Featured snippets - what are they and how to optimise them?

Some of you surely know what featured snippets are. However, did you know that they have an impact on the SEO? If you want to ensure that your website rises as high as possible in the search results, you need to optimise every possible element - including the featured snippet. Would you like to find out more about this? Then be sure to read this article. We explain what a featured snippet is and what it means for SEO.

Featured snippets - definition

To understand the mechanism of featured snippets, it is important to explain exactly what they are. In simplest terms, they are Google's recommended extracts from the reply to a question typed into a search engine by a user. They appear at the top of the Google search results. To find the answer to a question, there is no need to go to the page where the content was posted. They are distinguished by their format, namely the text is placed in a visibility-enhancing frame and enhanced by optional graphics and link to the page. The aim of the featured snippet is to give the internet user the most an unequivocal answer to his question.

The importance of featured snippets for SEO

You are probably wondering why this type of extended result is important from an SEO point of view. The answer is simple: pages that get featured snippets gain a lot of traffic. They may even find themselves ranked higher than competitors who rank higher! According to Search Engine Lands, CTR (click through rate) of a page that was displayed as a featured snippet increased from 2 to 8%. This case study proved that, despite the negative attitudes of some experts, featured snippets can definitely work to a website's advantage by improving its position in search results.

Featured snippets - how to get there?

We already know what featured snippets are and their importance for SEO, but what can you do to get your sites there? As always with SEO, the answer is not simple and straightforward. Google does not reveal the principle on the basis of which it selects the pages that end up in this section of the search results, but a few conclusions can be drawn.

The most important thing is that your content should answer the user's question. However, it must be properly worded, relevant, well structured and short. This last characteristic is particularly important because in a featured snippet Google only displays the 300 characters. Of course, your website's previous search engine position is also important. The placement of your content will be a kind of "reward" for the good optimisation of your website and the high quality of its content.

Optimisation for featured snippets

If your goal is to compete for a place in the extended results, you must first of all ensure that your website is on the the first page of search results. This is where Google looks for information to feature snippet.

The next step is to find the phrases for which your website appears in the TOP10 in search results. You can use tools such as Senuto (visibility analysis) or Google Search Console. Now familiarise yourself with the questions that internet users type into the search engine in relation to key phrases relevant to your industry. Note that extended results appear for questions starting with 'what', 'how', 'how much', 'where', 'why', 'what', etc.

Now that you know your target group's questions, you need to create an appropriate content. It should provide all the information that is important to users, and it should be well-formatted (headings, mid-headings, etc.) - this is important for the sake of robots.

Different types of featured snippets

Featured snippets can be divided into several types. Browsing the internet, you have surely seen for yourself that they do not always look the same. Of course, the most popular type is the so-called paragraph or paragraph - it accounts for as much as 70% all snippets! It is not difficult to see that a great many paragraphs are taken by Google from Wikipedia.

After paragraphs, the most frequently displayed type of snippets take the form of letter - that 28% all extended results. Internally, the lists are divided into scored and numbered. In this way, all kinds of subdivided steps are most often displayed, including recipes. Because it is rare that all steps are shown in a snippet, users very often go to the site from which the snippet of the answer to their query comes.

As you can see, the other types of snippets only represent 2% of the whole! These include, first and foremost tables (approx. 1.5%), but also: graphics, videos, maps, scientific articles or Google News.

Featured snippets a rich snippets

In addition to the featured snippet in the SERPs, you may also encounter rich snippet. What is it? It is simply a more extensive (rich rich) version of a single search result. It is longer and is supplemented by, for example, an image, a graphic or the opinions of other Internet users. 

Regardless of whether we are talking about featured snippets, rich snippets or ordinary search results, they always consist of a subpage title (meta title), a description (meta description) and the address of the URL.

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