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Create featured snippets in Google in three steps

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Reading time minutes
By Patrick Schokker

Featured snippets in Google ... do you know what they are? The term may not mean anything to you at all, but you've 100% certainly seen them several times in Google.

A featured snippet is the answer that appears directly above the regular organic search results when you type a query into Google.

This response includes a page title, URL and a link to the page in question. So a featured snippet (a recommended snippet as Google itself calls it) is actually an extra chance to get the first spot in search results.

How do you seize this opportunity?

You can capture this position already, without spending money on it. Your competitors won't know what hit them. You have with your 0 position more reach, a better CTR, more traffic to your website and all that with minimal effort.

Get your website's featured snippet to appear in Google with this short step-by-step plan:

1. Take stock of the features on your website

You can do this very easily with the Google Search Console tool. It shows you what your website is already found and displayed (organically) on. Using the filter you can look for the queries on which your website is displayed. Use the general question words, such as how, what, which etc., to do this.

Google Search Console
To find out where your website is not yet showing up, you can use keywordtool.io. This tool lets you search specifically for queries within your business. Type in your industry and you will immediately get a list of search queries for which a featured snippet can be displayed.

Keywordtool.io

2. Create or link a page to the search query

Now that you've compiled a list of featured snippet queries, you obviously need pages that answer the search queries. Therefore, take some time to go through your website. You may already have pages for some search queries and not yet for others.

So what you can do is:

1. Optimize the pages that address the topic of the query

2. Create a new page to answer the search query

Most importantly, the page must contain relevant information and answer the question z-e-k-e-r-w-e-t-e-n. Otherwise, Google will not show your website as a recommended snippet. It's best to start with the topics you already have online first. These pages, because they have been online longer, have already been indexed by Google.

3. Set up your pages properly

For a 0-ranking your page must be properly set up. By setup is meant:

- The content on your page
This should, of course, contain the answer to the question. Google does make demands on the answer: complete, clear and concise. After all, it's only about the most relevant information, and if the answer is too long, it won't fit in the box. There are no known requirements in terms of number of sentences, words, characters or pixels. Practice shows that it is best to form an answer of one or a few sentences between 40-60 words.

Of course, you should also have the exact question on the page, for example as a header H1 or H2. This increases your chances of getting a recommended snippet in Google. The subject matter is also important. Often featured snippet pages do not just answer one search question. The page addresses a topic or service, thus answering multiple potential questions from visitors. So a complete and relevant page is what Google is all about.

For example; a page with "what is marketing automation?" Then multiple questions are answered, such as "how does marketing automation work" so that a complete picture is displayed.

- De structuur en opmaak van je pagina
Met alleen relevante content op je pagina behaal je nog niet gelijk die gewenste 0-positie. De pagina dient ook goed gestructureerd te zijn. Goed gestructureerd houdt in een

H1 met onderwerp → H2 met de vraag → een paragraaf met het antwoord.

Vervolgens weer een H2 met een andere zoekvraag die gerelateerd is aan het onderwerp en dan weer een paragraaf met het antwoord etc. Het antwoord van je “hoofd” zoekvraag dient zo hoog mogelijk op je pagina te staan. Je kunt ook beginnen met eerst een algemener antwoord, zoals wat is? En dan ga je de specifiekere vragen m.b.t. dat onderwerp beantwoorden.

Opmaak; als jouw HTML goed geïmplementeerd is, is een zoekmachine in staat om de pagina goed te crawlen en begrijpt het wat er op de pagina te vinden is. Door bijvoorbeeld gebruik te maken van HTML elementen als <ol>, begrijpt een zoekmachine dat je gebruik hebt gemaakt van een geordende lijst. Zo geldt dit ook voor andere HTML elementen. Voeg deze echter alleen toe als het relevant is, anders heeft het geen zin.

- The accessibility of your page
Once your page has good content and is set up correctly, it still needs to be indexed. One way to do this is to include the page several times in the internal link structure, with relevant link texts, of course. External links and social shares can also increase your chances of a 0-ranking. To what extent this has influence, however, is not known.

Organic ranking
Practice has shown that 9 times out of 10, a recommended snippet is chosen from one of the results on the first search results page. Therefore, it is important that your page is on the first page within the organic search results. If this is not the case, your page may still be chosen but the chances are very small.

Want to know more about featured snippets? Get in touch with our online advertising specialists.

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Patrick Schokker
Patrick Schokker

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