Featured Snippets
Time and Again, Search Engines update their features in order to improve the user experience in finding relevant, highest quality answers to their query. The latest of the features that have acquired considerable significance in recent times is Featured Snippets.
Featured Snippets are the short summary of an answer that appears at top of the search engine results page. Featured Snippets are designed to provide answers to the user’s query in a quick, easy and convenient way.
Featured Snippets are usually extracted from the webpage that is already ranking on page one. However, if the content is worthy to answer any query, Featured Snippets are also pulled out from lower-ranking webpages.
Research says Webpage with featured Snippets gets 2x higher CTR. Featured Snippets are an important tool to increase brand authority and drive traffic to the site.
Types of Featured Snippets
There are 3 types of Featured Snippets that most commonly acquire space in the search engines results page. They are: –
● Paragraph or definition Snippets- Paragraph snippets are the most common type of snippets acquiring more than 80% of all the results. Paragraph snippets are mostly used to answer questions query like What, How, When, Why, etc. They are designed to provide a clear, concise definition of a particular question. The average text length of these snippets is around 40-60 words.
● List Snippets- Questions that require answers in a step by step format is usually answered through List Snippets. For e.g.- For any question like “How to Do Image Optimization”, Search Engine prefers snippets that label out a step by step guide for the image optimization process.
● Table Snippets- Table Snippets are used to answer questions requiring comparison charts. Search Engine pulls content from the best webpage and then format it into tables to give the more specific detail about a particular query.
Advantages of Featured Snippets
Featured Snippets usually appear at the top or Position0 of the results page and they are highly beneficial in driving traffic and boosting conversions for any webpage. Appearing on top, Featured Snippet is usually the first thing that most people see when they make any query.
Based on their usage, Featured Snippets offer numerous advantages like: –
● Ahead in the competition- Featured Snippets occupy the top spot, above the SEO Webpage. By including, Featured Snippets in the web content, businesses can get ahead of the competition and increase the visibility of the brand.
● Voice-Search Optimized- Considering the fact, that by 2020 more than 50% of the searches will be voice-driven, Featured Snippets is a beneficial tool to prepare for future changes.
● Increase in Website traffic- Featured Snippets are selected by the search engines to answer user’s queries in the most efficient way. Adding Features Snippets to their content, businesses can occupy the top spot and drive more traffic to their websites.
● Establish Brand Authority- As more and more users find answers through Featured Snippets, it establishes trust amongst them regarding a particular web page. By adding Featured Snippets, businesses can develop that trust and establish their expertise and authority of their brand.
● Increase Conversions- Businesses can attract potential customers to their website by answering their questions in a legit and convenient way. Featured Snippets proves beneficial in converting new users and boosting organic conversions for the business.
Optimize Content for Featured Snippets
Including Featured Snippets in the webpage content can provide numerous benefits and advantages to the business. To properly optimize these Snippets, here are certain steps that you can follow.
● Analyze Competitor Snippets- Before adding Featured Snippets to your website content, it is necessary to find the search engine results page already having those snippets. Look at the type of snippets that page is having and optimize your snippets based on those findings.
● Keyword Research- Research and add the right keyword into your Featured Snippets to make them properly optimized. Including certain words like Recipe, Best, Vs, Make, etc improves the chance of higher visibility of Featured Snippets.
● Format Content- Creating content-rich with featured snippets includes several things like: – 1) The average word limit for Snippets is around 40-50 words. Therefore, answering questions concisely is very important to make them visible.
2) Adding factual information and organizing that in a proper manner is
necessary to generate the best answer.[Text Wrapping Break]
3) Apart from the targeted questions, snippets should also be targeted to answer
certain similar questions.
4) Adding relevant and high-quality images can make it more appealing to users
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● On-Page Optimization- Featured Snippets are part of the On-Page content of the website. Implementing On-Page SEO optimization techniques can help Search Engines to discover your snippets and make them rank on top.
● Update existing Snippets- Websites that have already added Snippets can modify and polish them in order to generate quality results with them
Conclusion
As opposed to making websites SEO friendly and ranking them on top, Featured Snippets provide an easy and convenient option to increase brand visibility. Snippets, that answer a particular question in the best way are usually selected by the search engines to appear on top. Search engines select the best answers and that can even appear in the lower-ranked pages. Therefore, Featured Snippets is a beneficial tool and businesses can use this tool to drive a high amount of traffic to their websites.