Search engine rankings can make or break a business. If your business doesn't optimize its content and pages for search engines, it could end up several pages deep in search results - in other words, exactly where would-be customers won't find you. It's a problem, but search engine optimization should not be your only concern. There are also Google Featured Snippets to think about.
Have you ever noticed when you ask Google a question that sometimes there is an answer in a box at the top of the page? This is called a "featured snippet." It usually includes an excerpt or summary of an article that Google thinks answers your question. You will also see a link to the article and an image from the piece.
These are different from Google's direct answers, which tend to come from Google directly or some trusted source. Direct answers are usually fact-oriented, such as the definition of a word or the population of a country. Featured snippets highlight answers that are more complex. Plus, the article summary Google uses in a snippet is "extracted programmatically" from the web page - usually some sort of list.
Of course an instant answer to your question is valuable to you as an Internet user and a highlighted section of search engine results that features your content is important to your business but you may not realize by how much. One website, Confluent Forms, found that its traffic increased by over 50 percent after getting featured as a snippet, while others have seen even bigger results.
SearchEngineLand found that its the visibility of its content improved by over 500 percent in just four months after some of its content was included in a featured snippet. The site went from just under 140,000 clicks to its landing page to over 861,000 visits. SearchEngineLand's click-through rate also increased, and by an even greater rate. It grew to eight percent from just two percent.
The benefits of a Google Featured Snippet are pretty clear, and the importance of the search engine feature is growing. For one, the number of featured snippets grew to 40 percent in January 2016 from just over 20 percent in December 2014. Secondly, and most importantly, Google Featured Snippets are experiencing a high churn rate. In 2016, Stone Temple found that roughly 55 percent of featured snippets are either new or have a different URL than they did in 2015.
Both are great news for your business. With the right content, you have a chance of earning a Google Featured Snippet, even if the answer to the question was featured long ago. The only problem is that there is no guaranteed way to get your content featured in a Google snippet.
In an effort to crack the metaphorical code, HubSpot researched the question of how to get a Google featured snippet. It found that structured data has nothing to do with whether you get a featured snippet nor does using certain markup data. The site looked at over 4,700 search queries that include a page from HubSpot in the top five search engine rankings. It found that only 29 percent of them were a Featured Snippet.
Most interestingly, getting the top search engine ranking spot did not guarantee a Featured Snippet nor did it make it more likely. Of the search engine rankings with HubSpot in the top position, just 18 percent were a Featured Snippet. In contrast, when HubSpot was listed in the second highest position, the company's content was included in a Featured Snippet 41 percent of the time. Content in the third-highest position was nearly just as likely to be featured. It showed up as a snippet in 38 percent of cases.
Word length seems to have some impact - most Featured Snippets have 54 to 58 words - but it isn't a deal breaker.
However, there do seem to be some best practices in earning a Google Featured Snippet. First, you should start by identifying which questions you would like to answer in a Featured Snippet. Including that wording in a header in your website content will help. You may also be able to affect the content used in a Featured Snippet. Just add a tag below the header that includes the query you are answering and keep your answer to 54-58 words.
Alternatively, if you want to explain the steps in a process, make sure that you list "Step 1" and "Step 2" in your subheadings. Finally, you will need your Featured Snippet to actually answer the question at hand. That means no flowery language, no long lead in and no trying to sell. Just focus on providing your website's visitors with the best information possible.
Keeping your Google Featured Snippet comes down to one thing. You need to have the best answer. It should be good enough that people click on the link and your site good enough that they stay there.
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