What are Featured Snippets? – Osumare

Featured Snippet

Time and Again, Search Engines update their features in order to improve the user experience in finding relevant, highest quality answers to their query. The latest of the features that have acquired considerable significance in recent times is Featured Snippet.

Featured Snippets are the short summary of an answer that appears at top of the search engine results page. Featured Snippets are designed to provide answers to the user’s query in a quick, easy and convenient way.

Featured Snippets are usually extracted from the web page that is already ranking on page one. However, if the content is worthy to answer any query, Featured Snippets are also pulled out from lower-ranking web pages.

Research says Webpage with Google featured Snippets gets 2x higher CTR. Featured Snippets are an important tool to increase brand authority and drive traffic to the site.

Types of Featured Snippet

There are 3 types of Featured Snippet that most commonly acquire space in the search engines results page. They are: –

• Paragraph or definition Snippets- Paragraph snippets are the most common type of snippets acquiring more than 80% of all the results. Paragraph snippets are mostly used to answer questions query like What, How, When, Why, etc. They are designed to provide a clear, concise definition of a particular question. The average text length of these snippets is around 40-60 words.

definition snippets

• List Snippets– Questions that require answers in a step by step format is usually answered through List Snippets. For e.g.- For any question like "How to Do Image Optimization", Search Engine prefers snippets that label out a step by step guide for the image optimization process.

list snippets

• Table Snippets– Table Snippets are used to answer questions requiring comparison charts. Search Engine pulls content from the best web-page and then format it into tables to give the more specific detail about a particular query.

table snippetsAdvantages of Featured Snippets

Google Featured Snippet usually appear at the top or Position 0 of the results page and they are highly beneficial in driving traffic and boosting conversions for any web page. Appearing on top, Featured Snippet is usually the first thing that most people see when they make any query.

report by semrushBased on their usage, Featured Snippets offer numerous advantages like: –

• Ahead in the competition– Featured Snippet occupy the top spot, above the SEO Web page. By including, Featured Snippets in the web content, businesses can get ahead of the competition and increase the visibility of the brand.
• Voice-Search Optimized- Considering the fact, that by 2020 more than 50% of the searches will be voice-driven, Featured Snippet is a beneficial tool to prepare for future changes.
• Increase in Website traffic– Featured Snippet are selected by the search engines to answer user’s queries in the most efficient way. Adding Features Snippets to their content, businesses can occupy the top spot and drive more traffic to their websites.
• Establish Brand Authority– As more and more users find answers through Featured Snippets, it establishes trust amongst them regarding a particular web page. By adding Featured Snippets, businesses can develop that trust and establish their expertise and authority of their brand.
• Increase Conversions– Businesses can attract potential customers to their website by answering their questions in a legit and convenient way. Featured Snippets proves beneficial in converting new users and

boosting organic conversions for the business.

Optimize Content for Featured Snippets

Including Featured Snippets in the web page content can provide numerous benefits and advantages to the business. To properly optimize these Snippets, here are certain steps that you can follow.

• Analyze Competitor Snippets– Before adding Featured Snippets to your website content, it is necessary to find the search engine results page already having those snippets. Look at the type of snippets that page is having and optimize your snippets based on those findings.
• Keyword Research– Research and add the right keyword into your Featured Snippets to make them properly optimized. Including certain words like Recipe, Best, Vs, Make, etc improves the chance of higher visibility of Featured Snippets.
• Format Content– Creating content-rich with featured snippets includes several things like: –

1. The average word limit for Snippets is around 40-50 words. Therefore, answering questions concisely is very important to make them visible.
2. Adding factual information and organizing that in a proper manner is necessary to generate the best answer.
3. Apart from the targeted questions, snippets should also be targeted to answer certain similar questions.
4. Adding relevant and high-quality images can make it more appealing to users who are reading?

• On-Page Optimization– Google Featured Snippet are part of the On-Page content of the website. Implementing On-Page

SEO optimization techniques can help Search Engines to discover your snippets and make them rank on top.

• Update existing Snippets– Websites that have already added Snippets can modify and polish them in order to generate quality results with them

Kaushika Sharma Is the Copywriter and content writer who specialized in ghost blogging.