A featured snippet, also known as ranking in position zero, is the premium spot in Google search results. It’s where all businesses want to eventually rank because the featured snippet gives your website more prominence.
The featured snippet gives users the answer they are looking for without making them click away from Google. It also gives the website with the featured snippet more brand exposure and they are generally seen as they most authoritative source of information.
Interestingly, even though the featured snippet aims to give users the answer without them clicking away from Google, websites that rank in position zero, often have a higher click-through-rate and get more search result traffic than any other rankings, so it always pays to optimise for the featured snippet.
What is a Featured Snippet?
But what exactly is a featured snippet? You have probably seen a million featured snippets and not even realised. It is a selected search results that feature below google ads and above organic search results. It appears in a box and can take several different forms:
- Paragraph
- List
- Table
The paragraph is the most common type of featured snippet, however, lists can be good for certain niches. Sometimes featured snippets can feature an image as well.
How to Optimise for the Featured Snippet
To optimise for the featured snippet you must follow the same SEO rules that you normally would.
- Create quality content – all the content on your website should be high quality. To optimise it for featured snippets it needs to be the informative, well written and insightful.
- Be informative – answer the questions that people are asking. A featured snippet must offer a solution to a question.
- Be clear and concise – when writing your answer, make it clear what question you are answering. This will help Google and the user know what they are searching for.
- Answer worthwhile questions – Don’t waste time producing irrelevant content for questions that no-one is asking. Make sure you are thoroughly researching keywords before creating content so you know what question people asking.
Some additional tips include:
- You must already be ranked on the first page – you won’t be able to magically get the featured snippet if your website is ranked on page ten. Work on improving your search engine ranking first then focus on optimising for the featured snippet.
- You don’t need to be in position one – as long as you are ranked on the first page, you don’t need to be in position one to get the featured snippet.
- Focus on optimising for long tail informational keywords – these seem to work the best because long tail keywords are often in the form of questions.
- DIY, Health and Finance are the easiest niches to get featured – if your business is in any of these niches, research shows that it will be easier for you to get a featured snippet.
Achieving the featured snippet may seem impossible but it’s not. If you are worried you don’t have the time or the experience to get your website in the coveted ‘position zero’, the expert team at Digital Presence can help. Contact us today to find out how we can help you achieve your SEO goals.
