Let’s be fair guys, winning the Google’s featured snippet box is a dream for every SEO person. It gives your website more authority; more visitors, clicks, exposure and above all, it put you on top before the first ranking. You sit on a position zero, so you definitely experience more sales.
 |
| Google’s featured snippet box |
However, getting up there is not easy as it seems. The thing is that you cannot mark your page as featured snippet nor there is an official procedure provided by Google to apply for the featured snippet. So, how to get your page up there?
Well the fact is that while there are no specific guidelines, there are best practices that have proved and deliver results. Google featured snippet box is a form an organic content and can be availed by anybody who knows to optimize their content accordingly. Once you get the things done as per norms, you’ll have to wait and cross your fingers while Google takes it time to crawls on the content.
In this article, we are going to highlight seven best and proven practices to create content pages that can help you win Google featured snippet box.
- Do a Good Keyword Research
Several studies reveal that descriptive and long tail keywords tend to boost featured snippets. This is a common observation that when you type more words into the search box, there are high chances that you will see a featured snippet in the result. This clearly indicates that you need to begin with thorough keyword research otherwise you may end up doing a lot of efforts without seeing the actual results.
The key to begin with more of the question-type search investigation and your headings should include words like What, Why, When, How, etc. These keywords are most comfortable to detect. According to a not too long ago article (2015) by Eric Enge at Stone Temple Consulting, almost 19% of searches using a question result in the featured snippet on the first SERP. Generally, these inquiries fall into the following categories:
● How does
● Why Does
● How do
● How can
● How to
● What is
- Format The Content Artistically
The next thing is to format the content the way Google likes it and the first thing you can do is by making sure that your heading tag is an entire search query. Having that being done, format your content in a user-friendly way and your answers should include.
● Texts
● Points
● Graphs and tables
● Numbered lists
● Bullet points
● Steps
● Charts
● Good Images
A Well formatted content may make it less demanding for algorithms to decide if your content is fit for the feature. In addition to that, take the most important part of your content upfront so that visitors get the basic understanding right there.
In the example below, a popular B2B company, FME has got its product featured in the snippet against the keyword, Magento layaway partial payment. FME has briefly described the product in the snippet box which makes it more prone to clicks and sales.
- Work to provide the best answer
There is absolutely no chance that you win a featured spot without providing the best possible answer to the question. Google’s algorithm is pretty smart and you cannot get away with irrelevant information. Moreover, the content needs to be fresh and updated.
Some marketers try to be over smart and create content pages irrelevant to their niche in an attempt to land on the snippet. This is a totally wrong approach. The best thing is only to focus on few questions first, and with the things, you know.
In order to ensure that your content goes the distance and ranks well in featured snippets across the web, you need to step in the users shoes and understand what exactly he is looking for. Use buyers’ persona research, focus groups and communities and engagement analytics to analyze how to create content that is relevant to your theme and target audience.
- Follow on-page SEO best practices
Last but not the least; you need to follow on-page best SEO practices. As a matter of fact, if you already in top 5 or even in top 10 search results, your chances of being featured in the snippet box increases exponentially. So, if you have already done enough work to be on the first page of search results, then Google thinks you are credible enough to be feature. In order for all this work, make sure your search engine optimization (SEO) follows Google’s new 2018 guidelines and your site’s content is informative, relevant and valuable. Moreover, make sure that the landing snippet page is mobile friendly and follows the latest web development practices.
Conclusion
Like I mentioned earlier, Google featured snippet box is a dream for every SEO person. There are a lot myths revolving around it. However, the bottom line is that your content must be of significant value to users. And when you incorporate the above mentioned guidelines, you definitely have a chance of being featured.
Authored By Zeeshan Khalid
Zeeshan Khalid is a Web Architect, an eCommerce Specialist and an Entrepreneur. He is the CEO and founder of FME Extensions, a leading e-commerce web design and development agency. Over the years, FME Extensions has successfully delivered projects in Magento, WordPress, WooCommerce, Joomla and other CMS/shopping cart platforms. Follow Him:Linkedin