How to Get Featured Snippets at Zero Position
1. Are you interested in the featured snippets?
Featured Snippets are the answers in these great and beautiful insets that gives a broad snippet of your page content above all organic results, which is why they are usually nicknamed “Position 0”.
2. What is so impressive about Featured Snippet
We have a really cool rule in our team: we are encouraged to become an expert on a specific SEO topic and act as the main contact and the project manager on these topics. When this initiative was launched, my role was to become the team’s expert in Schema.org and Structured Data. Naturally, I started to test the application of Schema.org tags whenever it was possible. When I had no relevant data to structure, I started creating new content (such as data tables, user guides, and FAQ content) just to be up to date on the tags.
These experiences with Structured Data and rich content led to the triggering of many brand-new Snippets for transactional queries (e.g. “camaro car specifications” – see below). The Featured Snippets are mostly displayed for information request type requests, and that started in 2017 when they were very rare, so I was fascinated by what was going on. I ended up digging deeper into the subject, doing as much research as possible, refining a formula that could be applied across all our sites. Our Featured Return Pages Snippets bring an impressive increase in our inbound traffic and global revenue, and this gives me good case studies that I present to
Since this initial project, I always know about changes to Featured Snippets and universal improvements to SERP features, it’s become a hobby and I often tweet my new discoveries.
3. Why are featured snippets important?
Anyone who works with search engines knows that Google’s result pages are adding new SERP features every day. Depending on the different objectives of the person doing the research, the query can give Knowledge Panel, Local Packs, Quick Answer Boxes, product overlays, aggressive ads, carousels and all kinds of types of results improvements. of research.
This means that our natural results compete with a myriad of features and that if we do not do our best to be sufficiently present or represented, we could lose traffic, customers and notoriety. Featured Snippets are vital from an SEO perspective and need to be addressed because this is one of the latest natural SERP features that can benefit from and have a direct impact.
That’s not all: there is a strong connection between voice search responses and Featured Snippets results, especially with mobile device queries. Optimizing for the purpose of achieving Position 0 is a cost-effective strategy for dealing with advances in conversational research.
4. So basically, the featured snippets can answer queries?
It’s their goal, yes!
They try to be as effective at answering questions as the “Knowledge Cards” – (the quick response SERP feature that gives the results from the entity-association model). They are triggered when a query is a question phrase like “When was Jurassic world released” and Google is sure to be able to provide data from Knowledge Graph. The difference between Knowledge Graph Cards and a Featured Snippet is the attribution of URLs. See how the result below provided the data, but does not link to the source of the information. This is because the data is taken from Knowledge Graph.
On the other hand, the Featured Snippets are much more present for the requests related to a search of information for which the person may need additional information to satisfy his research. For example, we can answer the question “How long does it take to cook a cake” by cooking time, but Google knows that a reliable answer will depend on several variables and that the person who has carried out this research will surely make a cake. That’s why it will trigger a Featured Snippet in which a URL to an associated homepage will be presented below the box for the person to deepen their search.
5. How can you get these featured snippets?
Unlike getting Enriched Excerpts, there is no ready-made recipe for winning Featured Snippets. It’s more about a set of best practices as well as tons of trial and error. The most effective strategy is to find what works for you and to cross that with winning variables in your SEO efforts so that the Featured Snippets are organically generated without repetition of evaluation. It takes time, patience and a little DIY to find the solution, but it’s the most effective way to get Position 0 in the future.
To find your recipe for Featured Snippets, here is the step by step process that I am:
1.Find all relevant Snippets opportunities and prioritize what’s feasible and what’s worth it in terms of clicks.
To do this research, there are many SEO tools that can tell you which Featured Snippets you are most likely to get and which you should aim for, but you should also look for new possibilities. in terms of content that could trigger the appearance of Featured Snippets. I like doing this by working with customer service teams to find problems that can be solved on our pages, by collecting complaints and feedback on the site, looking at Knowledge Panel and related search results for find inspiration. It’s not only good advice to find Featured Snippets opportunities, it’s also very useful for creating useful content.
2.Provide high quality content that meets the needs of users.
To be ranked at the coveted Position 0, you must make sure that what you are proposing is factual, written for real humans and that it matches the needs of the person doing the research. Using sources, data and authority helps to prove that your statistics and explanations stand the test and are consistent.
3.Structure content in the most relevant format for the user and for Google.
The Featured Snippets are displayed in three different formats: paragraphs, lists and tables. You should structure your content so that it is easy to identify and categorize. For example: “how”, comparisons, method searches often trigger a list and common questions that start with “why” or “which ones” will most likely give paragraphs. Clearly structured content such as tables, HTML lists, concise paragraphs, and clear headings are good practices for UX and readability.
4.Consolidate the landing page with additional information on the subject.
Providing more rich and relevant content on the subject makes your content more useful for your visitors, but more generally it also proves to Google that you are an important source of knowledge on the subject.
5.Provide a clear explanation using the Schema.org tags.
Although not mandatory for Featured Snippets, the presence of a Schema.org tag can help search engines understand the context of the data you name for Position 0 of the results. You can use the Quiz / Response Page (QA Page), Page FAQ (FAQ Page), List (item list), and how-to guides.
6.Make sure you can click on it!
Use explanatory diagrams, catchy headlines and make sure the lists give the steps to follow. Of course, you need to provide good and high-quality content to achieve this result in the first place, but it requires more optimization to make sure the Featured Snippet is successful in its mission to engage visitors to continue on your website.
6. What is zero-click SERPs?
A fascinating study of click rate by Rand Fishkin has highlighted the harsh reality that most searches do not give any clicks. In all honesty, the fact that 54% of searches in the UK and the EU are without a click does not frighten me more than that because the type of queries that contribute to the zero-click SERPs (these queries purely informative and factual) can be satisfied at a glance.
A potential customer of mine will need to click on my site to find what he needs and that’s what I intend to bring: more significant traffic. While my job is to attract more clicks, I’m not interested in short visits that do not bring value. That is why it is important to also ensure that the associated entities are enriched and aligned, such as directories, Knowledge Panels, Wikipedia entries etc … I want these requests purely factual information as “Las Vegas airport phone number” be satisfied on the SERP and not by a quick page visit followed by a rebound.
If a company relies on visits from informational queries, it should focus on brand recognition and popularity for users to search for answers to their questions through their site. Encourage users to visit your site directly, or with searches using your brand in key words.
7. Can you influence whether a link to its content is shown or not by Google?
You should always aim for the “More …” tag under your Featured Snippet list to emphasize that there is more to learn on the page below. Expanding the content of your Featured Snippet is a good practice to improve your click through rate, but only if it is necessary and relevant.
Generally speaking, a classic Featured Snippet will always contain a “blue link” to your content at the bottom. There are, however, several types of Featured Snippet variations that now provide links to refine the search that lead to another Google Advanced Search. I call them “Featured Snippets Entity” because they pull known entities from the contents of the landing pages.
This can be useful for you: for example, if a list of articles or site comparison mentions your brand and that happens in Position 0, you are going to make some notoriety. Is not it fantastic that an opposing Snippet Crew will make traffic to your website?
What role do Bing and DuckDuckGo play in all this?
Of course, these search engines follow Google and its improvements very closely and the Featured Snippets are no exception.
Bing has very aggressive variations of Featured Snippet that show mock content from the URL. In some cases, all the text of the page can be read in the SERP (scary no?). That said, in these cases it is more Enriched Result and Featured Snippets hybrids as there may be several by SERP, and snippet enhancements are shown under each result.
DuckDuckGo is also quite malicious with their way of stealing content. Their variations of Featured Snippets are displayed on the right, and can be enlarged so that the whole method or list is visible on the SERP.
We cannot say that Google’s Featured Snippets are a hell after seeing their equivalents also loaded with content on other search engines ?
8 .What should be taken care of while working on featured snippet
Learn how to use the power of Featured Snippets to your advantage. Whether you like them or not, these rich content enhancements of SERPs can greatly increase your traffic and conversion rate. That’s why getting these Featured Snippets in some cases can create a great growth opportunity.
Learn about the potential risks and rewards of obtaining Featured Snippets for queries directly answerable on the SERPs, especially if your target audience is an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Understand the importance of assessing the question’s relevance before pursuing Featured Snippets. Explore the additional benefits, including brand recognition, voice search visibility, reduced short site visits, and competitive advantage. Delve into expert insights at eBranding studio.
