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A featured snippet is a box of information Google places on top of the organic search results in an effort to quickly answer the search query. Google has introduced featured snippets to better serve mobile and voice users (featured snippets are being read when a person is using voice to search).
Featured snippets are also referred to as position 0.
There are three major types of featured snippets:
Each of the above snippet types may have an image that shows up next to the text.
The fourth type of featured snippet is a video featured snippet, i.e., when a user can play a video right away. These are usually sourced from YouTube.
PermalinkFrom the above types, here are a few examples:
While the terms may sound confusingly similar, featured snippets and rich snippets are actually two completely different things:
It all comes down to terminology: You'll see a lot of experts referring to featured snippets/position 0 as "answer boxes." For the sake of clarity and consistency, we do distinguish between the two:
| Featured snippets |
Answer boxes |
| Aim to answer the user's query quickly and efficiently from the search results page | |
| Reference the source of the information | Give a dictionary-/glossary-like answer, with no sources cited |
| Offer additional exposure to the featured page | Often eliminate the need for a click (may be stealing clicks from organic results) |
| Example: [best seo plugin for wordpress] | Example: [what is marketing] |
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There's no specific code that will get you featured in Google. There's no magic bullet, and there's no way to guarantee that something will get you featured, just like there's no way to guarantee top organic Google rankings in general.
From analyzing hundreds of featured snippets, we have identified one HTML element that may help:
To get featured snippets in search:
Here's a quick screenshot showing how I implemented the above edits to successfully get featured in Google:
Bing also has featured snippets that work very similarly to Google's. Bing may feature two URLs, and they often pick snippets farther down the page than Google.
Both Google and Bing keep emphasizing one featured snippet optimization tactic: To get featured, give the best possible answer to the user's query.
As broad as it may sound, that's actually the best way to get featured snippets in search:
In most cases, yes. In multiple case studies, the numbers have varied from a 10% to 30% increase in click-through rates from search results once a page gets featured.
Sometimes, when the featured snippet is pushed down by ads, the impact may be more mild. And in some cases, a featured snippet can eliminate the need for a click, so the overall search result page will receive fewer clicks, including the featured page. But in either case, someone will get featured there, so if you have to choose between you and your competitor to be featured, who would you choose? Exactly. Besides, apart from a potentially higher click-through rate:
There have been several studies trying to answer this question. On average, it has been found that between 10% and 15% of queries trigger featured snippets at this point. But it all comes down to the type of query:
Featured snippets are still volatile (Google keeps tweaking the algorithm on a regular basis), so these numbers are going to change as Google gets better at identifying the best answers to queries.
By optimizing for featured snippets, you also improve your overall on-page SEO:
When you search for a phrase in Google, often, on the results page, there is a section called "People also ask." Usually, four or five of these questions will be shown, and if you click on any question, you will get a drop-down with more information. That information is similar to how Google shows data for featured snippets.
Below is a drop-down "answer" to a "people also ask" question.
When we gather ranking data on your keywords, we also collect any "people also ask" questions in the search results for those phrases. This data can be found in its own People Also Ask report, which shows the number of times each question was found when we gathered data on your keyword queries.
We also add these questions in your Featured Snippet Optimization Tool results because if you search for those questions in Google, there are featured snippets for the vast majority of them.
Often, when you search in Google, on the bottom of the results page, there is a section called "Searches Related to [phrase you searched]."
Under that title, there are often eight other phrases shown. If you click on any of those phrases, you are sent to a new Google search results page for that phrase. Here's an example:
When we gather ranking data on your keywords, we also collect any "searches related to" phrases found in the search results for those phrases. This data can be found in its own Searches Related To report, which shows the number of times each phrase was found when we gathered data on your keyword queries.
We also add these phrases into your Featured Snippet Optimization Tool results because they often have featured snippets (not as many as the "people also ask" phrases, but still often), plus it is good to know related phrases that might be good to include on your pages.
PermalinkWhen you enter in your domain and start a domain-level run, we collect a list of up to 5,000 keyword phrases that you rank in the top 15 for. We then group these keyword phrases by URL and apply some custom filtering, limiting each URL to the best 80 keyword phrases that it ranks for. This is done to help focus your efforts on the most valuable keyword phrases. Once we have a pared-down list of valuable keyword phrases grouped by URL, we sort the URLs by page value, ensuring that when you load the report, the most valuable pages and keyword phrases will be seen first.
This part of the process is highly dependent on how well your site ranks in Google. If your domain does not rank in the top 15 for very many keyword phrases, it will be difficult to be successful in capturing featured snippets.
Instead of doing a domain-level run, you can instead input a list of URLs; the tool will then collect keyword phrase data for these pages instead of the entire domain.
PermalinkWe collect data from third parties. Due to the frequency in updates to the structure of the data, our system requires frequent maintenance to ensure that we are providing the most accurate data possible.
PermalinkThe Ninja Value is the monthly estimated value of a URL or keyword phrase, with the assumption that the referenced URL ranks #1 for that phrase. When a Ninja Value is provided for a URL, it assumes a #1 ranking for all of the keyword phrases that that URL ranks for. Frequently, a URL will not actually rank #1 for all keyword phrases, but the Ninja Value can be a potential guide to the value of a URL.
The parameters used in calculating Ninja Value are the CPC of each keyword phrase, the search volume of the keyword phrase, and the approximate click-through rate for a #1 ranking.
PermalinkThis tool does not guarantee you anything at all. It doesn’t guarantee your rankings, and it doesn’t guarantee that you will get featured snippets. If this tool is used properly and the Google Gods are with you, you can analyze and optimize for phrases and obtain many new featured snippet placements, but there is no guarantee of anything.
PermalinkSorry, but no, you can’t. But feel free to use up credits on any sites you want to analyze.
PermalinkYes; currently, it basically does this. After the keywords that you rank in the top 15 have been chosen, anyone who has featured snippets for these terms is your competitor. Our tool will show you a summary of your biggest competitors at the top. You can run a competitor’s site through this tool, but it probably won’t be as helpful because you need to analyze phrases for which you currently rank in the top 15. Analyzing anything else isn’t likely to be worth your time.
PermalinkNo, it doesn’t. You can make edits in the tool, and you can send those edits to the person who updates the content on your site. The “Optimized Snippets” tab and the HTML export option make it easier for your team to edit or add to the existing content, but the final step is still a manual process. Maybe in the future, we can make this a WordPress plugin, but not today.
PermalinkWhen we gather data for each of your URLs, we only gather phrases for which where you rank in the top 15 in Google. There’s a 98% chance that the keyword you think you’re “missing” is one that you don’t rank in the top 15 for. If you’re not in the top 15, your odds of obtaining the featured snippet are around zero, which is why we don’t show you these phrases. If later on, you rank in the top 15 for that phrase, we’ll show that data then.
PermalinkWe recommend you re-run it a month after the new/edited content has been published.
PermalinkRe-run the tool about a month after publishing your new/edited content. When the tool is re-run, you will see additional stats on the top of the page showing changes from the last time that the tool was run so you can see the differences. Each time the tool is re-run, additional stats will be pulled in.
PermalinkOur subscriptions are handled by PayPal and lack good ways of being 'upgraded'. As a result you can't directly upgrade your subscription but you can however have multiple subscriptions. We recommend canceling your existing subscription and subscribing at a higher level. We apologize for any inconvenience.
For the Featured Snippet Tool and Video Seo Tool a credit is worth a single keyphrase for a report. So if you run a report that contains 100 keyphrases it will cost 100 credits. For the Ultimate Backlink Tool a credit is a single run of the tool.
When you cancel your subscription your account remains exactly as you left it. All of your reports will remain accessible and any remaining credits you had left will still be available.
We rely on PayPal notifying our system of successful payment before we give credits to accounts. Sometimes PayPal takes a while to send us confirmation of successful payment; this unfortunately is outside of our control. Generally we get notification within a minute of payment but sometimes it can take longer, please be patient. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Our support team does their best to get to your tickets in a timely manner, however we can be busy handling other requests, so please allow for up to 2 business days. We generally respond within a single business day.
Your feedback is very valuable to us. If there is something we can do to make the tools more useful and valuable to you, we would love to hear from you. While we are happy to hear out all ideas, due to time and other constraints we can't make any guarantees.
So you've just subscribed to the Featured Snippet Tool and you want to get started using it; lets walk through how to run your first report.
All subscription plans renew credits monthly. The exact date of renewal is based on the date the subscription was started on. The amount of credits you get depend on your subscription level and how many credits you have left at the end of the month. We do not roll over any unspent credits. This means that any credits you have left when they renew are lost.
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