What is snipp-able content and how Google selects Featured Snippets for zero ranking?

Featured Snippets are Google’s answers to search queries and these answers are featuring for maximum number of queries in organic results. They are amazingly powerful and everyone needs them. The snippets are nothing but excerpts of some brilliant articles and presentations by smart SEOs.

How Google picks content for snippets or what makes an article or presentation snipp-able? The question is baffling and I tried finding the answer and concluded that

Snippets aren’t manually or randomly picked and there is certainly an algorithm for choosing snipp-able content. So, what’s that algorithm?

What we know about Featured Snippets?

Before we start discussion on the algorithm, let’s summarize what we know about Featured Snippets.

Snippets don’t have a specific format or length and Google can pick any piece of content that matches perfectly with the searched queries. I found that a snipped could be any of the followings:

• 1. Text
• 2. Lists
• 3. Images
• 4. Charts
• 5. Tables
• 6. Knowledge Graphs

Also the snipp-able content can be from any website irrespective of its page-rank. Now let’s do a quick review of the benefits of having Featured Snippets

• 1. More traffic
• 2. Greater visibility in Google SERPs
• 3. Improved credibility

That’s all we know about Featured Snippets.

Important disclaimers

Featured Snippets are unstable. A quick search can substantiate the claim. Search a query two times but after a gap and you will get different results. Also featuring in Snippets isn’t always beneficial for CTR. It depends on the searcher. But most of the times snipp-able content boosts CRT.

Let’s analyze the Featured Snippets algorithm

Theory #1: Snippets aren’t featured based on organic search ranking factors alone

A study of Featured Snippets shows that ranking has a say in determining snipp-able content. It is learnt that most of the snipp-able content pieces are taken from sites ranking in the top 10 organic positions. But some pieces belong to the websites on Page 2 of Google. A detailed study on 1000 search queries revealed startling facts:

• 70% of snippets belong to the sites from first to third position
• 30% of snippets belong to pages positioned form four to 71

If Featured Snippets algorithm is relying on traditional search then Google will pick the snippet from the highest ranking site every time. It will never go to Page 2 or further in search of snipp-able content. But it isn’t happening as we’ve snippets from low ranking pages.

Theory #2: Having your content in a snipp-able format matters

It looks the most perfect answer to Featured Snippets algorithm as we’ve seen that Google is featuring content that is snipp-able.

• 1. In order to come in Featured Snippets, the content should be from 40 to 50 words, according to a study
• 2. Format really matters to Google’s algorithm for choosing Featured Snippets. The content that is in right format will be featured in the snippets

But the question how Google finds snipp-able content from its SERPs still remains unanswered.

Theory #3: Engagement metrics seem to play a role in snippet selection

It seems to have some sense in choosing snippets. A snippet test done fopr "how to get more Bing Reward Points" proved that engagement metrics could be the basis for selecting Featured Snippets.

Resulting Featured Snippets was from the page ranking on 10th position that is lower than the official Bing page. And the Search Console showed that the CTR of the resulting page was 10x times higher than what one could expect at 10th position. The CTR was 21.43%. Also the time on site was 14 minutes 30 seconds that is much higher for a site ranking at 10th position. But it is just one example and I believe that it is just a tip of the iceberg we’re trying to measure.

A similar search on other snippets was conducted and found that they belong to low rankings sites but with higher time. But I believe that engagement metrics are certainly playing a crucial role in featuring snippets. And here I would like to share a fact to support the claim.

Supporting fact

Before 2008, Google was featuring three AdWords ads above the organic search result and it was in addition to the right rail ads. And the AdWords professionals had no say in placing ads on top. It was Google’s priority. And Google revealed its strategy of choosing featured ads. It was revealed that ads meeting a quality threshold are featured above organic results. What is important to note that, by far, CTR has the largest impact on quality score of content and ads.

We see that organic results have an impact on selection of Featured Snippets as a majority of snippets are from pages from first to third positions. But the CRT theory seems more reliable as it is supported by Google’s AdWords algorithm of selecting featured ads above organic results.

What does it all mean?

If CTR theory is to be believed, Featured Snippets are directly related to engagement rates of pages. Engagement rates also impact conversion, reach and ranking of pages and together all these rates impact chances of featuring in snippets. In my opinion, SEOs must work hard on improving CTR and time on side in addition to formatting their on-page copies to target Featured Snippets.

A call to arms

We’re short of data on Featured Snipped and whatever data is available shows inclination towards use of the pre 2008 policy of featuring Google AdWords ads above organic results in selecting snippets. To get a bigger picture, we need all the snippets and access to CTR data of their pages as we can’t keep crawling every site to discover its engagement metrics.

Conclusion

Featured Snippets have caught attention of SEOs for all the good reasons. The snippets are seen as an opportunity to build traffic and get visibility. Also it improves credibility in the long run. But the question how snippets are selected is baffling SEOs. How you could optimize your content that it features in snippet. Probably the answer lies in engagement metrics of your site and format of the content.

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Udit Khanna is a Digital marketing professional at Expert Training Institute, an expert in Digital Marketing, SEO, PPC, SMO etc.