The writer’s views are completely his or her personal (excluding the unlikely occasion of hypnosis) and should not all the time mirror the views of Moz.
In our final episode of 2022, Crystal discusses how featured snippets present up in a number of completely different elements of the SERP, providing you with a lot of good worth for natural attain, and tips on how to declare these alternatives to your present content material.
Click on on the whiteboard picture above to open a excessive decision model in a brand new tab!
Video Transcription
Hello, my identify is Crystal Carter. Welcome to my Whiteboard Friday. I’m the Head of search engine marketing Communications at Wix, and as we speak I’ll discuss to you about featured snippets. Particularly, I’ll discuss to you about how one can get featured snippets for present content material.
Now, earlier than I get into that, I would like to speak to you about why we must be fascinated by featured snippets for present content material, and that is as a result of featured snippets present up in a lot of completely different elements of the SERP. So they provide you a lot of good worth for natural attain.
For those who’re undecided what a featured snippet is, in case you Google one thing like, “what’s a featured snippet,” you truly get a featured snippet, and it is a kind of extract of textual content from an internet site. And beneath of it, it’s going to say that it is a featured snippet, and that is how you already know it is a featured snippet.
Now, the content material from a featured snippet can present in a lot of completely different elements of search once you’re on-line. So it is going to present within the neat featured snippet, and it’d embrace a picture, it’d embrace a paragraph, it’d embrace another components, which I will go into slightly bit later. But it surely additionally would possibly present in a featured snippet dropdown. So featured snippets are consistently altering. All the time they’re including new options and trialing new options. However one of many options that we have seen, as an example, in case you lookup what’s a featured snippet, I’ve seen it earlier than, the place it has the principle paragraph, which says what a featured snippet is, after which it’s going to break it down additional, so tips on how to get a featured snippet and tips on how to optimize for that kind of factor. So it is going to break it down into completely different sections, and beneath every part, there’s extra content material, which in case you click on on it, leads you to a different featured snippet.
There’s additionally the Individuals Additionally Ask part of Google. So beneath Individuals Additionally Ask, there may be, extra questions on a given matter, significantly in case you’re looking for a head time period, like say, I do not know, footwear, there may be kind of: What footwear ought to I purchase? Or the place can I get footwear? Or is a sandal a shoe? That kind of factor would possibly present up in Individuals Additionally Ask. These usually include featured snippets as effectively.
You may also get a featured snippet once you make a voice question. You may also get a featured snippet once you search on Google Lens.
You may also get the content material from a featured snippet inside the from sources throughout the net accordions, which present up for sure matter queries. So, as an example, in case you have been to question one thing like “Seven Wonders of the World,” you would possibly get one thing that claims, “From sources across the internet,” and has kind of the Pyramids of Giza. After which in case you click on on that, there will be a lot of little bits of content material, and people will usually be pulled from featured snippets.
You may additionally see a featured snippet beneath a data panel dropdown. So, as an example, in case you have been to lookup, once more, one thing just like the Pyramids of Giza, it might need a piece about completely different elements of that individual question, and people will embrace completely different dropdowns, and beneath these dropdowns, you’ll usually see featured snippet content material. And, after all, the data panel will fairly often pull content material from featured snippets.
So, with all of that chance to realize natural attain and to realize natural visibility, it is actually price optimizing content material for featured snippets.
Now, in case you have content material that you simply suppose has the potential to get a featured snippet, i.e., that it appeals to some good, juicy lengthy tail key phrases, and that it is of top of the range, you might very effectively suppose, “Oh, this explicit search consequence that this web page is rating for has a featured snippet. Perhaps I may get it.” For those who’re undecided the place to begin about tips on how to get on that featured snippet, then this is a number of suggestions that are likely to work.
So it is a little little bit of a choice tree, and I am simply going to speak you thru slightly little bit of it. So very first thing you need to take into consideration is your formatting, so headers. This is not rocket science. That is basic search engine marketing tooling. So your headers, your H1s, your H2s, your H3, are they related? Are they current? Are they breaking down the content material in a lot of good methods? If they don’t seem to be, then you need to replace that. Okay, if they’re, in case you do have headers, H1s, H2s, then be sure that they have related terminology in them. We will suppose key phrases, but in addition you may suppose extra naturally, like pure language. Pure language processing is changing into much more intuitive inside Google, they usually’re in a position to perceive a lot of nuances of language. So just be sure you’ve together with one thing that is related, that continues to inform the story of regardless of the matter is that you simply’re masking.
One other factor that you may take into consideration, and this additionally helps you with Individuals Additionally Ask, is whether or not or not you may phrase the headers as questions. So, as an example, in case you have been to consider the pyramids, as an example, you would possibly say, “When is an effective time to go to go to the pyramids?” as an example. That may be one thing that you simply would possibly wish to embrace. For those who can write it as a query, typically that may assist with queries, like, as an example, inside the voice search and in addition with Individuals Additionally Ask.
Now, as soon as you’ve got executed all of that, you wish to go to the subsequent factor. So in case you go to headers and also you say, “Sure, we have executed all of this,” then we take a look at information and information units. Once I say information and information units, I do not imply like large, large information units and like 17 spreadsheets with a lot of tabs and VLOOKUPs and all that stuff. I imply lists. For example, in case you have been to say, “Ought to I put on sandals or ought to I put on sneakers,” for example, that may be one thing that you might examine and you might say, “Properly, is the climate like this? Or is that this like that? Or is that like that? Or is that like that?” That is a set of data that you might placed on a desk, as an example. Or in case you have been to say, “What various kinds of footwear are there, sandals, heels, trainers whichever,” then that is additionally a sort of information set. So in case you have information, in case you have an inventory inside your content material, then you definately would possibly wish to take into consideration whether or not or not you might embrace extra lists or extra in your content material, and that may be one thing you wish to take into consideration.
If you’re doing that, then you definately wish to take into consideration together with HTML lists. So not simply listed within the paragraph, but in addition listed out particularly inside lists. These could be as ordered lists or as unordered lists. So an unordered checklist inside HTML has an HTML tag of ul, and then you definately would be capable of make that as bullet factors. For those who’re in a position to put in an ordered checklist, one, two, three, 4, like high 10 suggestions for XYZ, then you definately would be capable of put that in as an ordered checklist, and that is one thing that you might put in your HTML. What occurs with Google, with their featured snippets is typically they pull out the checklist and they’re going to put that onto the featured snippet there. So in case you have it in your content material, then you definately’re extra more likely to present for featured snippets.
One other factor you may take into consideration is tables. So I discussed a few of the tables. Google typically inside their featured snippets will present the tables within the SERP. So in case you have content material that could possibly be put right into a desk, it is price fascinated by that as effectively.
So once you’re fascinated by your information units and once you’re fascinated by the information and the data that you’ve got in your content material, take into consideration if there is a manner that you may make it extra snackable with ordered lists. Take into consideration if there is a manner that you may make it extra snackable with tables. If you have not executed that but, then you need to replace your content material in order that it contains that. When you have executed that, then you may transfer on to the subsequent step.
So the subsequent step is to consider related photos. Does it include related photos? This may be an illustration, or this may be pictures of no matter it’s you are speaking about. Generally after I converse to individuals about this, they are saying, “Oh, effectively, we’re in a vertical that does not have quite a lot of pictures.” That is tremendous. That is okay. You can also make infographics as effectively. You can also make diagrams as effectively. These might help you for featured snippets. They will additionally allow you to with a lot of different elements of the SERP. One of many options that exhibits up very commonly inside featured snippets is a picture carousel. Generally Google will combine and match the content material in them. So, for a featured snippet, you would possibly see a paragraph from one web site and a picture from one other one. So even in case you have the featured snippet, you may not have the entire components of the featured snippet.
Now, in case you do have a picture in your featured snippet, then you definately’re extra more likely to present for each the paragraph and the picture. So if you do not have pictures in your content material, you need to add them. For those who’re not in a position to take a photograph, then you need to create a diagram that’s related to your content material.
The opposite one you wish to take into consideration is ensuring that any pictures that you’ve got in your content material embrace related attributes, like your alt tags, your title names, your file names, your file codecs to your pictures, in order that they are often listed and crawled appropriately. Additionally you wish to take into consideration entities, any pictures in your web site that include related entities, which might additionally allow you to with visible search. Shout-out to my final Whiteboard Friday on that.
For those who’ve executed all of that, then you definately wish to take into consideration ensuring that you’ve got schema markup in your pictures, as a result of that may also provide you with one other aspect. Now, only a slight sidebar, schema markup just isn’t part of the factors for featured snippets. You do not want to have schema markup in your web site to get a featured snippet. Nonetheless, anecdotally, quite a lot of web sites which have schema markup are likely to carry out effectively for featured snippets. So what the schema does is it helps Google to know your picture higher, which makes it extra seemingly for it to indicate a picture search, which makes it extra more likely to present in a featured snippet.
So if you do not have this stuff in place, then you need to add these to your content material as effectively. For those who do, then I’d say that it is price ensuring that you’re keeping track of your featured snippets and keeping track of your content material to see if there’s any of this stuff that may be optimized as you go alongside.
As soon as you’ve got executed that, it is price checking the place your content material is being distributed, whether or not you are exhibiting for a featured snippet, whether or not you are exhibiting for Individuals Additionally Ask, whether or not there’s different elements of the SERP that you simply may be featured on to be able to probably construct on that with both further content material or with enriching this content material additional.
These are my suggestions for tips on how to optimize present content material for featured snippets.
