How To Get A Google Featured Snippet
Knowing how to obtain a Google featured snippet is the web's cherished golden goblet for search engine page results (serp). Below, will go in depth improving writing skills and structure, so you too can find your articles on top, in supreme position.
Google consistently changes their algorithms to improve web's results, with you, the reader in mind. This is why Google rolled out featured snippets back in 2013, and has been updating that ever since.
Improving your writing skills, as Google consistently improves search engine results with updates, is the best combination what is seen on the web. Never sitting idle, everything under the sun wants to improve. Whether it be business, products, performance, sports, or personal traits.
Writing is no different. Bet this is why you are here, wanting to know how to get a Google featured snippet, since you see the potential. Below will go into depth, what I've learned obtaining several coveted, top seated, featured snippets from Google, Bing, and MSN.
How To Write A Blog Google Featured Snippet
Going to give you a step by step process I've found what usually sees blog articles at the top of the page. Don't be intimidated, thinking your articles could never rank higher than large, higher volume sites. These sites just follow what the web suggests.
Good quality written information, with proper structure, with pin-point outlined instructions, answering a question, more likely landing a featured Google snippet.
- Good quality, well written content
- Proper blog structure
- Usually, not always in form of question
- Quality photos 2200 horizontal pixels, 1466 vertical
- Properly tagging photos on hard-drive 1st.
- Refrain having stop words in URL slug
- Not always in top position, nothing is forever
Many things are needed, putting yours above all the rest. The web is full of competition, and if you have everything in place, search engines see it. Thereby rewarding you with most top, coveted spot for that topic, or phrase with good quality information.
Proper Blog Structure
Proper blog structure encompasses several different topics. Each one is highly rated, giving both search engines, and readability ease, going though your article.
Featured snippets normally answers a common question, as the title of your article describes. "How to", "Do I", or "Can it" is typical opening questions, the content of your article answers.
Meta data is important to search engines, so this short couple of sentences can be shown under your title, which is published on the web. Giving a brief description what your article is about. Meta data is typically the first couple sentences of your article. Since Meta data is your opening few sentences, choose each word wisely.
All experts suggest to always have only one Header 1 title. One, maybe two Header 2 titles, if article is long enough. Few Header 3 titles. Closing with one to two Header 4 titles, in each article. Repeating main key topic, in several popular headings.
I generally write a rough draft of article, going back several times, making any/all corrections for misspells, typos, or too long of sentences. Too long of paragraphs can not only give poor readability, but reader fatigue.
Search engines indexes more content, with shorter sentences and paragraphs.
Also good to use Yoast if working in WordPress. Yoast is a plugin that can help you immensely, if you are just starting out blogging. You can get free version, or more in-depth paid plugin.
Characteristics of a Google's Featured Snippet
Several points encompasses featured snippets. Usually answering a common question, as shown above, ''People Also Ask''.
Each item listed below is equally important, optimizing, or following best rules and practices on the web. This is true for every blog article you publish. Why wouldn't it?
Well, if you get a featured snippet, you come before the first ranking. You’re in Position #0!
The advantages of a featured snippet are obvious: more clicks, more visibility and a higher conversion rate. It’s an SEO’s dream!
Here’s what Google has to say about featured snippets: “When we recognize that a query asks a question, we programmatically detect pages that answer the user’s question and display a top result as a featured snippet in the search results.”
These 12 tips listed below, are seen with most featured snippets shown today.
- Good written content, concise, to the point
- Normally answering a common question as the title of article
- Proper article structure, shorter paragraphs, meta data
- Good having shorter sentences
- Carefully chosen pictures, properly tagged
- Checking for any misspells
- Not using too many And & The words
- Careful, not having entire title of article as your URL slug
- URL slug, not having any 'stop' words
- Having only one H1 title, one H2, several H3, H4 headings
- Google and search engines in general loves bullet items
- Inbound/Outbound links, supporting content of your article
Good Quality Photos, With Tags
With a fairly long article, photos breaks up content, giving the reader entertainment, and viewing pleasure. Admiring what you are showing, as an example. Properly tagging is equally important for search engines crawling your page.
Choosing quality pictures that best describes your article, since many times featured snippets include them as well, off to the right. So, you'll want to showcase the best ones, with proper tags, also correct size, they will also be shown on the web also.
Having pictures also allows them to also be widely seen at Pinterest. Giving you a tremendous resource of unique visitors to your site.
What's key is tagging on your computer hard-drive what you've named your headings. Then giving it the same Alt tag on WordPress, before adding media. This way, all your photos gets a double whammy of content, not readily seen, but is part of your text.
How to do this is clicking on any photo on your PC, renaming it desired alt tag. Copy alt tag as you have not opened pic, but only clicked on it, seeing bar at bottom of page. This is where you can give it a different date, alt tag, author, subject (same as alt tag), then save.
Once you click on it again, all that data is embedded into your pic. Now, each pic is properly tagged on your PC, it's ready to send over to your blog article, giving it the same alt tag.
Adding at least five, no more than ten quality photos 2200 horizontal pixels, 1466 vertical pixels is good throughout your article. Reason for importance besides giving more content, is Google likes showcasing featured snippets with pictures, hopefully same ones you have included in your content.
Inbound & Outbound Links
Inbound and outbound links are important portion of your article too. Not only does it give credibility, but also builds content. With outbound links, you'll want to include others ranking the highest for what ever phrase or words you've mentioned.
Outbound and inbound links gives the article more support, like having a person at bottom of a ladder, holding it steady someone 30' high at the very top. Not going overboard, having at least 3-4 inbound links, and at least 5-10 outbound links is a good number, depending on word count.
When putting in links, it's best to click box Open New Tab. This way, when a reader clicks on one of your suggested links, your article is still open, not taking them off your page.
URL Slug Starts Everything
Everything of an article starts out with the URL slug. This 'slug' refers to your URL extension, not the title of article, just like this one your reading. /uncategorized/get-google-snippet/
Experts recommend not putting all words of blog title in slug. Only keywords for general idea what article is about. Do not want having insignificant words in title, which is not in any search database.
As you can see, an untold number of blog titles, slugs have a stop word. If you have written any, don't worry. The easiest way fixing, does not require writing another exact article. Only renaming it, giving older version a 301 redirect, also giving it a new publishing date.
Long list, but wanted to show what not to put in URL slug.
And here is an array with stop words:
"a", "about", "above", "above", "across", "after", "afterwards", "again", "against", "all", "almost", "alone", "along", "already", "also","although","always","am","among", "amongst", "amoungst", "amount","an", "and", "another","any","anyhow","anyone","anything","anyway", "anywhere", "are","around", "as","at", "back","be","became", ecause","become","becomes", "becoming", "been", "before", "beforehand", "behind", "being", "below", "beside", "besides", "between", "beyond", "bill", "both", "bottom","but", "by", "call", "can", "cannot", "cant", "co", "con", "could", "couldnt", "cry", "de", "describe", "detail", "do", "done", "down", "due", "during", "each", "eg", "eight", "either", "eleven","else", "elsewhere", "empty", "enough", "etc", "even", "ever", "every", "everyone", "everything", "everywhere", "except", "few", "fifteen", "fify", "fill", "find", "fire", "first", "five", "for", "former", "formerly", "forty", "found", "four", "from", "front", "full", "further", "get", "give", "go", "had", "has", "hasnt", "have", "he", "hence", "her", "here", "hereafter", "hereby", "herein", "hereupon", "hers", "herself", "him", "himself", "his", "how", "however", "hundred", "ie", "if", "in", "inc", "indeed", "interest", "into", "is", "it", "its", "itself", "keep", "last", "latter", "latterly", "least", "less", "ltd", "made", "many", "may", "me", "meanwhile", "might", "mill", "mine", "more", "moreover", "most", "mostly", "move", "much", "must", "my", "myself", "name", "namely", "neither", "never", "nevertheless", "next", "nine", "no", "nobody", "none", "noone", "nor", "not", "nothing", "now", "nowhere", "of", "off", "often", "on", "once", "one", "only", "onto", "or", "other", "others", "otherwise", "our", "ours", "ourselves", "out", "over", "own","part", "per", "perhaps", "please", "put", "rather", "re", "same", "see", "seem", "seemed", "seeming", "seems", "serious", "several", "she", "should", "show", "side", "since", "sincere", "six", "sixty", "so", "some", "somehow", "someone", "something", "sometime", "sometimes", "somewhere", "still", "such", "system", "take", "ten", "than", "that", "the", "their", "them", "themselves", "then", "thence", "there", "thereafter", "thereby", "therefore", "therein", "thereupon", "these", "they", "thick", "thin", "third", "this", "those", "though", "three", "through", "throughout", "thru", "thus", "to", "together", "too", "top", "toward", "towards", "twelve", "twenty", "two", "un", "under", "until", "up", "upon", "us", "very", "via", "was", "we", "well", "were", "what", "whatever", "when", "whence", "whenever", "where", "whereafter", "whereas", "whereby", "wherein", "whereupon", "wherever", "whether", "which", "while", "whither", "who", "whoever", "whole", "whom", "whose", "why", "will", "with", "within", "without", "would", "yet", "you", "your", "yours", "yourself", "yourselves", "the"
This may seem a little much content going over stop words, but just as the web is chock full of articles having many of these, is why I wanted to make my case just as strong.
I know I'm guilty in my early years of blogging, but now knowing what I know now, not to do anymore. I've gone wayback, correcting when I see find them.
Search engines will crawl new redirect, seeing a much cleaner slug, and any other updates you may have made. Never know, might be landing your first featured snippet, improving all areas mentioned with an older published article.
Your Snippet Not Always Showing
As you may know, Google updates web results consistently. Whether it's a new algorithm effecting search engine page results permanently, or temporarily. They can change for several reasons.
One other reason you may loose top position is if someone else wrote a more concise article, with higher quality information. But don't fret if you see it gone. You'll most likely still see your article on page one. Also this could reappear weeks, months later. So, you just never know.
What you can determine, if any of your articles show up as a Google featured snippet, you can rest assured it's a very good quality article.
If article is a core of your site, one of the most prominent articles you want to rank well, you can tell Google. Checking the box, making it a Cornerstone article. This does not guarantee it'll stay there, but lets Google know this is one of your best articles, about your business.
More Featured Snippet Suggestions
Never have words 'The or And' in your slug or title. Matter of fact, try using these words as least as possible. If you can convey a thought differently, without using them, all the better. Of course in some instances they are required for proper grammar.
Bullet items are also important, needed when hoping to land a featured snippet. A list of key points of entire article, or section. Search engines may decide using them or not, but gives them that opportunity if they so desire.
This also helps others learning main topics what you are covering, if wanting to skim over content. Mainly, you're wanting to give everyone more ease, once on your article, keeping them intrigued. Bullet items does just that.
I personally start with a title. Writing what the article will be covering. After written all or most of content, I go back, inputting photos which best represents my thoughts, for many headers. Going back several times, making any changes to written content, links, & photos before publishing.
If you have a premium domain, this does not guarantee a featured snippet, but does show how serious you are with the quality you include within that domain. Premium domains does help rank for specific overall subject matter you typically write about.
Reason seeking top spots, is two-fold. First, you get more traffic, being at the top. Second, you're more likely getting natural links to your articles, as well. After you've gained several snippets, you can pat yourself on the back, being an authority for any subject on the world wide web.
Once you've landed your first Google Featured Snippet, Great! Congratulations. But don't stop. Seek to write more, getting the second, third, forth and so on. Google featured snippets are the premier spot. The more featured Google snippets you land, the more authoritative your articles become.
Each area mentioned is equally important, for a good quality published article. Best to not rush through, just writing content, hoping it will rank the highest, winning a snippet.
Writing in a natural flow of conversation, just like the way you speak. This helps with readability, also clear understanding. You are more likely ranking higher with a clear, concise written article. No need to try impressing others with any long technical terms. Making it easy for all to understand.
Summary
If you strive improving all your published articles, you will be doing a great service to not only the reader, but search engines crawling material. Search engines are consistently improving web page results, so should all of us too. In doing so, we can be rewarded with a Google, Bing, and/or MSN snippet.
Hope you have a better understanding how to land the web's highest revered position. Having proper structure, headings, tags, bullets, no stop words, and links. Starting out, answering a question.
I know these are a lot of tips covering, to gain highest position possible, but very well worth it. Each tip equally important in my view, so I have all bases covered. Just in case someone else, puts forth a lot of effort, going for exact same snippet.
Gone from just blogging, publishing articles, to improving content seeing on first page. When I got my first Google snippet, that inspired me, to want more.Researched a lot of information, incorporating many suggestions in current writings.
Today, Eco Paint has several featured snippets, and and just wanted to share with you, how I'm doing it.
Including all these suggestions will improve your content, as well as entire web. Several blogging experts have written extensive knowledge and tips on snippets, as well as others.
Content marketing gurus, is what they know best. Following these suggestions, will certainly help build your online presents, even if it doesn't land at very top.You'll be way ahead of the game.
Knowing how to land your first Google featured snippet, being the web's most sought after, golden crown, for many search engine page results. Improving writing skills, also structure, so you too can find your articles on top!
Hope this helps with all your writings, and published articles, landing your first Google Featured Snippet! Happy Blogging!
Like to hear from you with any comments, likes, and/or shares.
