Let’s start by looking at some of the featured snippet research stats and facts.
Featured Snippet Research: Stats And Facts
- 19% of SERPs have featured snippets.
- A featured snippet can increase CTR by more than 850%.
- 70% of snippets are pulled from the results outside of the first organic position.
- On average, a Featured Snippet gets about 8.6% of all clicks on a SERP.
- 99.58% of feature snippets come from pages that are ranked in the top 10 results.
- 70% of the results snippet is paragraphs, 19.1% lists, 6.3% tables, and 4.6% videos.
- The first organic result gets 20% of clicks in SERPs with features snippets, but 26% in those without.
- 7.3% of SERPs have double-featured snippets.
- A featured snippet covers 50% of the average mobile screen.
- 40 to 50 words, or 300 characters, is the ideal featured snippet paragraph length.
How To Optimize For Featured Snippets
In order to optimize for feature snippets, these are some of the most important factors to consider when writing a post to rank in Google.
What is a featured snippet?
A featured snippet is a short answer that appears at the top of Google’s search results in response to a user’s question. Featured snippets come from organic search results, not paid ads.
Featured snippets are different from other types of rich results, such as recipe cards and knowledge panels. You can learn how to set up your site for rich results like these by following Google’s developer guide.
What type of content is eligible for a snippet?
In order to understand, what content is eligible for snippets, you need to understand what types of features are available in Google search results.
Check out the common types of feature snippets here.
Answer The Search Query In Your First Paragraph
The first step in optimizing for featured snippets is to answer the search query in your first paragraph. The purpose of this section is to provide a quick summary that answers the user’s question. Even if you have a longer article, an answer at the top will give Google enough information to select your page as a featured snippet.
To accomplish this, include the keyword or phrase in the first paragraph and write your answer concisely. Keep your answer simple and easy to read by using complete sentences and limiting it to about 40 words.
Include A Table Of Contents
Make it easier for readers to find what they need by providing a table of contents. This also helps search engines understand your content better. Use a plugin like Easy Table of Contents or Table of Contents Plus to create one automatically.
Use header tags strategically
There are two main benefits of using header tags strategically:
- It helps Google understand the structure of your post and what it’s about.
- It makes your post easier for people to read and navigate, which means they’re more likely to spend more time on your page, click through to other pages on your site, and come back in the future.
Use structural markup
Use structural markup. Structural markup is the correct use of HTML tags to highlight your content and make it more easily accessible by search engines and users. This includes using the right heading tags—H1, H2, H3, etc.—to structure subheadings within your content. It also means ensuring that you are using lists and tables when they’re appropriate to present information in a great user experience. A table of contents can also help with this because it helps Google recognize what information is important inside a page’s content.
Make sure your content is eligible for a snippet. Featured snippets are only included for certain queries. You can find out if your content is eligible for featured snippets by performing searches on those topics and looking at the results pages. If you see the featured snippets box in the results, then you know that there is an opportunity to claim a featured snippet for that particular topic or query!
Types of Featured Snippet
Paragraph snippets
Paragraph snippets are like typical text snippets but they go a little further to help you better understand the context of the answer. These are typically paragraphs that provide a straight solution to your search query and originate from websites that rank on Google’s first page of results. Paragraph snippets appear below the URL, title, and normal text snippet in search results.
List snippets
A list snippet is like a regular featured snippet, except it displays a list of items (anywhere from 1 to 10) that are related to the query. The bullet points themselves do not have to be an exact match for the query, but they must be closely related.
Table snippets
If you want to rank for a table featured snippet, JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) structured data is the way to go.
You can use this tool from Google’s developer site to check if your structured data is formatted correctly: Structured Data Testing Tool.
Video snippets
Video snippets are a type of featured snippet that displays videos at the top of the search results page.
To the left of the title, there is a video carousel and a thumbnail image that shows an image from one of the videos in the carousel.
Video snippets may be displayed above all other results on desktop and mobile when a query contains “video” or “videos.” On some search queries, they can also rank as high as position #1.
featured snippet click-through rate
