Featured Snippets FAQ

Getting a featured snippet from their website is probably the one thing most people would want right now. They appear right above all the organic search results. It doesn’t push the top search result away and so it gives a chance for a website to appear as featured snippet and as the first result on the search results page. As more people understand the importance of featured snippets, there arise a lot of questions in this regard. We would like to provide answers to a few common questions. For example search for SEO Singapore company list.

1. Can A New Website Appear In The Featured Snippet Section?

Not all keywords trigger featured snippets. But if your website is optimized for a keyword that Google considers for featured snippets and if your website is among the top ten results then it is possible that you can get a place as a featured snippet. It may not be easy for a new website to achieve this. But being new will not disqualify you from being a candidate to appear as featured snippet.

2. Does Google Have A Method To Identify Traffic From Featured Snippets?

Till now there is no separate Google tag to tell you what amount of traffic resulted from featured snippets. You cannot differentiate between the traffic that comes from your organic result and from featured snippet. There is till now no GTM that would help in getting you this information.

3. Do Long-Tail Keywords With Less Number Of Searches Help In Getting A Featured Snippet?

Long-tail keywords that can get you good returns are very good to convert customers. These low-volume keywords can help in getting your website a better ranking. There are lesser number of websites answering these long-tail questions and hence your website stands a better chance.

Whiles single word searches will turn up a high number of results. But queries that are specific will have lesser number of websites answering the query and your website will have a better chance. A search with just a product name will have too many results. But when it is qualified by size, gender or color, the results will be very less. Such keywords can be great for optimizing for featured snippets.

4. Which Queries Should We Create Content Optimized For Featured Snippets?

You must first select the likely queries. You must then find the keywords that will result in a snippet. Check whether there are keywords for which you rank on page one but you still don’t own those keywords. You can then select the keywords that will be best for your goals. Do you want to convert or do you want visitors to your page?

One way to find the right keywords to be to take the help of featured snippet carousels. Suppose there is a query for a service that triggers a featured snippet, you can check whether there are carousels which are state specific. The best part it that carousal snippets are not necessarily taken from sites that rank on the search results page.

5. If A Featured Snippet Appears For A Query In One Language, Will The Same Snippet Appear For The Same Query In Different Language If The Website Supports That Language?

There is no specific study done to know this. But there could be a difference in featured snippets when there is a change of language.

6. Why Do Featured Snippets Change Frequently?

You could win a featured snippet and lose it after a few days. There is new content arriving on the web and this makes keeping a featured snippet very difficult. Sometimes Google first features a snippet from a site that is not ranked. This will mean that Google is still searching for the right snippet for the query. So that can change soon when Google finds the right featured snippet.

Google also changes the content for the snippets. The carousel topics for features snippets also keep changing. All these are reasons for the snippets changing frequently. Google is also constantly changing their search criteria and this also causes changes in the SERPs.

7. How Can Keyword List Help To Find Gaps In Opportunities For Featured Snippets?

They are a great way. You must first find the keyword list for the feature that you want on the search results page. In this case you must filter for featured snippets. Then you must use your present website ranking find the opportunities and gaps for the top featured snippets.

8. Is It Worth Studying The Content That Has Got A Featured Snippet And Using That Model?

You can learn a lot from studying a content that has got a featured snippet. You must find out how it answers the query. See whether it answers a voice search. Does the content give additional information that the user might be looking for? See if there are enough visual content. it is also worth checking out which part of the content, the featured snippet has been taken from.

9. Does Google Prefer Informational Websites Over Commercial Sites For Featured Snippets.

There is no evidence to show that there is any preference for informational sites. But these sites do better in most cases. Google only searches for the answer that will satisfy the user the most. Commercial sites can certainly create content that can answer queries better.

10. When Was "People Also Ask" Section Launched And What Is Its Future?

The “People Also Ask” section was first seen in July 2015 and since increased exponentially in appearance. Though the future is not very certain it is better for all SEO companies to be prepared for more of these.

11. What Does It Mean By Saying The Image URLs Are Not In Organic?

This means that the webpage that contains the images that are there on the features snippets do not appear in the first ten pages of organic results for the particular query that triggered the featured snippets.

12. What Should Be The Consideration Of Featured Snippets When Creating Content?

What the content writer should first think about is the searcher. The writer should understand the intention of the searcher and what exactly is the information that is sought. You must also know what form the searcher wants the information in. They may want it as text, image or video.

Voice search should be kept in mind while optimizing for featured snippets. Earning Featured Snippet in Google Search Results can help get traffic from voice search as well. Read the full post on the impact of featured snippets on voice search.

13. How Can Someone Write Content For The User And Not For The Search Engine? How To Ensure This?

The only tool for this is a readability test. But that is also not very useful as it could block your creativity. Only another person can really say whether the content will satisfy the user who is searching on the internet. See if people can understand what you wrote when it is read to them.

14. How To Know The Latest Trends Of Google’s Featured Snippets?

There are some tools and publications that can help you with this. You can use MozCast to know the latest about Google algorithms. You can use tools that will alert when you get or lose a featured snippet. You can also see the people who are updated with the subject and follow them on Twitter.

The question remain is how to optimize for Google featured snippets. It can be done by implementing schema mark up to your content. You can also ask your SEO service provider to help you with schema and feature snippets.