October 5, 2023 | By CJ Stamatakos
Among all the available real estate on search engine results pages (SERPs), the featured snippet is arguably the most valuable.
A featured snippet is a short section of text that appears at the top of SERPs with the purpose of concisely answering a search query.
Gaining even one featured snippet can be the catalyst for a significant spike in organic traffic to a website.
Blue Corona conducted a comprehensive study of featured snippets on Google to gain insight into how they are won.
In this blog, we analyze our findings and share helpful content optimizations and technical SEO tips that will give you a better chance to win featured snippets.
We’ll also explore which elements of webpages that gain featured snippets are most shared, which factors are important, and which ones may be less significant than conventional wisdom suggests.
Often, they provide an answer to the search query without the user needing to scroll down and clicks on links until they find what they’re looking for.
They also account for 35% of the total click share when displayed on SERPs, according to one study.
With an impact that significant, it’s clear that winning featured snippets is one of the most effective ways to dramatically increase organic traffic to your website.
If your goal is to win a featured snippet, aim to answer the targeted question concisely in two to three sentences, and then support your answer with additional details in subsequent sections.
The second part is important because it helps demonstrate your expertise on the subject and gives credence to the information you’re providing.
What’s a Featured Snippet?
Rich results are the various elements found on Google SERPs outside of the traditional blue organic links. Their purpose is to stand out visually and provide a better experience for users. One of the most common forms of rich results is the featured snippet. A featured snippet is content that Google extracts from webpages and displays at the top of SERPs, like the example below.
Often, they provide an answer to the search query without the user needing to scroll down and clicks on links until they find what they’re looking for.
They also account for 35% of the total click share when displayed on SERPs, according to one study.
With an impact that significant, it’s clear that winning featured snippets is one of the most effective ways to dramatically increase organic traffic to your website.
A Study of Featured Snippets: What We Found
To determine the most important factors for gaining featured snippets, we analyzed webpages that currently own the featured snippet for at least one search query. We looked at what these pages have in common to construct a list of best practices to keep in mind when publishing or rewriting content. Below are our key takeaways from the study. Infographic-How to Win a Featured Snippet on Google by bluecoronaTitle Tags
Title tags are HTML elements that specify the title of a webpage. They appear in browser tabs and are displayed as the blue headlines of pages in SERPs. Here’s what we found in our analysis of title tags across pages that had at least one featured snippet:- 48% of title tags contained a question
- 48% of title tags contained the company’s brand name
- 60% of title tags contained the exact wording of the H1 heading
Heading Tags
Heading tags, another HTML element, are titles displayed on a webpage that are used to break up content. Heading tags have various levels, with H1 headings being the primary headline of a page, while H2s and H3s are examples of smaller sub-headlines. Here’s what we found with headings as it relates to featured snippets:- 44% of H1s contained a question
- 56% of H1s matched the search query closely or exactly
- 56% of H2s where the featured snippet was pulled from matched the search query closely or exactly
Where on the Page the Featured Snippet Is Pulled From
We looked at which paragraph on the page each featured snippet was pulled from. This is what we found:
- 4% of featured snippets were pulled from the first paragraph
- 28% were pulled from the second paragraph
- 16% were pulled from the third paragraph
- 16% were pulled from the fourth paragraph
- 36% were pulled from after the fourth paragraph
Featured Snippet Length
We analyzed how long featured snippets tend to be:
- 4% of featured snippets were one sentence long
- 40% were two sentences long
- 52% were three sentences long
- 4% were four sentences long
If your goal is to win a featured snippet, aim to answer the targeted question concisely in two to three sentences, and then support your answer with additional details in subsequent sections.
The second part is important because it helps demonstrate your expertise on the subject and gives credence to the information you’re providing.
Best Types of Content To Get a Featured Snippet on Google
Now that we’ve covered the most important page elements, the next step is to determine the best types of content to gain featured snippets. The answer is to provide content that is high-quality, informative, and trustworthy. Experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust (E-E-A-T) have long been the pillars of content that rank well on Google, and they are becoming more important with every successive core algorithm update. Fresh content, written by real people with the user in mind, rather than solely for search engines, is rewarded. Providing accurate, updated information that demonstrates your expertise on a subject is the best way to achieve sustained rankings and traffic and win a featured snippet on Google.Content Optimization Tips To Rank for Featured Snippets
When you have the expertise and trustworthiness, how do you optimize your content to increase your likelihood of winning a featured snippet? Follow these general guidelines:- Make sure your content sounds natural and is written for humans. Don’t stuff keywords in for the sake of it.
- Keep search intent in mind — are you answering a question? Providing a how-to guide? Reviewing a product?
- Make sure your headings clearly indicate the content that follows.
- Support your information with trusted resources or real-life experiences.
