It won’t be totally wrong to say that humans prefer to be lazy quite often. We tend to lean forward to something that gives us more convenience. Similarly, when individuals search for something on Google, they are most likely to click on the link which appears in a box, or at the top, that effectively shows the content of the webpage in brief. You can clearly imagine if you can get your website to appear in this box, which is the Google’s ‘featured snippets’. You will receive an added boost to get way ahead of your competitors and obtain a huge traffic.
According to Stephen Spencer, an SEO expert, it is important to give priority to optimising the content for voice and mobile searches, in order to bring one’s webpage in the featured snippets, as this two kind of searches, will grow in the future.
A research conducted by HubSpot has revealed that a double click-through rate is enjoyed by contents that appear in the featured snippets.
Thus, you can understand how important it is, on today’s date, to get your content on the Google snippets. Below are some tips to get to that ‘position zero’or the featured snippets:
- Find out the type of featured snippets where your competitors are ranking– Google snippets can be of various types. The brief information can appear in short paragraph, in a list format, or in a tabular format. In order to understand in which type of featured snippets your competitors are ranking, you can use tools like the SEMrush. Following this, you can study the topics, keywords, etc. they have used to optimise the content. Apart from the used words, you can also find out other keywords which you can use to get a rank.
- Answer complex questions-The first thing that you definitely need to do is identify what are the related questions that the users are asking. Following this, you must make sure that your website contains not only the answers to the basic questions but also to those of the complicated questions related to your field. Along with this, you should also ensure that you have fresh content that gives detailed information about your niche. It can bring you better results if you put the focus on answering more complicated queries than the basic ones. In order to understand what the users are likely to search for, you can take help from a tool that can suggest you with possible keywords.
- Focus on your content-This includes everything, beginning from the structure of the content to what’s included in the content. You must ensure that you format your page in a way that it becomes easier for the users, as well as for the search engine to get the information. For example, you must not write a long introduction to your topic. Instead, get straight into the main part of it. If you are writing about the ‘top 10 best thesishelp services’ or homework help service, you must not write a 1000 words long introduction on how to write an essay. Below are a few points that you should follow while creating your content:
- Answer in a brief and direct manner
- Do not keep anything that is irrelevant
- Ensure that the search query or the main question is present on the page clearly
- Incorporate tables, lists, diagram, instructions, data, etc.
Along with this, you can also try to keep the main answer in between forty to fifty words as that is the word length of content in the Google snippets, according to SEMRush. If it is not possible, you can include a short summary which will give a brief answer to the question. By strategically using your content, you can increase your chances of getting into the Google snippets.
- Use long tail keywords-Even though the long tail keywords have low search volume, they have high rates of conversion. Using these keywords in your content can help you to get into the snippet box. A good way to include the long-tail keywords is to use them for creating the bullet points and to make the subtitle of the content.
- Address other questions- Try to create your content in a way to answer multiple questions. A study by Ahref shows that if a page appears in the featured snippets, it can appear in other similar search queries as well. So, you will have to ensure that your content is written and structured in a way to answer many questions that are related to each other. Google can find out easily the questions that are related to each other closely. Thus, if you wish to rank in the Google snippets, you must make a valuable content that can answer many questions. It is also a smarter choice compared to making different articles to address different questions.
- Add a hook-Even though your chances of getting traffic to your webpage increases after being featured in the Google snippets, you can always give an extra effort to make sure it actually happens. For that, you must include a hook in your snippet content. You can do this by not giving away all the information in the text appearing in the snippet. Users will click on the link in order to see the full information provided.
According to Neil Patel, the recent trend of featured snippets is increasing at a faster rate, so it can be assumed that it is here to stay. In search queries, the pages that appear in the snippets are currently ruling the space. Getting featured in them is a great way to attract visitors to your website without having to acquire the number one ranking the Google search engine result pages. This will also give you an edge over your competitors who aim to capture the same market. You must continue with your work to keep up with the regular changes that Google brings every now and then.
Since Google snippets are more likely to expand in the future, it is better you start optimising your content and webpage from now on to get featured. Using the techniques mentioned above, you will be in a better position for ranking in the featured snippets.
Eliza Clara is associated with assignment help firm for the past three years, that provides scholarship to the meritorious students. She writes content for categories like education, Fashion, Technology, Marketing, and Business etc. Her career focuses on consistently delivering measurable results with greater product success. She specializes in social media trends & sets up business strategy.