Google has launched the featured snippets, to give an immediate response to its users, but how do you manage to appear in that prominent position?
The search engine Google, always concerned with improving the experience of its users, has evolved its search results and, with the aim of giving an immediate response to those who search, it has launched the featured snippets.
To appear in this privileged position, your content must respond in a concise, precise manner to the possible concerns of your target audience. If you focus on this particular and meet certain format conditions, your chances will increase considerably.
Now, if you are wondering what to do to make your website appear in such a prominent position, how to achieve it and what strategy to follow, continue reading this blog and you will find all the information you need.
Similarly, you should know that among digital positioning (SEO) services, SEO companies include the necessary strategies to achieve this objective.
What is a featured snippet on Google?
The innovation of features snippets lies in giving an immediate response to those who search. Displayed above organic results and ads, these featured responses aim to grab attention and enhance the user’s search experience.
They are concise, short and visually placed at the top of the search results, along with a striking image and the URL of the Web page. Therefore, it is easy to imagine that, in this way, more impressions and clicks are obtained.
Types of featured snippets
They are four:
- Paragraph
Its objective is to provide a short and precise answer in the text. You will get a fragment similar to this if you use phrases such as:
- Who
- What is it?
- How to do or get
- List
There are two modes: numbered lists and bulleted ones. The snippet presents the user with a number of compressed steps to preview the content.
- Table
In this case, Google does not take the exact tables of the material, but gives them a new format, so that they are easier for users to understand.
Any text that can be presented in rows and columns has the possibility of positioning itself as a featured snippet.
- YouTube video
Google has the ability to use data from external sources. Just put in the search engine the video description or its title.
Featured snippet’s response or pictures
It is common for some people to refer to featured snippets as “response boxes”. This is because the information is obviously presented within a box.
However, we remind you that Google often provides users with a box with a quick answer — be it a definition, estimate, etc. – without relating it to a particular source.
Having said that, keep in mind that the term featured snippet will be used to refer to the box containing the URL of the linked site, an important aspect in terms of exposure and positioning.
Reasons to appear in featured snippets
Since 2014 there has been talk of the highlights. However, there are still people who do not use them. Therefore, we will give you three benefits to increase the traffic on your page.
Steal traffic from the first result
With a featured snippet, you will always get more traffic compared to the first result shown on the search screen.
Optimizes for voice search
This is an effective way to search. More and more people are choosing this option with voice controllers such as Google Assistant, Siri or Cortana.
Naturally, when this happens users start their queries through questions. That is why you must mold the texts so that they give short and precise answers.
Become a reliable expert
The objective of all this is to become the authority of the subject so that you position yourself as an expert in your niche.
In this way, potential users will always search for the information you have available about their doubts and interests.
Do you have a chance to be featured?
The good news is that we all have an opportunity to appear in position zero. For this, you must be in the top 10 of Google and it is not necessary that you are number 1. You will have more possibilities if your topics are related to:
- Finance
- DIY
- Health
How to appear in featured snippets?
You just have to make sure that your content responds clearly and precisely to all the doubts that users raise on the subject.
For this, try positioning the text using form keywords that start with:
- How to do
- How
- What is it?
How to appear in featured snippets
Generate content based on questions
Adding keywords s in questions is a great strategy to appear in the zero position. To achieve featured snippets list type use “how” and “have”, and in table format use “which”.
In the case of paragraph style snippets, the keywords in the form of questions are also valid, since Google will extract from the text the answer that gives a precise solution to the concerns of users.
Do keyword research and lookup queries in question format
Using keywords in your content will guarantee you have a successful piece. For that, it is necessary that you make sure to give answers to the common questions that your users ask.
You can only do that if you research the most frequent words that are consulted in your niche. KWFinder is a tool that will help you find them.
Start with a good keyword search
The featured snippets are activated if you use keywords long tail. There are multiple tools like Serpstat that will help you determine them; and at the same time, they throw those that are related to the highlighted fragments.
First, make a query related to the questions: “what”, “why” and “how”, because they yield more optimal results. And then investigate the long-tailed ones because they also guarantee good positioning.
Analyse the results in the box “people also ask”
To enrich your content with interesting topics, it is ideal that you investigate what your users want to learn. Google displays the box “People ask questions” on the search results screen.
Click it and you will see the most common questions users ask about the topic you want to develop. With them, you can expand your content and offer those answers and higher quality solutions.
Browse Google to find more questions
The best thing about all this is that when you have accessed the questions that this box offers you, more questions will expand and you will have different answers. People always require information and this is a great mechanism for knowing what they want to know.