Priority Search Position: The Keys to Landing Featured Snippets

If you’re looking for a short answer to a question, where’s the first place you look? If you’re like most people, it’s Google. In the old days (that is, pre-2014), you’d have to scan through search results and probably click on at least one link to find it. And then someone at Google had one of those brilliant ideas the search engine company is known for and featured snippets were introduced. 

If you’re not familiar with the term, featured snippets are those text blocks at the very top of search engine results pages (SERPs) that seek to provide you with an answer to your query. 

For example, let’s say you want to find out who the all-time leading rusher for the Texas Longhorns is. You type “Who is Texas’ all-time leader in rushing yards?” into the search bar (or something similar) and you’re immediately returned with an answer: Ricky Williams, with 6,279 career yards while at UT.

While featured snippets are great at providing answers to search queries, they also hold extreme value for the websites that can secure them. According to a 2022 study by Australian web agency Engine Scout, featured snippets receive 35.1% of all clicks. That’s a lot of traffic – and the reason why some SEO professionals have come to refer to it as “position 0,” because it shows up above the first organic search result.

And they’re not just text all the time, either. Featured snippets can also come in the form of images, videos and tables. 

Okay, so by this point it should be fairly clear why you should try to land featured snippets, and that leads us to our next topic: how do you get your website used for them?

While it’s impossible to guarantee you’ll be selected as the featured snippet, here are a list of some things you can do to increase your chances of securing that coveted spot:

1. Think Like Your Audience

Not every search returns a featured snippet, but those that do are generally long-tail phrases seeking a specific answer. Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience to discover what type of information they’re looking for. Then develop content to answer it.

Remember that you’re writing for real people and try to use the language they might be using. Using the proper nomenclature and jargon goes a long way to establishing your expertise. 

2. Target Good Keywords

To increase the odds that you’re going to secure featured snippets, you need to make wise choices about which keywords you’re going after. Not only are single word keywords less likely to include a featured snippet (what is a searcher seeking when they google “tree?”), but they’re also much harder to rank for.

As a general rule, the longer a search query, the more likely it is to return a featured snippet because specificity helps Google understand the search intent. So, make sure you’re doing your homework on your long-tail keywords. 

Once you’ve landed on the right keywords, you should create an authoritative answer for that particular search. 

3. Include Questions in Your Content

Questions that begin with the 5 Ws and 1 H (i.e., who, what, when, where, why and how) are likely to generate featured snippets. Plus, they tend to correspond with the language used by searchers. 

This is particularly important in an age of voice search (142 million Americans used this technology last year). A person cooking dinner isn’t going to query Siri or Alexa by saying “proper temperature chicken,” instead they’re going to speak to their voice device as if it was a person. E.g., “Hey Siri, what temperature should chicken be?”

And the answer they’ll get? You guessed it, the featured snippet. 

4. Format for Featured Snippets

You may be the world’s foremost expert on Bichon Frise, but a long-winded discussion of their breeding history, temperament and health issues isn’t likely to land you a featured snippet for a query like “Do Bichon Frise dogs shed a lot?”

Instead, you’ll want a succinct answer that provides a clear answer to the question. Currently the featured snippet for this query is from the AKC and states: “The Bichon is considered to be relatively hypoallergenic, as the breed sheds very little because the shed hair is caught up in the undercoat. That shed hair has to be brushed out to prevent mats from forming.”

Short. Sweet. To the point. 

To optimize your chances of securing this spot, keep yours to 40-50 words and between 250-300 characters.

Obviously, this only applies to text featured snippets. If you’re going after an image spot, keep them at a 160 x 200 pixel ratio. If Google chooses your image for a snippet, it will use a thumbnail, so you can scale up to 900 x 1200 px.

5. Keep Your Content Timely and Include the Date

It wasn’t so long ago that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the NBA’s all-time scoring leader. It was a record he held for nearly 40 years. And then just this past season, some guy named Lebron James passed him. If your basketball fan site is still showing Kareem as the points leader, you’re hurting your chances of landing a snippet

While many webmasters avoid dating content in an attempt at appearing relevant for a longer period of time, if a searcher is performing research, your undated site won’t be a useful tool for them. 

To avoid this, keep your content up to date and include publishing dates.

6. Provide the Best Answer

This probably goes without saying, but then again, we live in a world where chainsaws come with instructions about which end you should hold. Strive to provide the best answer to a query and Google will recognize it, and hopefully, give you the placement you want. 

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