Google has always put a lot of thought into how to get the organic listings on a search engine results page. With the changing adaptions of businesses, Google is satisfying the users intents by giving accurate answers to the questions in SERP by using the featured Snippet position. This Snippets feature of Google SERPS is useful for webmasters with structured content. As the information in the Snippets increase, it becomes easier for the visitor to decide the usefulness of that webpage.
The Google snippet is a collection of the information, that Google has determined one of the most relevant to the consumer's search query. As it is made up of several important parts, the Google snippet utilizes a number of resources to return its results. However, there are certain aspects of Search engine optimisation, which most of the people are completely oblivious of. One such aspect of SEO is the utilization of structured snippets. They can also boost your site's performance dramatically in two major fashions, by increasing your website visibility to the search engines with great profitability. Let's take a closer view of the reason on how that recommended snippets can be used for an appropriate SEO of your business website.
Let us discuss the top 10 possible ways on how to get the featured snippet in SERP results that retrieve the takeaways of digital marketers.
Identifying the common question from your field:
This is the very first step to figure out the appropriate question to target in the web. However, these questions can be simple, But Google won’t show the immediate answers for every question like How, What, Why. In order to get the key for featured snippet position, it’s better to understand which questions are people asking in your field and how to answer them with an appropriate and perfect answer, without visiting your website.
Promoting the identified question in your content:
In SEO, there is a mere relationship in between the keywords and ranking. By considering the SEO general purposes, it’s better to focus on targeting keywords, instead of focusing on themes and topics. It is very important for featured snippets to emerge your chosen question in your content by using the perfect question format.
Use the question at least in one header:
Now optimise the featured snippets by inserting the keywords in one of the header tags either in H1 or H2. It is considered as one of the best practices in order to get the featured snippets, by showing the readers what your pages is all about.
Provide a clear answer to that question:
To achieve best rank, a clear and short answer may help to get the featured snippets, without providing the detailed information. As research suggests, featured snippet contains only 2.2 higher word count when compared to regular content. Answer the respective question directly with in 2-3 sentences. Your answers for featured snippet would not exceed more than 54-58 words, as lengthy answers may cause your content and also be left out from the snippet.
In-depth information following your answer:
Users like their webpage to be optimised for both featured snippets as well as for relevant ranking positions. For the position of rank 0 you need only a short term answer, but in order to rank on the top 1,2,3 positions you must give a detailed answer for your question. Now provide the in depth information with the relevant proof terms with the help of Google’s Autocomplete and Searches Related to feature.
Use lists where relevant:
Using the ordered and unordered list(bullets) in content has become norm these days. However, research results show that most of the people are likely to use the numbered list to show up the featured snippets. It helps the readers a better user experience by scanning the content quickly.
Re-optimising the pages which are already ranked highly:
There is no need to be hold on to the number 1 position in order to rank for featured snippets. If your rank is lower than 5, then also your featured snippets may appear. Re-optimise the snippets, that are already ranking by providing the relevant questions to the keywords and the strategies outlined in the post. The following are the 3 strategies to optimise your page.
Create an effective content around the costs and services of your product:
If you have a service based business or if you are a publisher, you can simply create the content around all the costs and services relating to your product for a favourable result.
Target for an 8th grade reading level:
Let us provide the user a better experience by serving them with an effective and readable content for featured snippets, which may attract the audience to visit your page. Make use of tools like readability score to check the complexity and the reading level of your content. It helps the user to read and digest content easily.
Create an attractive Q&A page:
As featured snippet URLs may contain only single question and answer, it is very easy to optimise the single page. But for some topics it contains several questions and answers on the same page. It is advisable for you to rank beyond the featured snippets by providing the comprehensive and detailed information.
Conclusion:
All the credits of this featured snippet goes to Google because they discovered and designed the features snippet in order to provide answers to your questions. This featured snippets will definitely drive more organic traffic to your website. You can also optimise your content and stand ahead of your competitors.