there is a definition box at the top of the results. As you can see, the definitions that Google tends to use are short and sweet. In fact, SEMrush found that the average definition of Featured Snippets is between 40-60 words. 2.
How long should Google snippets be?
Google now says that the maximum length of snippets in search results is 320 characters including spaces & snippet features, such as Date Published. I more often recommend a length of 300 characters for the Meta Description.
How long are featured snippets?
According to SEMrush, this is a fairly normal length for featured snippets. Their analysis found that “the most common length of content in featured snippets is between 40-50 words.” Therefore, you should try and keep each piece of content no more than 50 words and no shorter than 40.