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Featured Snippets: How to conquer Google’s ZERO position?
Featured snippets are one of the most popular topics in the realms of digital strategy for good reason. Thanks to featured snippets, Google allows you to climb to the top of its results page and be the first result for Internet users (the zero position).
Any digital marketing professional knows that featured snippets are a valid and highly attractive option to appear on organic results within the Silicon Valley giant’s search engine.
In this post we want to talk to you more precisely about featured snippets, starting with what exactly they are, the different types that exist, their usefulness for marketing and positioning strategies, the advantages that conquering one of them brings and how to optimize your content so that they can appear as a featured snippet.
Ready? Let ‘s begin!
What is the zero position in Google?
The zero position is a featured snippet. This snippet is at the top of Google results and is highlighted with a box. Take a look at the following example.
It is a way of giving an immediate answer to the question that the user asks in Google. What it shows is:
- The url and title of the web page that contains a response
- An extract or summary of the formulated answer
- An image
To better understand what Google’s zero result is, you have to investigate featured snippets.
What are featured snippets?
They are response boxes that appear within the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) which aim to solve a question or define a concept quickly so that the user does not have to enter the webpage to find the answer you are looking for.
Most of them are definitions and short and direct explanations to the point about the keyword used, which add value and speed to the Internet user. These are born from the intention of Google to optimize the user experience and provide a more satisfying experience when consulting the search engine.
Surely, if you are a frequent user of the platform, you have come across some of the featured snippets that appear.
Have you ever wondered how snippets appear? If so, keep reading to find out!
What types of featured snippets are there?
Up until now, there are three different types of snippets, and each one is shown with information better adapted to satisfy the search intentions effectively according to the keyword that the user enters. These are:
Text
Text is the most used by Google to display featured snippets. The reason is obvious: most searches within this engine start with “what, when, where, who, why”, that is, questions with the intention of obtaining a concept or a definition of it.
These response boxes are usually very brief and address the central point of the search without detours and, without the need for the user to have to enter the web page to be satisfied.
Lists
The lists are manifested, in most cases, when searching recipes for dishes and desserts on Google. If you’ve never done it, give it a try!
Likewise, in searches for song rankings, for example, sports players, tourist spots, stadium capacity, best sellers, among others, featured snippets will be displayed as a numbered list, providing classified and/or qualified information.
Tables
The latter usually appears very little within the search engine. And it is only useful when you need to make a comparison between two products, sports teams, movie or theater function schedules and similar aspects.
In it, columns and rows will be displayed where the different characteristics of the comparison will be expressed to show the user.
It is in these ways that featured snippets are displayed in the Google search engine, each with aspects that make them interesting from the SEO point of view and to position a web page without having to compete in organic results.
Now, you may be wondering the real value of these enriched fragments of information, we’ll tell you know what they are!
What are featured snippets for?
What makes these fragments relevant and useful is the privileged position within a super competitive field such as page positioning within Google.
Another interesting feature of featured snippets is to be able to give a sample or sneak peak of the material that is contained within your site or blog, to attract even more Internet users to it.
Also, the possibility of including images inside the box will make the site stand out from your competitors and occupy more space in the eyes of the user.
For these reasons, featured snippets have greater capabilities than organic positioning.
What are the advantages of conquering them?
Achieving a featured snippet serves multiple purposes. Here we tell you the most relevant for a Digital Marketing Strategy.
Increase Visibility
Getting to the top of the Google search page allows many more people to see what your site has to offer.
Remember that these are shown above the organic results, that is, it will be the first thing the user sees when they search.
More traffic
When you effectively answer a question or define a concept efficiently, you satisfy the needs of users and, in many cases, they will need more information. The visits will come from here.
Being first, the possibility that you will increase the number of visits will be very high, something that will favor your website.
Higher click-through rate
Clicks are a very common way of measuring the impact of a publication and of a COntent Marketing strategy, for example.
Climbing to the top of the SERPs allows you to increase the average number of clicks your materials and offers receive.
More conversions
All of the above is for the purpose of generating conversions or sales for your website. This is the most attractive feature of conquering featured snippets, generating more business opportunities for your company or organization.
How to optimize content to earn featured snippets?
With the importance and clear advantages of Google’s zero position, you may already be wondering what to do to conquer them. And, although there is no formula, there are steps and actions that favor its obtaining. Here we tell you what they are:
Satisfy user intent
Research what users are looking for to know what type of content to create or how to modify it to satisfy that intention. That is, if for a specific content you need a table, then incorporate one into your material.
Text Sizes
A featured snippet is characterized by being short and precise. Make sure your content is like this. According to MOZ studies, paragraphs cannot exceed 90 words, 45 being the ideal size.
To conquer text snippets, ensure that there are paragraphs focused on direct and concise definitions of the term represented by the keyword for which you want to position your web page.
In the case of lists the number of items favors obtaining featured snippets, but the words cannot be more than 60 in the entire list.
For the tables, the number of lines is not relevant, but the number of columns is. Try not to exceed 3 columns.
Also, when using H2, H3, H4, among others, respond immediately to that concept in the next paragraph. This way, Google will understand that you define the keyword bluntly and will take you into account.
Update the post
For Google to identify changes and optimization within the content, it is necessary to perform manual steps to index it. For this task you can make use of Google Search Console and use the recrawl option in your material.
So you make a request for the algorithm to scan your page and update its ranking in the SERP if the changes you make have worked.
Extra recommendations to conquer featured snippets
For ready contents:
- check keywords and be sure they are in the first ten positions;
- adjust the format according to the recommendations we made and update the content, be patient;
- if you don’t reach the snippets in a month, optimize again and update the content again;
For the contents to be produced:
- Research your niche keywords and those that already have a featured snippet;
- Create excellent content and take parts of it to optimize it according to the sizes and recommendations already given.
Conclusion
Featured snippets are the cheapest and most accessible way to get to Google zero.
Reaching the top can give you a huge competitive advantage to go hand in hand with the greats in your segment, get a large number of visitors to your site and increase your business opportunities exponentially.
In addition, you should not worry if your content is not in the best organic positions, since 70% of them are not related to the positioning in SERPs, according to Rob Bucci’s team. What an interesting fact!
We hope the topic has been clear to you and that you now know how to appear in Google’s zero result
Go and conquer the top of Google!
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