Featured Snippets are the showcased information shown in search results on Google at the top of the page. Optimising your content for these featured snippets increases the chances of the search engine using them.
What do featured snippets look like?
There are three kinds of featured snippet formats. Showcasing either a pithy paragraph which gets to the point promptly; a list of concise information; or a table format of detail. If you take this into account when formatting your content, you can help search engines find answers and perhaps even feature you.
1. Utilise longtail keywords
Longtail keywords are longer phrases, which allow you to attract more specific search queries. When you become less general and more specific (but not so specific there are no search queries), there is less competition for those keywords. With less competition, there is more likelihood of becoming first page results or a featured snippet.
2. Answer questions
Featured snippets are usually concise answers to specific questions, so by phrasing your keywords into the question form (and then answering that concisely), you can increase your chances of being featured.
Always be asking yourself – what questions are my customers asking, and how can I answer them? This will drive traffic, and is part of basic SEO.
3. Provide concise answers
The other part of the equation after asking the questions is, of course, providing a concise answer. That doesn’t mean you can’t expand on that in subsequent paragraphs.
If you can provide the answer in one of the three preferred formats of Featured Snippets, even better.
4. Use keywords in headings and URL
Good practice in SEO in general, using keywords in your headings and the URL are all great pointers for search engines to know that you are answering a specific question with your content.
