How To Optimise For Featured Snippets
What is a featured snippet?
Featured Snippets are short pieces of text that appear at the top of Google’s search results in order to quickly answer a searcher’s query. They are more likely to appear when users enter informational queries. Having a featured snippet at the top of Google can result in more traffic for a given page.
Types of featured snippets:
1. Paragraph
Paragraphs are the most common type of featured snippet consisting of a short piece of text pulled from a <p> tag providing a brief answer to a question. This could be a query like “How”, “Who”, “Why”, “When”, and “What”. They tend to be 40–60 words long on average.
2. List
A list featured snippet is a result that displays in a bulleted or numbered list generally pulled from either an <ol> or <ul> tag.
3. Table
A table snippet is information pulled from a <table> tag. This is the least common type of featured snippet.
Featured snippet optimisation:
- Add a “What is” heading to your content – This signals to Google that your text could be helpful as a featured snippet. Add this heading as close to the top of your content as possible. For example, “What are the benefits of Teeth Whitening”.
- Use an “is” sentence structure – This allows Google to easily find relevant text for the featured snippet. The first sentence should start with the structure: “[Keyword] is…”. An example of this would be “Teeth Whitening is a great way to whiten your teeth”.
- Define the topic – Snippets should give users as much information about the topic as quickly as possible. The first sentence should define the topic. The second and third should describe 2-3 facts about the topic.
- Don’t use brand names – Google reads back featured snippets when users perform voice queries on a mobile or home device. This means that featured snippets must always make sense in this context. For example, “Teeth whitening at Smile Dental Centre offers numerous benefits including a brighter smile”. When read by a voice assistant, this might be confusing as the searcher was looking for general benefits of teeth whitening, not just from that specific practice.
- Don’t use language in the first person – Imagine that the sentence is being read by a voice assistant. Words like “our” won’t work in this context.
- Look at your top rankings – The higher your site ranks in the organic results, the better the chance of generating a featured snippet. Look for keywords that you’re already ranking well for to see if there are any opportunities to claim a featured snippet.
If you’d like help building an effective SEO campaign then please give the Dental Design team a call on 01202 618967.
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