What is a featured Snippet, and how does it work?

Google is always working to improve the usability of its search results pages for its users. Learn how to boost visits by utilising one of the most popular search features.

Featured snippets are short extracts from a webpage that appear in Google’s search results to rapidly respond to a user’s query. Google automatically pulls featured snippet material from pages that have been indexed. Definitions, lists, steps, and tables are the most typical types of highlighted snippets.

What is a featured snippet?

Google is continuously experimenting with and improving the search results pages (SERPs). From the layered appearance Google today gives users, a user from the search engine’s early days would probably not recognise the site. Highlighted snippets, curated recipe links, top articles, and information panels are now commonplace in search results, but it all started with the modest featured snippets.

The introduction of featured snippets in 2014 caused quite a stir in the search engine optimization (SEO) world. Users were now going to stay on the search engine rather than going to your top-ranked page, right? Google was stealing website clicks! That’s not good for business.

Why are featured snippets important for SEO?

According to SEMRush’s sensor, highlighted snippets appear in 6% of SERPs. The click-through rate on a featured snippet may be substantially greater than the organic links that show below, depending on the kind of query, the user’s intent, and the material supplied in the snippet.

Consider the following query for a cooking temperature that will provide the user with the information they want right away:

In response to a more sophisticated question, “How does Star Trek’s warp drive work?”:

The former question returns a comprehensive response right away, while the latter directs you to a 3,000-word essay that delves into further detail for those who truly need to know.

To obtain the highlighted snippet, you don’t have to have the top-ranked page for a query. Only 31% of featured snippets draw their material from the top-ranked page in organic search, according to a 2018 research by Ahrefs, and pages in the second through fifth places might produce a substantial amount of traffic from search.

Various revisions since then have improved this a little further by eliminating duplicate sites from the top page results, but the idea remains the same: a highlighted snippet is more useful than ranking No. 1.

The great majority of snippets were triggered by longer-tail keywords with a monthly volume of fewer than 50 searches, according to the same Ahrefs research. These searches, not surprisingly, include more words and a more focused user interest in a topic. These are the types of questions that organisations may target to get clients into the centre of the funnel right away. The highlighted snippet for the question “What are the differences between concrete and fibreglass pools?” is this example.

This is great material for the middle of the funnel (MOFU): During the contemplation phase, it answers particular queries that a person may have. Readers may also tell from the excerpt that the supplier takes an objective approach, which encourages them to click and learn more.

Types of featured snippets

Definitions, lists, steps, and tables are the four most frequent featured snippets. The names give you a good idea of how they operate, but let’s go through each one in more depth.

Definitions

The most common type of highlighted snippet is a definition. These are usually brief and focus on the text on the page. They’re most prevalent in searches that begin with “What is…” or include the term “definition.” You’re more likely to reach users at the top of the funnel if you receive the featured snippet for this type of query in your sector.

As you can see, this highlighted snippet answers the question “What are shipping logistics?” and gives a compelling incentive for readers to click through.

Lists

These are derived from a webpage’s sorted or unordered lists, anchor links at the top of a page in a table of contents, or header tags. This is why it’s critical to use appropriate semantic HTML (which content management systems make simple).

You may have noticed that this list is unfinished and that people must click through to see the whole list; this indicates that it has a considerably higher click-through rate than other highlighted snippets.

Steps

These are often retrieved from ordered lists, but they may also be extracted from header tags, particularly when language like “Step 1,” “Step 2,” and so on is used.

You can acquire a lot of knowledge from this example, but you’re more likely to click through to check if there are any photos or videos that can assist you with such a difficult assignment.

Tables

You’ve probably guessed where these come from: the page’s tables. Google pulls tables straight from the page for display in the SERPs, making them one of the greatest methods to arrange complicated data for visitors.

How to get a featured snippet

“Don’t focus too much about Google; instead, think on the users,” I’ve told anybody who has been in a meeting with me. And there’s a compelling rationale for it.

Google strives to provide its consumers with the best possible response so that they will continue to use its search engine. To attract visitors’ business, company owners should strive to provide the greatest possible response. When you mix They Ask, You Answer with search engine optimization, these two concepts come together.

You’re providing Google precisely what it wants to offer to consumers by addressing user queries in clear English with enough context to allow them to make an informed decision.

Keep track of which queries have highlighted snippets when conducting keyword research on your site. Examine how the competition is meeting their requirements and consider how you might outperform them. What unique perspectives on your sector can you offer? How can you create the best first impression on potential clients? What is the best way to format your response such that it is most beneficial to a customer?

These are the questions you should be asking yourself when you write content for your website. They have a better-than-average chance of getting the highlighted snippet and delivering strong traffic down the funnel to you when paired with our blogging techniques.

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