Among those working with SEO, the first page of Google’s results is certainly hot real estate. However, with recent optimizations to the page over the years - the race has gone above SERP position #1 onto the Featured Snippets section!
And why not?
Featured Snippets are an organic boost from the search engine itself that gets around 35.1% of all clicks on the page. In this article, we’re going to delve into how Featured Snippets work and how you can win yourself some space there.
What are Featured Snippets?
Featured snippets are usually high-confidence results displayed in the first position of Google’s SERP.
By Google’s own definition, this is an expanded search result where the usual flow of title-link-summary is reversed to show an expanded summary of the article first. In some cases, a result page may also have 2 featured snippets.
These snippets are offered by Google based on the confidence ranking of their queries.
For example, if the user searches for “How to make a cake recipe without egg” which results in a top page with similar keywords, Google places them within the snippet due to high confidence in the paragraph answering the user’s question.
Hence, owning snippets means knowing what your customers are searching for!
What are the most popular Featured snippets?
Featured snippets can be anywhere from a few lines to several, depending on the type. Snippets can be:
Paragraph style - this typically features a couple of lines. They have an average of 42 words, and around 70% of searches yield paragraph-style snippets.
Listicle style - this consists of 6 to 8 points from the listicle. Listicles can be ordered or unordered. They make up around 19% of the search results.
Tabular style - These make up around 6.3% of the search results and usually contain around 4 to 5 columns.
Video snippets - these are usually a marked section of a video, shown in about 4.6% of the results. Video snippets are a great way to respond to ‘how to’ keywords as they offer low competition.
Based on a study conducted by SEMRush, 19% of all searches showed a featured snippet in the result, with 7.3% showing double-featured snippets!
While once featured, it does mean you won’t show up on the result page again (to avoid clutter), on the flip side, on mobile, Featured snippets occupy more than half the screen, removing potential competitors from the screen.
10 step-by-step process for ranking in Featured Snippets
Here's a simple 10 step process that you can follow to rank your articles for Featured Snippets on Google -
Identify the topic using any Keyword Research tools like SEMRush
Understand the Searcher Intent behind the keyword term
Browse through the SERP Results for the content that is currently ranking
Identify the Rich Snippets that the competitors are already using
Browse through the content to understand the content length, subtopics, and media used
Collect relevant subtopics from Google's People Also Ask section
Compile the article with all the collected data
Add media - images, videos
Add enough internal and external links to various sources
Publish the content, wait for a few days, and check the rankings
1. Identify the topic using any Keyword Research tools like SEMRush
This step of the process is known as Keyword Research. Keyword research involves identifying the string of words with the highest possibility of customer search and using them within your content. Hence, we’re working backwards by looking at what the demand is, and then offering content for the same.
SEMRush features a Keyword Magic Tool that allows one to find the top keywords for any industry or term. For each term, you can also see the intent, volume, keyword density, CPC (clicks per customer), and total results.
Using this as a jumping board, you can even search for related terms or better matches to find more relevant matches.
Remember, only 4.3% of single-word searches showed a featured snippet, but the number was 55.53% for 10 words.
In other words, the more specific users are, the higher is Google’s confidence in a result. A higher number of word strings also have significantly less competition - but this also means overall less traffic.
2. Understand the Searcher Intent behind the keyword term
Understanding search intent can help us guide our new and existing customers to the right content, which in turn can influence them to buy certain products. Your viewers will belong to either of these 3 categories:
Potential customers
Converter customers or influencers who can influence others to buy from you
Competitors
Your goal should be to create new content and update existing content with the first two’s search intent in mind during this process.
Now, search intent can be of four different types:
Informational (“How to bake a cake without egg”)
Transactional (“Buy a gaming laptop“)
Navigational (“Facebook Login“)
Commercial investigation (“London news“)
Here’s how each of these intent types can translate into keywords, and the type of content you can aim for:
Search intent | Keywords | Type of content |
Informational | how, what, where, who, why, tutorial, resource, tips, learn, examples, guide… | Specific answers via listicles, videos, or FAQs |
Transactional | buy, purchase, price, pricing… | Landing pages and reviews |
Navigational | login, sign up for, <brand name> <task>… | Landing pages |
Commercial Investigative | best, top, review, comparison (vs.)… | Competitive analysis, comparisons, reviews |
3. Browse through the SERP Results for the content that is currently ranking
Besides using tools like SEMRush, you can also run a good, old-fashioned Google search to find what the top results for your keywords are.
This can help create a guideline for the type of content each keyword should have. While the table above is a handy guide, there are still things you need to note such as:
The type of snippet being featured - is it a table? Is it an image accompanied by text? Try to target something similar.
The framing of the snippet - Google prefers brief (1-2 sentences) answers in the present tense, without brand names, and not written in the first person.
4. Identify the Rich Snippets that the competitors are already using
To find out which of your competitor’s SERP results are taking up featured snippets, enter their URL in SEMRush and add in the Featured Snippets filter. Make a note of these keyword groups, list them in a table, and try to categorize them based on intent.
Now, use SEMRush to find the potential of each of these individual keywords, like its CPC, volume, and traffic.
If you’re not aware of the URLs of your competitors, you can run a Competitor Analysis on SEMRush. This will generate a list of your top 10 rivals for target keywords.
The list includes keywords, backlinks, and an example of how your competitors have used the keywords. This is essential for you to know what’s helping the top competitors get discovered and build something better on their outline.
5. Browse through the content to understand the content length, subtopics, and media used
If you’ve been following the steps so far, right now we have:
The keywords to target
The featured snippet style for each
The content type associated with each keyword
So, we’re going to dive deeper into point 3 - which is the content for each keyword. While having quotable content is important, remember that Google mainly crawls through content using headers and keywords.
Hence, your content must be properly structured with short paragraphs, clearly called-out headers, summaries, relevant images, and bullets wherever applicable.
Refer to the existing content pieces and create an outline. You can also rely on tools like Surfer SEO’s Blog content outline creator for help.
6. Collect relevant subtopics from Google's People Also Ask section
A good blog is one that does not have a dead end. In other words, think of an endless shopping mall where you keep looping people in with newer and fancier things!
Your article should also have similar sections that allow users to dig deeper and explore other topics on your site. Increasing landing time on a site is also a great way to boost your site’s trust score and get a higher SERP position.
Relevant subtopic links can be gathered from:
Google's People Also Ask section
The PAA section is an insight into what people looking for a particular keyword also tend to look for. It’s a gateway from one article to another.
Google’s Related Searches section
This refers to related, but dissimilar topics. Many include these within their blogs as a “See also” section.
You can also simplify this process by using the browser extension - SEO Minion.
7. Compile the article with all the collected data
Once you have the outline ready, compile the article. Some general tips for writing an article that checks all of Google’s search boxes are:
Extensively break up your article into sections and paragraphs. Use headings for each. Add a content box to allow easy crawling. Create featured sections of your own to explain ideas.
Keep sentences in the present tense. This includes headings. Headings that go “What is…” and explanations that go “XYZ is…” are preferred for featured snippets.
While explaining something, keep a short 2-3 line summary and then expand upon it. This is because the 2-3 lines will help you get picked up for features.
Keep a specific section for brand names and examples. Avoid using them along with the keywords.
Try including trigger words within your keywords. A study by STAT states that groups of certain trigger words result in higher snippet occurrences. Some triggers from their study are:
Avoid using first-person. Featured snippets were introduced by Google as a way to boost voice searches. AI reading out statements like “We believe…” or “I think…” is simply not a great user experience for people looking for concrete answers.
8. Add media - images, videos
While we suggest keeping snippets in the same format as what works for each keyword, you can try to improve upon it by adding rich media.
Generally, images featured along with snippets are 200 pixels wide and 160 pixels high. If your keywords are video-result-based, try to add content and seekers onto your video so Google knows which area to highlight.
9. Add enough internal and external links to various sources
External links are other websites that offer links to your content. This is one of the top ways of building a high trust score within Google, which of course translates into a better SERP position.
External links are hard to build and need time and quotable content. A boosted wat to start this is to begin with a group of blogs or create a network where each blog quotes content from one another.
Internal linking on the other hand helps with crawling by allowing Google to navigate through your own site and find more relevant answers and snippets. A good rule of thumb us to have 3 to 5 internal links every 1000 words of content.
10. Publish the content, wait for a few days, and check the rankings
Once done, proofread and publish the content! Even good content pieces take time to gather rankings. Some may see an initial surge while others might be triggered by various events (e.g.: Christmas decor blogs around November).
Identify the trend your blog follows and keep updating it regularly. This includes a monthly or quarterly check for any broken links, outdated news, and new ad opportunities.
What's changed in 2023
Recently, Google has added more dynamic sub-topics at the top which helps gauge user’s search intent. For example: searching for “content outline generator” gives us a “Best” section at the top:
Here, the search engine is pretty confident that the user is performing a commercial investigative search. Relying on this gives us a featured snippet from a top-performer blog as seen below:
These topics keep changing based on the keywords, as seen:
Here, the search intent is assumed to be informational with additive, refinement suggestions such as “on gas”.
This is a great insight into understanding how Google itself views the search result, and thus - the type of result it’s likely to prioritize. Since the search engine is infamous for constantly updating its algorithm, it’s hard to keep track of individual changes. Relying on tools such as Surfer SEO, Semrush, AHRefs and others for efficiency would be the best strategy. These companies consistently perform experiments to understand the algorithm and update their own.
Another addition is the introduction of blue highlights onto the snippets, as of March 2023, these are meant to highlight the important part of the snippet and make link identification easier.
Some Commonly Asked Questions
Is it hard to score a Featured Snippet?
Generally, featured snippets are chosen from sites that are already present on the 1st result page. If your site does not rank here, your best strategy would be to first target the 1st page and then the FS section.
How does Google decide on a Featured Snippet?
Google chooses a snippet based on their confidence score on how well the content answers a specific question. Pretty much all single-answer questions (e.g.: who’s the president of the USA?) result in featured snippets or direct answers.
Can I pay for Featured Snippets?
While Google does have a sponsored section, Featured Snippets are not paid for and are organically earned.
How long are Featured Snippets?
Irrespective of the type of snippet (paragraph/ listicle, etc), Google snippets are between 40 to 50 words in length.
So this concludes the list of optimization techniques appearing within the featured section. Remember, once you do get a snippet - you must keep updating your content to stay up-to-date with Google’s algorithm!
A little about me
Hey! I'm Soumyajit and I'm the Owner of Webing Spiders, a Design and Marketing Agency that help brands promote their businesses online through organic long-form content and targeted Ad Campaigns.
(For your daily dose of SEO content, follow me on LinkedIn)