Featured Snippet Definition, Optimization, and Importance
Table of Contents
What is featured snippet?
Featured snippet is a short snippet of text pulled from a page that appears at the top of the search results before the page link when someone Google searches for a specific keyword.
This snippet is automatically generated by Google and is designed to entice the users to click on it and read the full article.
In addition, it is a helpful result for users who desired to quickly learn a short note answer to their search term.
Featured snippets are also found within the “People also ask” section, or along with Knowledge Graph information.
In order for a website to show up as a featured snippet on Google, it must meet a few requirements.
First and foremost, the website must be high-quality and placed already in the first page of the SERP. Google looks for websites that are well-written and informative and will feature snippets on pages that match these qualities.
Secondly, the website must be search engine friendly. Google wants to feature websites that are easy to find, navigate and be well optimized to be featured, so make sure your website is well-organized and easy to read.
Lastly, the website must be updated frequently. Google wants to feature the most up-to-date and relevant information, So, make sure you keep your website updated with new features.
As a result, featured snippets are typically filled with information that is relevant to the term being searched, interesting, and useful.
According to the SEMRUSH study, it is found that 19% of SERPs have any featured snippet.
How Does the Featured Snippet Work?
Featured Snippets are based on popular queries that have been searched on Google.
Google’s automatic system determines whether to display featured snippets or not in response to a search request.
A webmaster has nothing to do with it.
Google will display featured snippets if it thinks a search request needs to be answered with a featured snippet that will help the user to get the right answer shortly.
To do this, Google will pull the search request reply information from the best page links on the first page of its search results and display it in snippet form at the top of the search result.
The system will also display the page link below the snippet.
Snippets will be displayed according to the type of information needed to respond to the search request.
If there is a search request reply information like definition or paragraph or list or table or video etc. the system will pull it from a page link and display like that.
In this case, however, a webmaster can provide specific snippet optimization for keywords for Google’s choice.
Also, webmasters can think about what kind of snippets Google can display for this particular keyword or for this content, and accordingly, they can optimize their content to take the chance of getting snippets advantage from Google.
It may appear as feature snippets in search results for those keywords.
Remember that Google’s system never shows a featured snippet from those sites that violate Google Search’s overall policies.
Types of Featured Snippets
There are 4 main types of Featured Snippets that are commonly found in search results.
1. Paragraph
2. Table
3. List
4. Video
Paragraph:
It covers any definition, the answer to a question (What is “keyword”?), or important information about a topic and is shown in a paragraph format.
In a study, it is found that this snippet pulls information from the page in average between 70 to 80 words.
This snippet is often called the ‘definition box’ while it covers the definition or the ‘answer box’ while it covers the answer to a question.
See the question format of the answer featured snippet
- What is…
- Who is…
- Why is…
- How to do/get…
Table:
This type of snippet shows the tabular type of information to answer a specific keyword and Google pulls this tabular information from a table that existed on a page of organic lists.
The system doesn’t collect data to form table snippets from the whole page in scatter.
A table coded in HTML on a page is generally easy for Google to understand data and formulate the snippet.
List:
To result in a set of steps, Google uses the Ordered and Unordered lists for the search queries.
List is a connected item written consecutively one below the other.
This featured snippet is classified into ordered and unordered formats.
Ordered lists are numbered and unordered lists are shown in bulleted form.
Google extracts the information of list from the existing list of concerning pages.
Video :
Google display video snippet on the search result by pulling the best relevant video link from the page as an answer of the search queries.
The percentage of Featured Snippet types in Google search is depicted in the following chart.
This chart is created following the SEMRUSH study.
Featured Snippet Definition, Optimization, and Importance
How to optimize Featured Snippet?
First, you need to find Featured Snippet opportunities.
Give a Google search for a keyword.
If there is a featured snippet in the result page of your search request you are confirmed that the Google system decided to show a featured snippet for this keyword.
Now, you can certainly start your snippet optimization work for that keyword.
Also, notice what kind of featured snippet the Google system has already displayed for this selected keyword.
Or, what kind of featured snippet Google system can display for that keyword.
This way I can be sure whether my content can be optimized to display featured snippets or not. Or, what kind of featured snippets should I optimize for?
One thing to remember, Google will only display your page as a featured snippet if it appears on the first result page of Google.
Otherwise, even if your page is well-optimized, there is only 1% chance of it appearing as a featured snippet.
Let’s say, you want to display a definition featured snippet for your keyword.
So, you write a paragraph on what is “keywords”?
Write a good quality absolute definition that should be substantive.
Note that your definition should be between 40 and 60 words.
Or, for ‘Answer’ type snippets, think to answer the question about your keywords like – Who/Why/How/Where, etc. And create high-quality content with it.
Be careful to put all your efforts into creating a good answer for the search keyword.
Now let’s look at the optimization process for creating table snippets.
For featured snippet tables, Google extracts data from the existing tables of selected pages.
Not from any other part of the page.
If you want to judge and see the table featured snippet you will find that it is taken from the exact table of the page.
Maybe it’s showing 5 or 6 rows.
In this case, you should ensure it that the information in the table is accurate and well-researched.
So, place more than 5 or 6 table rows on the page. The table should be created in HTML language.
Now let’s see about the step or list featured snippets.
Similarly, your specific page should have a list of keywords from which the Google system will take the information and create the list featured snippet.
Use H2, or H3 tags to create lists on your page.
Put the list items in sub-headings so that the Google system can easily understand.
Importance of Featured Snippet
A featured snippet is an important aspect of search engine optimization (SEO).
It is an important tool to get traffic and click-through rates without struggling for higher Google rankings.
The clickable link of the featured snippet leads the users to go to the full article of your website. This chance can increase your sales and revenue.
If not, this additional benefit will increase your trust and authority with the readers.
Also, it gives a quick and easy way to learn more about your product or service and increases “no-click searches”. This is because the searchers have already found a reliable answer of their search terms.
A featured snippet is also a great way to introduce your company or product to potential customers who are searching for information.
It can help you attract new customers, and even generate leads.
Featured Snippet Definition Optimization and Importance
Conclusion
Featured Snippets are a special aspect of Google search results that provide users with a better concise answer of the search term.
Although it provides a better solution to the users shortly, it benefits the site owners to grow their chances to be visible to the customers.
So this feature of the search result carries two ways benefits.
On the one hand, it helps the users to get an answer quickly without wasting time digging the sites.
On second thought, it helps to promote the business or service with little effort.
Featured Snippet Definition Optimization and Importance
Related Terms :
What Is Structured Data and How It Works