If you want to drive more traffic to your website and get more users to click on your content, showing up as featured snippets in search can help. But how do you land your content in this coveted spot in search results?
In this post, we’ll review:
What is a featured snippet?
Types of featured snippets
How to create featured snippets
You’ll walk away knowing how to optimize your content to give it the best chance of showing up in that prominent position.
What is a Featured Snippet?
Featured snippets are rich search results that appear as a box of content on search engine results pages (SERPs). They are fields of information that attempt to provide answers related to a user’s query. Featured snippets are usually positioned at the top of SERPs below the paid ads and above other organic search results.
Featured snippets in search show up in a variety of ways. Here are a few featured snippet examples.
Paragraph Featured Snippet
A paragraph featured snippet includes a blurb of copy. These snippets usually appear when a user has searched for a question, and includes information that attempts to answer that question.
List Featured Snippet
Like a paragraph featured snippet, a list featured snippet also attempts to provide an answer to a question. It differs in that it positions the copy in a summarized list instead of a paragraph.
Table Featured Snippet
A table featured snippet shares information in a structured format that makes data easy to read directly from the SERPs.
Answer Boxes
Answer boxes are similar to featured snippets in that they appear in a box on SERPs, and they attempt to answer a question. The difference between answer boxes and featured snippets is that boxes answer the question without including a link to a URL for more information. When people talk about featured snippets, they usually don’t include these types of answer boxes.
How to Optimize Content for Featured Snippets in Search
Unfortunately, there is no exact process for how to create featured snippets. Google chooses which results end up as featured snippets, and they don’t explicitly say how to get your pages to appear as these rich results. But there are some best practices you can follow to increase your chances of showing in these featured boxes.
Target long-tail keywords that are questions. Most featured snippets in search include information that provides an answer to a question. So create evergreen content that targets long-tail keyword phrases that start with:
What is
Why is
How does/do
How to
Clearly answer questions in your content. Make sure the answer to the question is clear on your page of content. Present the question in a subheading (with
markup), and answer it in the text below (with
markup). Then use the rest of the article to provide supporting information. Find related keywords and incorporate them into your content to reinforce the question it is answering.
Format information in a list. To increase your chances of showing as a list featured snippet, outline your content in a list format. Use subheading tags (
) for items in the list to help search engines read and understand the content.
Use a table structure. To increase your chances of showing as a table feature snippet, structure your content in a table format. Create charts in your content using appropriate table tags (
).
Utilize strong on-page SEO. Content that shows as featured snippets in search is typically pulled from pages that already have a high organic search ranking. So use on-page keyword optimization and best practices for SEO to boost the page’s natural rankings.
Show that the page is authoritative. Another way to improve a page’s organic search ranking is by acquiring high-quality backlinks that send authority signals to Google and show that the page is a valuable search result.
Fill the page with high-quality images. Featured snippets often include an image in the content box. There is no way to tell Google which image should appear here, so aim to use high-quality images on your page to give Google the best graphics options for a featured snippet. Your readers will appreciate it too!
To build a strong SEO strategy that gives you the best performance in search, sign up for a free trial of Alexa’s Advanced Plan. You’ll get all the tools you need for keyword research, on-page SEO optimization, link building, and more.
MOFu marketing is the strategy of using middle-of-the-funnel content to nurture leads and turn them into paying customers. It moves prospects from the awareness phase of the sales funnel down to the conversion phase. In this article, we’ll explain how you can create an effective MOFu marketing strategy that supports a strong B2B content marketing…
Static content is so yesterday. Today it’s all about interactive content. Why is interactive content so important? Proponents will tell you that interactive content is more effective at educating buyers, earning social shares, and differentiating a business than static content. Plus, adding interactivity drives two times the number of leads, according to a study by…
How-to articles today may have a tougher time winning over readers than they did in the past. On WordPress alone, users now publish about 41.7 million new posts every month. That’s a lot of blog posts vying for attention — and how-to headlines are a popular format. You’ve got stiff competition. If your how-to articles…
Do you know what SEO problems may be lurking in your website? No matter how good your SEO content is, any number of technical issues can dramatically lower your website’s search ranking, incur penalties, or worse—make it invisible to Google and others. A forgotten no-index tag? Duplicate content? Excessive H1 tags? Faulty robots.txt file? Low…
A competitive matrix helps you learn about your market segment and identify opportunities to differentiate your brand from competitors, create better products, and develop stronger marketing plans. This post will help you understand the power of a competitive matrix and show you how you can use it to inform your marketing strategies. It includes sections…
When it comes to long-term SEO strategies, there are so many tactics to consider. As outlined in a recent Alexa post, there are dozens of powerful marketing strategies to consider, and each comes with its own set of investments, risks, and rewards. With so many options, many brands and marketers are left to ask: What…
