Featured Snippet? What is it?

Have you ever searched for a word or phrase and the first organic result was Wikipedia? You are witnessing the power of a Featured Snippet (also known as structured data markup, rich answer or direct answer placement) in Google’s search results.

Featured snippets on topics that are relevant to your website can be a great way to draw traffic to your site.  If you are an authority for certain content, Google can treat the structured data on your site as factual and import it into the Knowledge Graph where it can power prominent answers in Search and across Google properties.

Hundreds of case studies have revealed that pages with a brief extract of information or an answer to a question, have the potential to become a featured snippet and receive top page rankings.

Get Top Ranking Organic Results

Eric Enge of Stone Temple Consulting, conducted a test of over 850,000 search queries.

According to Eric, providing an answer to a question in a clear, direct and simple way has the potential to generate a number 2 spot in the rankings, second only to Wikipedia.

When you search Google for “What is SEO” Wikipedia is the first organic result and it appears as a featured snippet.  The third result is a redevolution.com landing page that provides the answer to “What is SEO?”

Users love getting fast, easy answers to their questions.  Google provides a direct answer to your question and the reader isn’t forced to click through to get it.  Depending on the length of the answer, only part of it may be revealed.

This is a fast and easy way to provide relevant content to users and improve the potential for users to find your solutions.

Four simple steps to getting the same results for yourself.

1. Identify a question, relative to your website, solution, or client challenge.
2. Provide a clear, brief and direct answer to that question.
3. Add more value below your answer.  Expand upon your answer and provide examples and resources.
4. Employ simple SEO efforts so users and Google can find your page.

Easy Search Engine Optimization Tactics

These are some quick SEO steps you can implement to get your answer featured at the top of the search results.

1. Embed keywords and key phrases in your content.
2. Use your client’s language not industry speak.
3. Give your page a strong, relevant, unique page title.
4. Add a great page description, up to 150 characters.
5. Use images, but be sure they are optimized.  Don’t sacrifice page load time.
6. Use headings (H1) and sub-headings (H2).
7. Use ALT tags to provide a descriptive image.  This helps search engines understand what the image is about.
8. Check your URL (aka permalink).  It should be descriptive.  A Good URL:  https://blueirismarketing.com/2015/08/26/featured-snippet-what-is-it/
9. Share the URL via social media, especially Google+.
10. Submit it to the Search Console