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What is a Featured Snippet?

A featured snippet is a summary of an answer displayed on the top of the Google search results. When a user types in a query, Google extracts the summary of the answer from a webpage and displays it along with the page’s URL and title. The user can read the answer directly from Google, or can choose to click through and read more information on the site that the summary was extracted from.

3 Types of Featured Snippets

Depending on your query, featured snippets that Google displays are classified into 3 main types:

•Paragraph Featured Snippet
•List Featured Snippet
•Table Featured Snippet

It is estimated that the most common type is paragraph snippets, which accounts for nearly 82%. The list and table snippets show up 10.8% and 7.3%, respectively, in research results.

The Importance of Google Snippets

If you want to take a shortcut to the first rank on Google Search, Google featured snippets can be an effective and quick way. In general, they provide the following benefits.

Maximize Authority

As a featured snippet shows up on the first position in Good search, you can prove that your site is the most helpful sources for the users to look for an answer to their queries.

Beat Your Competitors

When your website is selected by Google to feature in a snippet as a quick answer to a query, the result will be displayed above other organic results. This means that you are beating your competitors, even when they might have the first ranking for a specific search result.

Increase the Traffic to Your Site

Most people like a featured snippet simply because it gives a quick answer to their queries. As a result, it can increase the traffic to your site, which can be up to 20 or 30%.

How to Get a Featured Snippet for Your Site

Here are 5 basic steps to feature your site on a snippet:

1. Study keyword opportunities

Start with searching a suitable keyword to target with the help of the right tools. Make sure that the selected keywords are relevant to the purpose and content of your site.

2. Target snippets with strategic content

The next step is to create new and smart content that can target featured snippets. Keep in mind to take user experience into account and come up with ideas which are relevant to your business. Avoid unnatural content as it would end up harming your ranking.

3. Create FAQ format

Create a new page to answer a single question that would be featured on snippets. In some cases, it is a good idea to incorporate a FAQ into content.

4. Edit content with tables, lists, and subheadings

Edit content with tables, lists, and subheadings. This will make it simpler for Google to access and rank your answer.

5. Polish the current snippets to get a higher CTR

If you have an existing snippet, it is recommended evaluating and editing them frequently to make sure that your website would get a constant traffic.

Interesting Numbers

In a recent study, STAT has examined and analyzed 1 million high-CPC queries to have a deep insight into featured snippets. Below are some interesting numbers that you should consider:

• Nearly 9.3% out of the 1 million queries in the STAT study contained snippets.
• Over 70% of these featured snippets were not produced from the very first organic results.
• Approximately 27.6% of the featured showed up with an image.
• Those keywords with a high volume of searching have featured snippets twice as frequently.
• More feature snippets often come from higher counts of the question word.
• In readability examinations, URLs with featured snippet have a bit better score.
• In those popular platforms such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Facebook, the social share count of featured snippets was 12.5% higher than the average.