If you’re looking for short, simple, quick responses to your queries, look for Google’s zero-position featured snippets.

A featured snippet is a short text snippet that answers users’ queries quickly. It appears at the coveted ‘position zero’ top of SERPs. 

Featured snippets have many forms. A few popular ones are tables, lists, definitions, and steps.    

Marketers and businesses use them to increase conversions, surpass competitors, and drive more traffic. Web pages with featured snippets acquire 2X higher clicks.

Why Is A Featured Snippet Significant For SEO?

A featured snippet can impact your SEO ranking from two angles.

One: It gives you an open and fair chance to acquire extra clicks from users through organic search. As you rank on position zero, you are not ranking in the top first, second, or third positions in Google SERPs. You’re surpassing traditional high-ranking websites and acquiring a unique position that catches users’ attention quickly.

With featured snippets, you can quickly get about 8 percent of the total clicks on Google searches. This means if you secure ‘position zero’, your website’s organic search results get a massive boost. 

Isn’t that exciting?

Two: A featured snippet answers users’ queries instantly. About 11.8 percent of the total queries on Google only pull out featured snippets in results. As a result, this will create zero clicks for your competitors and maximum clicks for you! If your website keeps appearing in featured snippets, users won’t need to click on other results on SERPs.

How To Gain Featured Snippets On Google?

Cracking the mystery of featured snippets has become quite challenging for many SEO gurus. Every marketer needs to know how to optimize their content to secure featured snippets.

Here’s a list of tricks for you!

1.     Aim For Question-Based Search Queries

Google’s featured snippets show a section called, ‘People also ask’.

This section shows all the questions one may want answers regarding a particular search. And if you expand these questions, you will find snippets of solutions underneath them.

If you want your website to appear in this section, start answering the most common questions users may have relevant to your business or products or service. 

You can quickly secure ‘position zero’ if you mold your content strategy to target these unanswered questions.

2.     Use Schema Only If You Can

Many say that schema is the only reason many marketers and businesses have acquired featured snippets for their web pages.

This is certainly not true!

Schema is a code you add to your website to get rich results. Gaining featured snippets is entirely different from acquiring rich clicks. So, a schema is optional for landing your website in featured snippets on Google SERPs.

3.     Organize Your Page Structure

The structure of your webpage should be well-organized. It must depict a clear picture of your content. Begin with a title and distribute all content in appropriate headings.

Choose a particular area within the page and content to place users’ queries in a header (H2, H3, etc.). We recommend placing users’ queries in H2 for speedy results.

Place your content under the heading in the paragraph tag, and get it ranked. An organized page has a higher chance of appearing in featured snippets. 

4.     Use Short-Tail Keyword Queries

Remember, long queries starting with ‘what, why, or how’ are not necessary to get featured snippets. You can use several short keywords that aren’t question-based queries to appear on top of the conventional number#1 spot, known as a featured snippet.

But how does Google do it? Here’s how Google works!

1.     Answers Short Queries

Source: HubSpot

Primarily, Google answers all short queries by taking a portion of the text from a paragraph. Make sure to put answers in your paragraphs that make sense and start just like an answer should, i.e. logically.

2.     Uses A Step-By-Step Approach Where Necessary

Many users are looking for step-by-step directions or instructions. That often happens in DIY content. Suppose your content has clear and short steps listed in proper sequence and is answering users’ queries. In that case, it will appear in featured snippets.

What you need to consider here is the page structure. Make sure to structure every step properly in the listicles. You may also place them as headers (H3 tags).

3.     Uses Posts Limited To 54-58 Words Only

Source: HubSpot

If you need to answer users’ queries in steps, you should limit your content to 54-58 words only. As you can see in the image above, short answers and short keywords perform better than other types of content.

Featured snippets are here to stay. Not only they’re dominating users’ search queries, but they are, in various forms attracting users in one way or another. Use this informative blog to secure ‘position zero’ on Google and lead SERPs without ever needing to compete for the first, second or third ranks!