What Are Featured Snippets and Why Are They Important?

A website is one of the best tools a business owner can use to generate leads. The only way to keep a steady flow of traffic to your website is by using search engine optimization. There are a number of things you need to focus on when trying to conquer the world of online search. Google is one of the most used search engines on the planet and the algorithms used by this search engine to rank websites is extremely complex.

Finding a way to get information from your website at the top of a search engine results page is something you should view as a priority. Featured snippets are a great way to accomplish this goal. Here is some information about Google’s featured snippets and why they are so important. 

What is a Featured Snippet?

In short, a featured snippet is a useful piece of information that is located at the top of Google’s search engine results page. Generally, these snippets provide a user with relevant information related to their query. If you can get your website in this highly-coveted spot, you will start to see an increase in the amount of traffic you receive. 

Nearly 20% of search engine results pages have a featured snippet. Over 70% of the snippets on these search engine results pages are paragraphs. Generally, around 42 words are included in the snippet. Optimizing your content to land in the featured snippet spot will require time and the help of content marketing professionals. 

Types of Featured Snippets

If you are bound and determined to get your content in the featured snippet spot, you need to learn more about the different types of snippets used by Google. In most cases, featured snippets will come in the form of:

• Numbered lists
• Paragraphs
• Bullet lists
• Videos
• Tables

Putting these elements into your content can help to ensure your featured snippet success.

Content Optimization Tips

Are you trying to get your website content in a featured snippet? If so, you need to start with the right keywords. You need to realize that the keywords you use in your website content can make or break your featured snippet success. Featured snippets usually show up in searches that use long-tail keywords. 

Question-based keywords can help you land in the featured snippet spot in no time. Answering these questions in your content is also crucial when trying to get in the featured snippet spot. 

Make Lists in Your Content

Creating content that features lists is also wise when trying to land a featured snippet. These lists should be laid out in either numbered lists or bullet points. Laying out a list and then covering each point covered in detail further down in the content is a great idea. You also need to make sure that the content you are trying to get into a featured snippet falls within the suggested word count of between 40 to 50 words. 

With these tips, you can take the world of featured snippets by storm.