Featured Snippets: What They Are and How to Optimize for Them

Featured snippets are the highlighted answers that appear at the top of Google search results, providing a concise and direct answer to a user's query. They're a great way to get your content seen and understood by users.

To optimize for featured snippets, you need to make sure your content is structured and easy to read. This means breaking up long blocks of text into smaller, bite-sized chunks, and using clear and concise headings.

A good example of this is the "What is a featured snippet?" section, which uses a clear and concise definition to get the point across. This type of structure makes it easy for users to quickly understand the information they're looking for.

In order to appear in the featured snippet section, your content needs to provide a clear and direct answer to the user's question. This means focusing on providing a concise and accurate answer, rather than trying to include too much extraneous information.

Featured snippets are short snippets of text that appear at the top of Google's search results in order to quickly answer a searcher's query. They're automatically pulled from web pages in Google's index.

Common types of featured snippets include definitions, tables, steps, and lists. These formats are designed to provide users with concise and easy-to-understand answers to their questions.

A featured snippet is a webpage excerpt that succinctly answers a searcher's question. It's often featured at the top of search results in what's frequently called "position zero."

Featured snippets fall under the larger umbrella known as search engine results page (SERP) features, which are special results that stand out from traditional search listings.

You're likely to see featured snippet results when you search for things like definitions, dates, how-tos, names of people, costs, how many, and conversions. Here are some examples:

Creating well-structured, informative, and concise content that addresses common user queries is helpful. It increases the chances of Google selecting your content for a featured snippet.

Featured snippets are a game-changer for SEO. They can give your content a serious boost in organic click-through-rate, with up to 10.7% CTR, as seen in one study.

Having a featured snippet puts your content in the coveted "Position #0" spot, above the traditional #1 result. This means you can get more clicks from the organic search results without higher Google rankings.

Featured snippets also increase the number of "no-click searches", where users get the direct answer they're looking for from the snippet itself. However, this doesn't mean you should automatically toss out a keyword if there's a featured snippet - after all, 4.77% of all queries have a featured snippet.

Here are four reasons why featured snippets are great for SEO:

Securing a featured snippet spot offers way more SEO benefits than just recognition - it can drive more people to click through to your website, with an increased click-through rate of up to 10.7%.

There are several types of featured snippets that appear in Google's search results. Google commonly uses Definition Boxes for "what is" queries, providing a quick answer in a concise definition or description.

The average definition Featured Snippet is between 40-60 words long. I've noticed that these snippets are often used to provide a direct answer to a search query, making it easy for users to find the information they need.

There are also different types of featured snippets, including paragraph, numbered list, bulleted list, table, and video snippets. These can be used for various types of search queries, such as "best of" or "what are" searches that involve multiple answers.

Here are the different types of featured snippets that are commonly displayed on Google:

There are several types of featured snippets that can appear in Google's search results.

Google commonly uses definition boxes to provide a quick answer to "what is" queries. These boxes are short and sweet, typically between 40-60 words long.

Definition boxes are a great way to give searchers a direct, concise definition or description. For example, a search for "outreach email" might display a definition box at the top of the results.

There are also several other types of featured snippets, including paragraph snippets, numbered list snippets, bulleted list snippets, table snippets, and video snippets.

Paragraph snippets are used to provide a quick answer to a search query, often in the form of a short paragraph.

Numbered list snippets, on the other hand, are used to provide a list of items in a specific order. Google tends to use these for queries that need a set of steps.

Here are the different types of featured snippets that can appear in Google's search results:

Video snippets are used when a video holds the best answer to a query, often for "how to" searches.

Video snippets are a type of featured snippet that appears when a video holds the best answer to a query.

They're often used to answer "how to" searches, making up less than 5% of featured snippets.

To increase your chances of securing a video snippet, upload your video to YouTube, and include it on a relevant page on your site.

Google considers a few things when determining what video to show in a snippet, including a voiceover that's clear and not too quick.

Using time stamps in your videos is a huge help in indicating what each section is about, making it easier for Google to select the spot in the video that answers a specific query.

In fact, Google will select a specific part of the video to show in the snippet, like the part that answers the question "how to do a kettlebell swing."

Landing a spot as the featured snippet increases organic traffic and boosts your credibility, making it a crucial aspect of SEO.

Featured snippets are an incredible opportunity to gain prominent visibility and reach a larger audience, even if users don’t click on the snippet itself.

Optimize your meta tags, meta titles, and meta descriptions to succinctly summarize and entice users to click through your website for more information.

The paragraph is the most common snippet, accounting for 70% of the snippets users see, according to a study with Brado.

Craft your content to directly answer search intent, do so clearly and succinctly to improve your chances of snagging a featured snippet.

Write your website’s content with the mindset of immediately answering search intent, or the question searchers are asking, and then going into additional detail about the topic.

A crucial part of successfully landing featured snippets is doing good old-fashioned keyword research.

Use keyword research to determine which search queries bring up featured snippets and which ones you currently rank high for.

Target long-tail keywords with high search volume and a good chance of triggering a featured snippet, as they often align with user queries.

To track your featured snippet progress, use tools like Semrush's Position Tracking or SE Ranking's Position Tracker. These tools allow you to see how many of your pages are appearing for snippets triggered by your target keywords.

You can set your desired time range and use the "Already Featured" feature to see which pages are currently ranking for snippets. This will give you an idea of where you need to improve.

SE Ranking's Position Tracker also has a "SERP Features" column that highlights whether your page owns the featured snippet or not. If the icon is blue, it means your page ranks above the rest, and if it's grey, another page owns it.

You can use the Competitive Research Tool in SE Ranking to see what SERP features your competitors appear for. To do this, go to the Organic Traffic Research section and filter by Featured Snippets.

Here's how to interpret the SERP Features column in SE Ranking's Position Tracker:

Tailoring your content for featured snippets improves the overall quality of your content, which can lead to better business results over time.

Featured snippets are an incredible opportunity to gain prominent visibility and reach a larger audience, even if users don't click on the snippet itself.

Landing a spot as the featured snippet increases organic traffic and boosts your credibility, getting you on the front page of a Google Search and right up at the top where users read first.

Featured snippets instantly grab users' attention, especially on mobile devices where they take up no less than half the space and sometimes more.

This prime location positions your brand as a leader and authority in your industry, giving you a competitive edge over others vying for top spots in organic search results.

Monitoring changes in SERPs and being prepared to come up with new strategies is crucial to keep your content visible to users.

Landing a spot as the featured snippet increases organic traffic and boosts your credibility.

Getting picked as a featured snippet can be an incredible opportunity to gain prominent visibility and reach a larger audience.

Even if users don’t click on the snippet itself, the brand or website mentioned in it gains exposure.

To increase the likelihood of getting picked, you should focus on curating your content in a way that makes it suitable for featured snippets.

There are ways of curating your content to increase the likelihood of getting picked, but we have little control over what Google selects as a featured snippet.

To find featured snippet opportunities, you need to see what kind of snippet Google is using for your target search term. Type your target query into Google and see if a snippet appears.

Using Semrush's Keyword Magic Tool can help you find opportunities much more efficiently. Enter your target term into the tool and click "Search" to see a list of related keywords.

Look for the crown icon in the SERP Features column to identify featured snippets. For example, if you enter "how to decorate a cake" into the tool, you'll see featured snippets for related keywords like "ideas on how to decorate a cake" and "how to decorate a cake with strawberries".

Evaluate the SERP to determine what kind of snippet is being shown. Click the magnifying glass icon to view the snippet as it appears in search results.

Research is key to successfully landing featured snippets. Use keyword research to determine which search queries bring up featured snippets and which ones you currently rank high for.

You can even research your competitors to see if they're ranking for any target keywords or if they hold a snippet. This can help you identify opportunities to update your own site and include target keywords in H1 title tags and address search intent in the body of your content.

Landing a spot as the featured snippet increases organic traffic and boosts your credibility. You'll gain prominent visibility and reach a larger audience, even if users don't click on the snippet itself.

Featured snippets dynamically adjust to the query and showcase the most relevant information from the page. This means that users can quickly find essential information without having to click on a link.

Landing a spot as the featured snippet increases organic traffic and boosts your credibility. Not only are you on the front page of a Google Search, but you’re right up at the top and the first thing the user reads!

Even if users don’t click on the snippet itself, the brand or website mentioned in it gains exposure.