GOOGLE'S FEATURED SNIPPETS| JGP SOLUTIONS

 

 INTRODUCTION:

                  Google is continuously updating search results pages to make the search engine more useful and user-friendly. If you want to drive more traffic to your website and get more people to click on your content showing featured snippets would help.

    What are featured snippets?

                 Featured snippets are brief excerpts from a webpage that appears in Google's search results in order to quickly answer a user's question. Featured snippet content is automatically pulled from pages that have been indexed by Google. Featured snippets are more likely to appear when users enter informational search queries.            

Types of featured snippets:

·       Youtube snippets/ Video featured snippets:

                  The video is directly from YouTube and is time-stamped to a specific part where they answer your question. These are known as a YouTube Featured Snippet or Video featured snippet. It shows the video thumbnail, title, and a link to the video on YouTube.

·       List featured snippets:

                   A list featured snippet is a result that displays a list. It could be a list of ingredients in a recipe or the recipe itself, a top-10 list, a list of steps in a process, et cetera. These can be lists from within the content, or a list Google creates by extracting the relevant information from the page.

·       Table featured snippets:

                     This is where Google pulls data from a page and displays it as a table.

 

·       Rich snippet:

                 Special result snippets in Google search results are described as rich snippets. They include additional information that is not stored in the meta description of the affected target site but is stored as structured data in its source code with the help of markups.

·       Knowledge graph :

                The knowledge graph represents a collection of interlinked descriptions of entities – objects, events, or concepts.

Influence of snippets on SEO/SERP’S :

• ·       Shortcut to top organic position
• ·       Fewer clicks- sometimes
• ·       Featured snippets as branding opportunities
• ·       Featured snippets after SERP de duplication.

-Shortcut to top organic position:

                     If the content is ranking on the first Search Engine Results Page (SERP) for a search query that shows a featured snippet, one can “win” that snippet and shortcut one’s way to the top position. the higher the content ranks,  the more likely it is to get a featured snippet. Getting to the first SERP is a more manageable goal than ranking number one for a keyword. But if that keyword triggers a featured snippet, it makes the first position a bit more attainable.

-Fewer clicks –sometimes:

                    Many SEOs believe that featured snippets reduce clicks on the search results. After all, if the answer to the query is in the SERP, why would you click on a result? While this is the case for some queries, it’s certainly not the case for them all. It depends on whether Google can provide a satisfactory answer in the snippet.

 - Featured snippets as branding opportunities:

                 Clicks aside, featured snippets are the first thing that users see in the search results. They’re even more prominent on mobile devices where they’re often the only thing people initially see:

The more your brand is visible in SERPs for relevant topics, the more you will be associated as a market leader.

- Featured snippets after SERP de duplication: GOOGLE update

                Before the update, a website could capture the Featured Snippet as well as the first organic result. In some cases, it was not uncommon for websites to appear in first and second positions. However, since Google released this update, websites can no longer appear for the Featured Snippet position and appear in the organic listings. Essentially, this means that there are no longer 11 ranking positions (Featured Snippet + 10 blue links) on page one, as the snippet is now counted as one of the 10 organic listings. Google will no longer show duplicate URLs for pages promoted to the Featured Snippets: Google has named this process deduplication. Google is also preparing to move right-side Featured Snippets to be in line with other search results. After the update was rolled out, Google stopped de duplicating the results for queries that have a right-side snippet, but a few days later, the URL listing came back despite having the snippet. This is likely to change again when the right-side Featured Snippets are moved to be in line with the rest of the results.

How to optimize for featured snippets?:

·       Identify competitor’s featured snippets

·       Gather the Keywords for Each Owned Content

·       Understand Searcher Intent

·       Run a Competitive Analysis

·       Create/Update the Content Outline

·       Create Content Better Than the Competition’s

·       Validate the Content

·       Organize Your Content for Readers & Search Engines

·       Add Question Keywords in Heading Tags

·       Add Relevant Graphics

·       Implement SEO Tactics

·       Keep Optimizing Your Content Until You Achieve a Featured Snippet.

Conclusion:

               Google’s featured snippet format focuses on providing information to the users on its platform itself. However, not all information can be displayed in 40-45 words. Hence, they can be a great tool to boost your organic traffic. In addition, the more featured snippets your site has, the more exposure your brand is going to get for users searching for the industry queries you’re targeting. Users will realize that your site is offering a lot of correct, insightful answers and has a lot of quality content on the topics. That builds trust in your brand and will build subsequent trust in your products and services.

 

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