How to Hunt Down and Find Featured Snippets of Information to Capture for Traffic in 2022
Two words: Featured snippets.
In this post I'll go over the meaning behind them, and why you should care and walk through exactly the steps you can use to get into the featured short snippet.
What's the TL;DR? - How to rank the Snippets of Featured Content in the Position Zero
Here's a quick overview of some ideas we'll be sharing regarding how to maximize for featured snippets:
- Target question-based keywords.
- Find out if there's an article that is featured in the SERP, and also the type of it (paragraph or list, table, etc) using a tool like Ahrefs.
- Your paragraph and sentences should be relatively brief.
- Answer the query as directly as you can.
- Structure your content with subheadings that are logical (H2 H2, H3, H4, for example).).
- Utilize tables to display any information.
- Include the question within the response, if it is possible.
- Provide a summary either at the start or end of your article.
Then let's deep dive into featured snippets.
What are the Special Snippets Featured?
A featured excerpt (also called place zero) is a brief summary of an response to a question asked by a user. They will appear on the top of the results of a search engine (SERPs) and pulled from a webpage (hopefully from your webpage).
The aim is to provide the user with a quick and direct response to their questions without the need to navigate to a particular website or search result. Help
Do you want to learn the best way to prepare pizza? Here you go:
Or maybe you want to know when is the best moment to make reservations for flights:
Perhaps you'd like to know who exactly is Batman's mysterious identity:
We apologize for spoilers! As per Google Snippets are intended for "enhance and draw user interest to the search results page".
What Is NOT an Featured Snippet?
Just to make things slightly difficult, not all features which appear on result pages of search engines (SERPs) are actually featured snippets.
For certain searches, Google will show customized results for certain searches. These ARE NOT the featured results and may include:
Rich Answers
Rich Answers (or Instant Answers) are answers by Google. They are answers that have been generated by Google which don't require you to click through to the web page.
They generally address factual things such as how big is Uranus (sorry I'm no excuses) or how tall is the Empire State Building (381m or 443m to the tip, if you're wondering):
Google does not give credit to websites with rich answers like these, as according to them that this data is in the domain of public record.
Knowledge Graphs
Knowledge Graph answers are generated from a variety of sources and appear on the right-hand page of SERPs.
Searching for brands, people or businesses trigger these:
Rich Snippet
You'll often see them in e-commerce websites. The purpose is to help results stand out with ratings stars, availability of products as well as pricing details:
Once we've got that out and out of our way. but did you realize that there's various types of included snippets?
We'll take a closer look these:
What are the various types of Snippets?
The featured snippets of text come in all shapes and sizes. Five main kinds in all honesty:
1. Paragraph Snippets
Paragraph snippets tend to be the most frequently used snippets that you'll come across. They are designed to give the most direct response to the query of a user:
Quite often the snippets will also include images. But, they are usually drawn from other sources (not the site that is of the one that's featured).
The paragraph snippets are typically displayed for the keywords which contain search terms for example:
- What can you do?
- How do I
- How do I get
- Who are you?
- What is the reason?
- What does it mean
2. Snippets of the Numbered List
Google generally show numbered list excerpts whenever it believes users want to know a series of steps to accomplish an action, such as this snippet for what to do to workout:
3. Bullet Point List Snippets
Everyone loves a list post do you not think? Well, Google's no exception. Check out this short snippet to find the Looker Studio templates :
In these featured excerpts, Google formats the bullet points list using the headlines for each part of the blog post.
4. Table Snippets
Though less popular but Google's crawlers are able to understand tables of data quite well.
Often, it won't grab every detail from the table. It will instead modify the information for the particular snippet of information into what it believes is the most efficient (and for better readability).
Consider the example above for the term "mortgage rate". If you examine the page the data is being taken from, you'll find that Google has taken out a lot of rows and columns so that it can provide an easy answer within the text.
5. YouTube Snippets
There aren't just websites that Google can create highlighted snippets of content from as well as from other sites like YouTube (if Google believes that a video best answers the question):
If you're looking for a solution to a question like "how to repair an issue with a chain for a bike' a video results seem to be logical and can be much more helpful for you to learn by following closely rather than reading an article. Something to consider when writing content to meet searcher's requirements.
What is the reason to care about Highlighted Snippets? (Hint to Increase clicks)
If you are ranking among the top 10 positions, chances are you have a chance to appear in a prominent snippet.
What's the advantage?
The obvious answer is the more visitors to your website.
Based on the study of 2 million highlighted excerpts by Ahrefs, 8.6% of all clicks are directed to the highlighted snippet.
When you rank in the featured snippet, you are 'stealing' traffic away from the other organic results.
Now, consider that the amount of keywords that show a highlighted snippet exceeds 12 percent of all search results, which is a huge amount of possible traffic to take.
There is also an additional positive aspect to going after the zero position:
With just a few adjustments to your website's content and you could increase traffic almost instantly if you get in the featured snippet. If your site is ranked obviously.
The truth is that it's not always good...
Because the short snippets of content occupy an enormous amount of space on the SERP's top page, they get a lot more views and clicks. It's great for your website if it is on them, but not so much if you are competing against it.
Additionally, utilizing this feature of SERPs can cause you to see a drop in clicks and traffic. When the highlighted snippet of text is providing an answer to a users question that isn't requiring them to leave the SERPs, your traffic is going to suffer.
After all, a user does not need to go to your website when their question has been answered right there on Google.
How to Find Featured Snippets Opportunities
Finding featured snippet opportunities can be done with ease if you use the right tools. When it comes to hunting for them There are two kinds of keywords that are available:
- Keywords your site already ranks at the top of page one, when a snippet of content is in use
- New keyword opportunities you can rank in the snippet for
We'll look into these options further:
How to find Snippets of Snippets You Already Rank For
The most efficient way to win the chance to be featured is by using the keywords that you already rank for on the first page. There is a highlighted snippet that shows.
Thankfully, finding these are opportunities is pretty quick with a program like Ahrefs.
Find them here:
Step 1.
Head over to Ahrefs' website Ahrefs Site explorer and type in your domain. Then, click on Organic keyword in the panel to the left.
Step 2
On this report, you'll see all the organic keywords your website has been ranked for. In this report, Ahrefs' keyword filtering options makes it easy to locate featured snippets of content.
On the top of the page click SERP features and then select the highlighted snippets of content and click apply.
Step 3.
Then you'll be able see all the keywords your site is ranked for, and that contains a featured excerpt.
Be on the lookout for the small speech marks icon next to your pages, this signifies that your page is showing in the tiny snippet. Nice
Step 4
You can actually filter this list further in case you are looking for certain easy win-win chances.
You can find the position filter at the top of this page. In the 'To' box and hit apply.
It will display the pages of your website which are ranked in the range of 1 - 10 (aka on the first page) which also includes a featured snippet.
This is your chance to win quickly - they allow for users to review your web pages to see which snippets you want to go for.
Finding New Snippets of Information to rank for
So, we've covered how to find featured snippets you are already in the top position for.
We'll now look for brand new options:
Step 1.
Return to Ahrefs, but next time you should go to the Keyword Explorer Tool. Add a 'seed keyword' to this. Imagine the topic as a general one to help you create the kind of content you want to produce:
Step 2
On the left hand side, select the phrase match. Under SERP features choose 'featured Snippet to apply.
Step 3
You'll now have a large list of terms and opportunities to use featured snippets in the keyword that you typed in.
One last thing that you can do here.
For each keyword, you can click on the SERP dropdown to view the website that is in the most recent snippet.
How to rank for Featured Snippets (In 3 Easy Steps)
Now you know the featured excerpts as well as the various types of them and the best way to get the best ones. The only thing to do is: how to actually obtain them.
Let's get the bad word out first:
For you to be featured in the featured snippet You must be ranked on page one first.
Most snippets of results are pulled from pages that rank on the first page. So if you haven't yet reached that point it's time to boost your SEO and up your rankings.
There is obviously lots more that can be done to optimize a website for SEO performance, but these are the essentials that you must be aware of.
Right, let's jump into how you can rank on the most popular snippets of content:
Step 1: Conduct Some Question-Based Keyword Research
In actual fact, Ahrefs discovered that the majority of the featured snippets on display are driven by keywords with long tails..
If you're wondering what are long-tail keyword, they are extremely-focused query types. They generally have lower search volumes (but not always) however they have a greater likelihood of being converted.
How do you quickly locate the long-tail keywords
Go to Google to enter keywords. Now watch autocomplete generate long-tail keyword ideas for you:
Scroll down the page a little and you'll have the opportunity to check out the "People can also contact" box:
At the end of the page you'll find the "searches associated with" box.
This is a pretty valuable long-tail keyword research you can perform without going away from Google.
Alternately, go to Ahrefs Keyword Explorer. Add in your search term, then browse every keyword idea and then filter it to search for keywords with six word or more. There are many ways to experiment the number based on your niche:
Generally speaking the featured excerpts are created to help answer queries.
So one of the best methods to reach place zero is to reverse engineer this process by conducting keyword analysis.
Find question-related keywords and create content that answers the question...
Respond to the questions people have asked
Understanding your audience helps. Searching for loads and lots of keyword phrases could not be the ideal method of using your time. Instead, try to find specific questions people ask.
The free tools such as Answer The Public enable you to create keyword phrases for long-tail questions super-fast.
Simply type in a keyword (or topic) and it will generate lots of interesting questions that people ask for visually divided by type. There's an export by CSV alternative too.
Don't forget, when researching questions people are asking, use what you know about your target users.
Where are they hanging out online? In forums, Quora, Reddit, or other specific social media channels? The point is: go to where your potential customers are, and take a look at what questions they are asking.
What you must make is write the text to answer these questions This is a lot be more difficult to do than you think.
Step 2: Create and Format Your Content (So Google Can Easily Read The Content)
Knowing which keywords to focus on and the type of content you should write is not the only thing to consider. To get in the featured snippet, formatting plays a big part.
Snippets tend to show just the first few lines of a page or text. Indeed, Moz analyzed 1.4 million included snippets and determined the ideal length of a featured paragraph to be roughly 40 to 50 words.
For the best chance to be the chance to be featured, it is best to be able to answer it in one sentence that introduces the question, proceed to your subsequent content.
Here is the most popular snippet of text for the keyword 'what are directory backlinks':
This snippet directly answers the question within a couple of paragraphs. If you go to the ranking page there, you'll find that the information is taken from this page:
The section that begins at the start of the article directly answers this question, but the rest of the content is more detailed about the issue.
How to format your content for position Zero
Formatting your content correctly has two objectives that SEO is based on: help your users to read it , and also to assist Google to understand it.
The first thing to remember is that you should be using headings and subheadings to structure the content in addition to dividing it up into logical sections.
You'll want to format your website using standard HTML tags to ensure that Google is able to crawl your site efficiently. For featured snippet hunting the best people to talk to are:
The h2>andh3>tags for the inquiries,
paragraph tags used for the main body text
- OOL or and
and li>to list the items.
In the case of WordPress, you have the H2, H3, H4 tags in addition to the regular paragraph (
) tags. Follow a hierarchy here so you don't just get an organic flow but also a rational one.
When you are able, it is best to include keywords in your subheadings and if possible you can include a that summarizes the information towards the highest point of your webpage.
Let's take a take a look at way to create an app brief article:
This is a short overview of the headings structure in the text:
- H1 - How to Create An Application (In 9 Steps)
- H2 - 1. Sketch Your App Idea
- H2 - 2. Do Some Market Research
- H2 - 3. Create mockups Of Your App
- Ect.
This isn't the whole structure of the article, but an overview to give the reader an impression.
The overall title (H1) which tells us and Google what the site is about. There are also subheadings (H2) which provide detail on aspects of a speed test.
If an article wants to go over some of the information, it could employ H3 headings to go into more detail in their H2s relative to them.
Imagine this in this manner If someone were to skim-read your content would they be able to determine the overall meaning of the text only by skimming through the subheadings?
If you are able to answer"yes", then you are in the right direction.
When you've put your headings in place it is important to organize the primary portion of your article. This will depend on the type of information that you're presenting. Here are some guidelines that are quick and easy to follow:
- To find definitions, or answer questions, Use paragraphs
- To make lists of items, or multiple-step processes, you can utilize bullet points or numbered lists
- To make comparisons or data - make use of tables
And don't forget, where possible, use relevant images to help illustrate and explain your responses.
Oh, and just one other thing: be sure you format for snippet that you're trying to fit in.
Step 3: Format the Content of the Snippet you Want
We've briefly touched upon this, but each type of included snippet of content requires a distinct formatting.
The most popular types of snippets according to this study conducted by SEMrush with 10 millions SERPs include:
- Paragraphs 53.2 Paragraphs 53.2
- Lists 35.5 percent
- Tables 11.5%
Here's a few ideal featured snippets lengths put together by Moz
Let's take a look at some tips for formatting to remember in each of these
Formatting Paragraphs for Paragraph Type Featured Snippets
In the case of paragraph snippets, Google will only display the content as a snippet. Make sure to answer the question in 40 - 50 words. You should also include the keyword/question as a subheading
For a paragraph to be included in the that contains the featured snippet, you may need to adjust the format of your article in order to:
- Incorporate the question into your subheading
- Then, follow the question with one-paragraph answers
- You can go on to discuss the subject into the report.
You want to have the most essential facts (that will answer the query) at the top of your webpage. As the story moves on, you may provide more details.
Formatting for List Type Featured Snippets
To be able to get into the list type snippet it is important to ensure that the content you write is structured with logical order. You can do this by either putting your list of items into bullet points, or arranged subheadings.
For clarity that you are following the rules, it's possible to put numbers within your headings in order so that it is clear you have a logic flow:
If you are creating your list, make sure to extend it beyond eight points. Why? Since this is the highest value that Google will allow, therefore it'll show a 'More things' hyperlink. For example:
This means people will have to click through to your website to discover all the other information. Hello traffic!
Forming for Table Type Table Type Formatting
Table featured snippets of text are great for showing the data.
Start with a good start by putting any data you think is valuable to users into tables with appropriate titles to be picked up by the snippet that is featured.
In table snippets, Google will show a maximum of 3 columns and 9 rows. Like the list snippet, if your table has more, Google will add a click-through link.
Looking up 'camera prices' will bring up this data snippet that adds "11 additional rows' to the link for more data:
Summary
The process of getting your site's content listed in the featured snippet spot within SERPs could be a tough task. Ranking in the top ten in the first place is likewise hard work.
However, like many other things, some hard work and persistence will pay off. SEO is a race, not a sprint. In the event that you already are awe-inspiring with your content, highlighting snippets can be a quick success.
Now go forth, hunt down, and capture the highlights of. We'd love to hear how it's going in the comments.
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