Most people know that ranking on Google is important. But few people know that there are multiple ways to rank on Google.
There are many different types of links on Google that you can rank for. One of them is the Google featured snippet. By ranking for the Google featured snippet, you can direct more traffic to your blog or website, which will help you find new customers.
What is the Google Featured Snippet?
You’ve probably seen the Google featured snippet feature hundreds of times – likely even today!
The Google featured snippet is otherwise known as “position zero,” according to Jeff Molitor, Director of Digital at Clique Studios. Having position zero in Google means that you are at the top of the Google search results page and, even better, that you take up the most space on the page.
According to Add This, the snippet itself contains information about the question asked in the search bar. Basically, it’s an easy way for a reader to find an answer because they don’t have to click on another link to get their information.
Why is it so important to rank for the Google featured snippet?
The Google featured snippet helps you get more traffic to your page. According to HubSpot, content with a featured snippet gets a 2X higher click-through rate.
Basically, if you rank for the Google featured snippet, you’ll be able to get a ton more traffic to your site and you’ll be able to help people find answers to their questions.
So now that we’ve talked about the Google featured snippet, how do you rank for it? Let’s take a look.
Tip #1: Find Snippet Opportunities
What’s the best way to get selected for a Google featured snippet? Figuring out what kinds of questions your audience is actually looking for.
Think about what your audience needs. If you’re a blog about running, your audience might be wondering, “What is the best running shoe?” or, “How do I recover from a long run?”
No matter what your niche is, there are likely tons of opportunities for you to answer questions. Brainstorm these potential questions and then design your content to match.
Tip #2: Answer Multiple Questions
What’s better than answering one question in your snippet?
“Answering multiple questions in your snippet,” according to Andy at Big Bang Themes.
One of the best ways to rank for the Google featured snippet is to answer multiple questions in the body of your post. That way, you’re potentially ranking for not one, but two questions (aka, double the potential eyes on your content).
How do you do this? Consider logical next questions to the initial question you’re answering.
Let’s return to our online running blog. If a potential customer is asking about the best running shoe, the next logical question might be, “Where do I get good running shoes?” or “How do I know it’s time to get new running shoes?”
Think about your structuring posts to answer tons of questions in one place. You’ll be able to potentially rank for a bunch of different snippets, exponentially increasing your reach.
Tip #3: Do Keyword Research
You can increase your chances of getting selected for a Google featured snippet by doing keyword research.
There are plenty of tools out there that allow you figure out if a search term has featured results or not (we love Ahrefs for this).
For example, when the team at Signal was writing their resource on Addressability, they considered a number of different keywords, including a various definitions within the article to steal the snippet position from Wikipedia.
You can do keyword research on your niche to figure out the specific queries that you should be responding to in your content. Make sure that you include tags that are related to the questions.
Tip #4: Stay Within the Optimal Word Count
Ranking for a Google featured snippet means writing in a different way than you may be used to. As you can tell from looking at the answers provided to you by Google when you submit a query, Google featured snippets are not very long. In fact, SEMrush states the normal length of content in featured snippets is 40-50 words.
What does that mean? Basically, you have no fewer than 40 and no more 50 words to fully answer a question.
According to the team at Cube Digital, “Being brief works! Remember, this is a snippet, not a sonnet!”
Conclusion
There’s a lot to consider when trying to rank for Google featured snippets. Even though ranking for a featured snippet may seem difficult, there are a lot of benefits to achieving that status. Remember, ranking for the Google featured snippet means that you’ll be at position zero, with more real estate on the first page of Google than any other links.
In other words, ranking for the Google featured snippet is a great way to drive traffic to your site and beat your competition.
Author Bio:
Brendan Hufford is a marketing and business veteran who, since his first project in 2011, has founded and sold multiple businesses. He currently runs HUFF Media, a thriving SEO consultancy based in Chicago. Brendan is is passionate about helping businesses get more revenue and profit from their website through SEO.
