What are featured snippets

When a user asks a question in Google Search, Google might show a search result in a special featured snippet block at the top of the search results page. This featured snippet block includes a summary of the answer, extracted from a webpage, plus a link to the page, the page title and URL.

However, we have also seen these featured snippets appear for more general searches. The majority of our research points to informational searches more than any other type. Normally, search terms which could be part of a question.

For Example: If someone was looking to find out what Ground Spices are, then they may simply type in Ground Spices rather than What Are Ground Spices?

It is also worth noting that the SEO industry is calling these listings Ranking #0 because they actually appear above the Organic listings.

Can I get Featured Snippets?

According to Ahrefs, 99.58% of featured pages have a top 10 listings on Google. So, if you have top 10 listings in Google then this could be a great opportunity. It’s also worth noting that the majority of these listings (according to Getstat) are not using number 1 listings. Therefore, if you have a top 10 listings but not a number 1 spot then this is still for you.

Ahrefs also ran a study to show the search terms that are most used in featured snippets. However, as mentioned above, we have seen more general terms included quite often.

Keyword Research

Here is the method we use for keyword research for featured snippets.
Firstly you need to run ranking reports to see which phrases you already have top 10 listings for. If you don’t run ranking reports then you could do manual searches on Google or get in touch with us and we can run you through the process. When you have your list of potential targets you should then break these down to see if:

1. There can be informational searches for them
2. Whether this is the type of traffic you want

Think about our example above when choosing your phrases, because there can be a lot more to informational searches than simply questions.

There are a few ways to generate your new list of keyphrases for featured snippets. The simplest way is to change your keyword into a request for information. This usually involves turning it into a question.

Continuing with our Ground Spice example. Here we have searched for What is Ground Spice Powder?

From these results, you can see that there is another box under the featured snippet which includes a list of similar searches (sometimes this list appears further down the page).

This is a good list to work from, but it is also worth searching for the more general terms (Ground Spice) because these can sometimes return featured snippets – like our example.

Feel free to contact us if you want help working on your Featured Snippets and we’ll be happy to work on this with you.

Jon Seymour: 01492 460 460 – jon@janklin.com