When someone asks a question in Google or enters certain search terms, they might receive a special block of information meant to provide a quick answer. Called “featured snippets,” these summaries from top-ranked webpages can be a windfall for a company in terms of engagement, traffic, and additional business.
However, Google has announced changes to its featured snippets in January 2020. Where companies once had two listings on the first page of Google, the search engine has decided to “declutter” its front page results and provide just one. Here’s what that could mean for your digital marketing strategy going forward.
One of Google’s goals is to optimize the experience for the searcher by giving them the information they want and need with minimal effort. As such, Google search results are now full of much more than just a list of webpages. Many also include featured snippets.
When a person asks a question with a simple answer, such as “what is the average temperature in NYC in June?” or “how to cook pork chops?,” Google can provide much of the information on the search results screen with featured snippets.
Called “Position Zero,” these results are pulled from webpages that Google believes have the best and most reputable data. In many cases, a searcher will also click on that snippet for more information, giving the website traffic and the business a potential new customer.
In the past, websites that earned a featured snippet were also featured in the organic listing on page one of Google. Apparently, the search engine has deemed this repetitive and decided to end this practice as of January 2020.
On January 22 of this year, Danny Sullivan, Google’s public search liaison, announced that a corresponding listing might not appear on the first page of Google if that page earns the featured snippet. This new policy applies worldwide and is effective immediately.
So, instead of getting that bonus of two listings on Page One, you’ll now only get one. On the other hand, if your competitor has snagged that featured snippet, you can rest easy knowing that they are only going to appear once on the page.
According to clarification from Google, this “deduplication” move will not affect video featured snippets. Also, there will be no change from this in Google Search Panel (GSC) performance reports.
Google’s rationale for the change is that this duplicate listing could impact the user experience. In other words, someone clicks on the featured snippet and doesn’t get what they need. They inadvertently click on the same website further down the page and become frustrated because it is the same thing they’ve already viewed.
In short, featured snippets are still worth your time and effort. According to research by HubSpot, a featured snippet gets double the click-through rate of URLs that don’t have a featured snippet.
If your page is fabulous enough to earn a featured snippet, there’s a good chance that it’s going to get traffic from that information. Google is likely to push your organic result to the top of page two, which can still earn some clicks.
If you decide that you don’t want to participate in the featured snippets program, and would rather have an organic ranking on the first page of Google (it should be in a top spot), you can opt-out. All you need to do is add the code <meta name=”googlebot” content=”nosnippet”> to your page.
Even with the change, optimizing your website to earn featured snippets is a good idea. Google continues to roll these out for more and more search terms as they tend to help voice and mobile searchers get what they need fast.
The secret to getting a spot on Position Zero is to have the best answer for any question that begins with:
Questions that will get short answers, such as “How many…?,” “How much..?,” and “Can I…?” probably aren’t worth your time because a one-word answer isn't likely to result in a click-through.
You can find opportunities for featured snippets by thinking about what questions your customers ask the most. What are their major pain points? Enter some basic terms in Google related to these issues, and you’ll begin to get some questions.
Once you have some questions on your list, enter them in Google and see if any of your competitors hold the featured snippet spots. Chances are that they do. The good news is that you can carefully analyze their content and create something that is much better.
To create content optimized for featured snippets, here are some of the key points on which you’ll want to focus:
Trying to keep up with Google’s constant changes can be exhausting. Just when you think you’ve optimized for one thing, like featured snippets, the search engine makes a change.
You likely didn’t go into business to chase down search engine rankings, but the right digital marketing plan can make a world of difference in your results. At Connection Model, we partner with businesses just like yours and have had a great deal of success driving results for our clients.
Contact us to learn more about our results-driven solutions.