How to optimize content for Google’s Featured Snippets?

Google is continuously updating its search algorithms to make search a better experience for its users. Featured Snippets are one of the elements that are introduced in GSP. Google search page is significantly improved in terms of its design, layout and search results. Let’s dive to understand how to optimize content for Google’s featured snippets.

What are featured snippets?

Featured Snippets are exclusively designed Google search results. Displayed in a reversed format, a featured snippet returns the AI based best matched result from across the web for user’s query.

How to optimize content for featured snippets?

Here, I am listing few tips on how to optimize content for a featured snippet.

1. Understand the user search requirements

According to Semrush, 41% of questions have featured snippets. Now that’s a huge aggregate. It is a good idea to create a landing page comprising of answers that users are actually searching. To best determine the purpose of your landing page you need to understand the three main query types i.e.

Transactional Query: Also known as commercial searches, these queries intend to buy a product.

Informational Query: Also known as non-commercial searches, these queries intend to look for particular information.

Navigational Query: These queries intend to look for a web address.

2. Provide solution that meets user’s requirement

While preparing your content, be focused to present a solution to your target audience queries.

So, before you start writing, follow these simple rules.

• Research on the topic, the facts, and figures.
• Do a little competition analysis, how your competition is performing for that particular topic.
• Analyze the content of top-ranking sites, how and what factors are making them popular with their audience, and search bots.

Once you research and have data now it’s time to create your own descriptive profound copy that directly meets the user’s requirement. Put yourself in the shoes of your audience and analyze if you were able to directly answer the question.

3. Create descriptive page titles.

Titles provide significant insight into a web page usability to a searcher. Your page title is the key to unlock user clicks to your website. Hence, it is important to use high-quality titles on your web pages. Here are a few tips to create your web page titles.
*Ensure the title of every web page is specified in the Html title tag.
*Create a unique descriptive title for every web page.
*Brand your titles, but concisely.
*Avoid keyword stuffing.

4. Create good meta descriptions.

Google sometimes extracts summarized excerpts from the meta description tag.

A well-crafted description of your web page can do wonders for your SEO campaign. Spend time in constructing the sentences while grouping your focused keywords in your description.

Don’t miss to utilize this opportunity to write captivating and compelling ads for your webpage. However, there’s no length limit for meta description, but the search result snippets are trimmed to fit the device width. It is advised to maintain an optimal character count of 166-175 in the description tag.

5. Be pivot towards design experience

With the rapid increase in smartphone users across the world, a mobile-friendly website is the need of the hour for businesses. Ensure your web design adheres with the mobile first technology to enhance design and mobility experience for its user. A recent study of the Asia Pacific market by Google revealed how mobile-friendly websites boosted the user’s buying decision from companies whose mobile sites were customized to their locations.

87% of Indian smartphone users prefer making a purchase from companies whose mobile sites or apps are integrated with a quick and easy purchase process.

Even if you are able to get zero position for your web page but failed to provide a quick, easily navigable information to the user, he definitely is going to hit the back button. This is certainly going to hamper your quality rating with Google.

6. Let your graphics and media speak.

We are human and it’s a human tendency to remember visual information better and longer than a plain text. Visuals help in making a connection with the audience and benefits with more user engagement.

There are many online websites like Canva, Visme, Venngage, etc. to help you create infographics, presentations for free. You can also upload your own images and create a visual story for your audience.

59% of executives say videos are more engaging than text and 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store.

Adding images and videos to your web page content not only amuses the reader but also makes it easier for them to understand and remember the information.

Here are some strategies to use videos and images in your content.

*Use videos and images to share your brand’s story.
*Live-streaming videos are very popular these days. Take advantage of Facebook Live, Periscope, and *Instagram Stories to engage with your social media followers.
*Create product videos illustrating how to use it, the benefits, features, and specs.
*Repurpose popular blog posts with images and videos

7. Ensure secure HTTPS connection

Google also looks at HTTPS as a ranking signal for websites. Browser security is one of the key factors to protect users connected to your webpage.

What is HTTPS?

HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is a network communication protocol that ensures the safety of user’s data and integrity while communicating with a web site.

Data transferred using HTTPS is secured via Transport Layer Security protocol (TLS), through encryption, data integrity, and authentication layers.

Hence to rank in GSR and to assure your audience safety while browsing your website you must have an HTTPS certificate.

8. Create a comprehensive list

Lists are the best examples to get featured spots on Google. Create a comprehensive list of the items, products, or how-to dos. Make sure to enhance your list with suitable examples and references. Leverage on Google truncating facility to allow the searcher a valid reason to click on your web page. However, always keep the end-user in mind while creating content. Many times, a short, straightforward and to the point list is good to fulfill the user query.

9. Incorporate keywords naturally while connecting with the target audience

Ahrefs’ study revealed the top 30 words that triggered a special block listing in the giant search engine. recipe, best, vs, make, definition, can, windows, get, number, cost, meaning, price, chicken, iPhone, list, much, new, phone, top, salary, time, review, many, name, long, code, schedule, reviews, change, size.

Keeping your user in mind create content-rich with questions, prepositions, and comparisons. Use Grammarly, for vocabulary and grammatical functions. It is certainly my life-saver when it comes to write error free English.

10. Follow the optimal word count

SEMrush large scale study of 10 million keywords revealed average featured paragraph length falls between 40 – 50 words.

Ensure your paragraphs contains the optimal word count.

Let’s check the query “my India ideas for the future summary” Keeping the paragraph short and precise helped to earn the special block in Google SERP.

11. Proper format your blog post structure

To qualify for the special format listing by Google you must consider structuring your web page content in a proper format.

Here are few tips to structure your blog post for snippets

• Ensure a descriptive title tag in HTML
• Create descriptive headers within Html header tags like h1, h2, h3, etc.
• Provide short and succinct sentences to directly answer the user’s query.
• Use graphs, tables, numbered lists, bullet-pointed lists.
• Add high-quality relevant images in your content. However, these tips are subjected to the site design and content usefulness to your audience. Adhere to best user experience guidelines while formatting your blog posts.

12. Optimize your images

Image optimization is not a new term. In fact, it is one of the popular techniques used in SEO to improve search engine rankings and for speeding up the website loading time.  

For a quick recall, Image optimization is compressing your image file size to the maximum while maintaining its best quality.

How image optimization helps you target the featured snippet?

Compressing and optimizing images with respect to size, content relevancy, speed, title, name, text, and quality helps in accelerating your chances to get crawled, indexed, and well-positioned in SERPs’.

Adding schema to your images enhances your chances to secure a featured space along with the featured text. There are brighter chances to get your link highlighted with your competitors featured text on Google.

While optimizing images do follow the guidelines set by Google to enhance your chances to capture that space.

Why you must optimize for a featured snippet?

Let’s look at 3 main reasons to do SEO for these special or sometimes called position zero search listings.

1. Vocalized in the Voice search results or by the Google Assistant. 71% of voice results came from snippet listings – study by Moz.
2. CTR increases by 114% – a study by Hubspot.
3. Provides direct answers to user queries.

 

Recent Google Updates

Google is frequent with updating its algorithms to bring its users more relevant and informative content. One of the major steps to make the search results, more user friendly and targeted, was the introduction of BERT last year. It affected featured snippets in 70 languages.

In January 2020, Google stopped showing duplicate results for a website if it grabs the featured snippet position in GSR.

The right sidebar featured snippets similar to knowledge graphs are on their way out.

Google launched a web page content highlight feature in June 2020. It simply highlights the snippet text on the web page from where it is extracted. If a user clicks on a featured snippet, Google introduces him directly to the snippet on the source web page. This feature is also known as TargetText Functionality. It is an automatic function and requires no markup. If the technology is not supported by a browser or the Google encounters difficulty in locating the snippet, a user may not experience this functionality. However, the user will still be linked to the source web page via a featured snippet.

Conclusions

• Google creates a snippet for everyone. And you have a brighter chance to get featured listing adhering to the tips above.
• Featured snippets are designed to provide the best answer to a question. Make sure you have the best answers for your audience query.
• Featured Snippets are automatically generated.
• Optimizing your content increases your chance to get a featured listing.
• A featured snippet is often termed as position zero. And this is the highest-ranking spot in Google SERP.
• Featured snippets help in boosting conversions, drive visitors to your website.
• Invest in keyword research to find potential content ideas.
• Optimize your images.
• Adhere to paragraph word count.
• Consider adding the “how-to” or Q&A section to your website.
• Last but not least add high-quality images and videos wherever you can, while maintaining the best user experience standards.

This article is updated on 28th Feb 2021.