In the case of featured snippets, old is gold. No matter how SEO changes or how long featured snippets have been around, they’re just as valuable today as they were when first introduced!
If you’re not already optimizing for featured snippets, you could be missing out on a boatload of organic traffic.
Why Featured Snippets Are Still Important
Out of all the things you could be going for with SEO, what makes featured snippets so vital for getting traffic? Here are the benefits you could be getting:
Voice Search Results
When people search for something via voice search queries, the featured snippet is usually what’s given to them for an answer. Whether it’s read out to them or not, devices with screens will bring up the search results page with this snippet at the top.
Some people using voice search will get their answers and move on, but others will go to the website to learn more. Optimizing for voice search traffic through featured snippets can make your pages more accessible, putting you in the path of more people in the long term.
Prominent Positioning
Featured snippets, also called position zero, sit in a very prominent place on Google search results pages. They’re called position zero because they sit at the very top of the page, above even the first organic page result.
This is the golden spot for most web pages, especially affiliate marketing sites.
Position zero is more likely to get clicks than the top search result. Being on page 1 is good, but position zero puts you at an advantage and makes your page the most visible thing for the user.
Organic Traffic Boost
When you manage to get featured snippets, the pages they link to will naturally receive a boost in organic traffic. As many as 35% of all clicks go to the featured snippet. Considering this is not a paid promotional spot, that’s the best result you could hope for!
As the featured snippet result, your page will no longer show with the other search results to avoid repetition. However, most people are likely to click on the first result they see that addresses their needs. If the featured snippet is relevant to what they want, they’ll click that and ignore any other search results further down the page, giving you a coveted traffic boost.
Brand Awareness
Along with the snippet text, your link, article title, logo, and brand name will be prominently displayed. This is great for building brand awareness and authority, making you appear as a more trustworthy source to your audience.
Website Authority Ranking
The more traffic you get, the more likely you are to start gaining website authority. This comes through backlinks and mentions from authoritative sources. As your site gets more traffic, backlinks tend to build up naturally. The better the backlink sources, the more your website authority will grow.
Sites like Reddit can also be used to help bump up your website authority, if you play your cards right.
Experimental Changes to Featured Snippets
Since late 2023, Google has been experimenting with different ways of presenting featured snippet results. These changes could make a huge impact on the importance of the featured snippet and how it benefits your website.
The main change is that there are far more results shown now than before. In previous iterations, Google displayed only 1 result as a featured snippet with a link to the source. Now, up to 3 different response snippets can be shown in a row, with each linking back to its source.
What this means is that you now have more opportunities to end up in position zero. Your spot may not be quite as prominent, but it will be tailored to a specific topic.
This is what the original featured snippets look like:
These are the new style snippets:
And their expanded form:
For example, if someone searches for “what do you need to start video editing”, their featured snippet will have 6+ different apps, skills, or pieces of equipment that fit that search, displayed in an accordion element. Each answer will be a drop-down with 3 different links and a short snippet similar to the original featured snippet answers.
With this change, people get information related to their search in a way that feels more relevant and complete. Along with that, it also gives you more of a chance to land a featured snippet position because there are now more open spaces!
Optimizing for New Snippets
Getting your content all set for the new snippets is easy. The optimization strategy is about the same as for the older style of snippets. You need to pay attention to a few key things, including:
- “Is” Statements: Sections you want to be picked up for featured snippets should immediately answer a question with an “is”-type statement. For example:
Question: What is Minecraft?
Answer: Minecraft is a sandbox video game where players can build and play in a huge, diverse fantasy world.
Even if the answer includes more detail afterward, the first sentence should be a direct answer to the question.
- Question Headlines: You answer section needs to be in response to a question headline. Include keywords you’re trying to rank for in that question to make sure search engines know the relevance of the section.
- Length: Keep your answer section at a max of 50 words or less. Because the new snippets are shorter, you can go as low as 20-30 words for an answer paragraph.
- General, Informative Language: This is not the place to let your creative mind wander. You want to write this section in a straightforward, concise style that’s addressing the reader directly.
None of these things guarantee a spot in the featured snippet. Realistically, if your page isn’t already ranking for some keywords, it will be difficult to get a position zero placement. However, it’s always a good idea to be prepared and include that section just in case.
Featured snippets are great for visibility and traffic on your website. Especially with the new changes to how featured snippets can display information, it’s always worth the effort to try for the coveted position zero placement. Get optimizing!
