Google’s featured snippets are a great way to get your digital brand more recognition. But how do you get in one? By passing the number one results can be tempting and can be yours with a little work. 

Optimize Your Digital Brand with Google’s Featured Snippets

Google featured snippets have only gained more popularity the longer they’ve been a part of Google. People love getting a quick answer to their questions and if the answer is coming from your brand than the feelings of amour will travel to you.

What is a Google Featured Snippet?

You’ve probably already seen a Google featured snippet about a million times when searching through Google for the answers to your questions.

Featured snippets are the selected search results that Google features on top of the regular results and below the ads in a special outlined box. These boxes aim to answer the user’s question right away, and being featured here means getting additional exposure for your brand in the search results.

No matter what you’re searching for, odds are pretty good that you’ll get a quick answer in a little box once you click ‘enter’. Google will usually pull their featured snippet from the content that’s already ranking high right on page one. However, it could also pull from the lower ranking SERPs.

The goal of these featured snippets is to make finding answers easier than ever because you don’t even have to click anything to get your information.

Types of Featured Snippets

There are three types that featured snippets.

The first is paragraph form. This is what is most commonly seen when you get a featured snippet from your search. It is just an answer given in text and can be a box with text inside or a box with both text and an image.

The second is a list form. This is an answer given in the form of a list usually with bullets or numbers down the side.

The third is table form. These are usually used for more numeric answers and will give your answer in a table or chart within the box.

Why is it Important to be Featured?

The numbers don’t lie, having your content placed in a featured snippet will only help your brand.

Mobile sessions from Google organic traffic to featured snippet articles increased by 505%.

Desktop and tablet sessions increased organic traffic to the featured snippet articles by 578% and 399%.

The featured snippet article’s click-through rate (CTR) increased from 2% to 8% from March to September in 2015.

Revenue from organic visitors landing on a featured snippet page improved by 677%.

The increase in user involvement on your page just from having a featured snippet is undeniable. This is what makes these spots so coveted by small brands and big corporations alike.

It can also be noted, that websites who get a featured snippet are more likely to steal away clicks from the number one ranking result. So it’s a great way to get exposure without having to fight for that number one spot.

Chances of Being Featured

Your chances of being featured are pretty good if you’re already ranking high for related search queries. According to research, 99.58% of featured pages are those already ranking in the top 10 in Google search results.

It’s important to remember though that 70% of snippets will come from sites outside the first organic position. So, you want to be ranked in the top 10 but not be number one in order to be featured.

The types of queries that will get featured snippets most often are DIY, health, financial, mathematical, status, requirements, and transitional. The types of queries that don’t get featured snippets are usually ones with images and videos, local, or shopping information.

So, to make your chances of being featured greater, you need to aim for the top 10 without being number one, so work on your overall rankings. In addition, if your topic is DIY, health, or finance, your odds are higher that you’ll be featured.

Find Opportunities to be Featured

Keyword Research

The majority of featured snippets are triggered by long-tail keywords. The more words that are typed into a search box, the higher the odds that there will be a featured snippet to go with the results.

Research your keywords before you use them. When doing your research, start with question-type queries, ones that contain question words like what, why, or how.

You’ll also want to target informational intent, not just the questions. Featured snippets aim to answer the user’s question immediately, and it’s not just question-type queries that get featured results. In fact, the majority of keywords that will trigger a featured snippet are long-tail queries with no question words.

Using a keyword research tool can help you to find out immediately if a query will trigger featured results. Serpstat is a great option for keyword research. It will combine keyword research with featured snippet research to see which of the keywords you want to use will trigger answer boxes.

Browse Google

When exploring your topic, use Google’s ‘People also ask’ feature. This will provide a lot of insight into which questions Google feels are related to your topic.

Find Out Where You Rank High

Google Search Console can show which search queries already send you clicks. To find your report, just click ‘search traffic’ and then ‘search analytics’.

You can check the box to show the position your pages are holding for each one and you have the ability to see which queries are top performing ones.

Ask People

When trying to figure out your place in the internet, you can ask your readers, followers, and customers to see how they search and which questions they’ll ask.

You can also move away from your target audience and ask others. 

There are some great websites that can help you with this. At MyBlogU, you can ask the people that fall outside your immediate reach. This site allows you to ask random people what questions they have on a specific topic and will give you a new perspective.

Seed Keywords is another great resource. This site lets you discover related keywords that your friends and followers are using. You can create a search scenario and share it on social media. Then your followers can type in the keywords they would use.

Optimize for Featured Snippets

1. Answer each question directly

Google prefers to feature answers that are given within one paragraph. The average length of paragraph snippet that Google uses is 47 words. The maximum number of words found is 97. This is a great parameter for guiding how long your answers should be in order to be featured.

That being said, your articles shouldn’t be one paragraph long. Google will give preference to long-form or cornerstone content that is broken into subsections and has images.

Focusing on long articles will also help you to cover more than one question within each post. You might have to adjust how to you blog to hit this. You may want to ask the question in your article in a subheading, then answering the question with a quick paragraph, and finally elaborating on the material further in the rest of the article. This will also make your post easier to read which can result in higher user retention.

2. Organize

Google loves being able to find easy answers. These are often organized in numbers, steps, and lists. For example, an answer box may actually include ingredients, the number of steps, and how long to cook.

Comparison charts and lists make it easier for you to be featured because Google loves the organized content.

In your paragraph, you need to answer the question, make a list of useful names or numbers, and get factual.

3. Use Images

If your paragraph has an image, then your featured snippet will be incredibly eye-catching. The unfortunate part of featured snippets though is that you can’t pick which image is featured. Google will pick a random image from your page without asking your for a better one.

This makes it important to be sure that all your in article images are stunning, branded, and annotated well so that if Google decides to feature it it will look nice.

SEE ALSO: How to Legally Use Images in Your Digital Branding

4. Monitor Your Progress

Using the site Ahrefs you can monitor your site for which queries you are featured for.

Final Thoughts

Getting featured in a Google featured snippet can be a great boost for your brand. If you make it into the featured snippet box, users can see your post right away without even having to click on it. You can bypass the coveted number one result and put yourself right at the top.

Specializing in your content and focusing on the topics that tend to have featured snippets will increase your odds of being featured. You can also work on your website’s content. Making sure to have a clear question with a paragraph answer will increase your chances of being featured and push your visibility up for other users.

Do you like using the featured snippet option in your searches?