How to Optimize Content to Skyrocket Your Authority on Google and Achieve a Featured Snippet

Acquiring a featured snippet on Google can drastically boost traffic to your website since your site will rank higher than others for certain search terms.

A featured snippet increases the amount of screen real estate your listing has, giving it an advantage against competitors.

However, obtaining a Google featured snippet is not easy and the chances of getting one are low, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing.

On the other hand, with the right guidance and advice receiving a featured snippet is achievable.

Read this article to tilt the odds into your hands and obtain a Google featured snippet, which will make your competitors envy you.

What is a Google Featured Snippet?

First off you must know exactly what a Google featured snippet is, basically the content in a snippet is a summary of what you have on your website. The whole point of this is the reader should be able to answer their question without pressing the link to the website.

Furthermore, if the user would like to know some additional information they can click on the featured snippet and be guided to the source.

In fact, it is estimated that 19% of all queries have a snippet attached.

Also, have in mind that snippet is a dynamic feature, meaning it will change as time goes on. You can lose the snippet you acquired just as fast as you obtained it, or a rival competitor can do a better job than you and steal it away.

Common Features Snippets

Not all snippets are like each other, some may be in a list form and others use tables. Take a look at these examples to get a better understanding:

Paragraph: the most common snippet is in the paragraph format and you can see this version of the snippet almost everywhere. What makes this snippet interesting is that it may contain a few keywords that are bolded, which makes it easier for the reader to identify the important points are.

Lists: the list format involves having a numbered system. This option could list a bunch of solutions to a problem a user is having. However, this method is used more often than not to provide a step by step guide to solve a problem.

In addition, list snippets are popular, because they provide quick and understandable information to a problem.

Below is the list snippet we received for one of the blog posts on edugeeksclub.com's website which is a writing service.

Table: another option to use is the table snippet, which is great for showing information in an easy to understand manner.
To better your chances of obtaining this kind of snippet you’ll need to use the <table> tag on the site. Table snippets can grab a user’s attention more easily, plus giving them the information they were most likely looking for.

Tips for Achieving a Featured Snippet on Google

The journey of gaining a Google snippet can be achieved in 6 steps, take a look and apply them to your work:

Research Your Niche

Most niches have a common problem within them, which you can exploit to get traffic. Go on various forums in the niche you have selected and find out what the most common problem is.

In addition, if you have an e-mail list don’t hesitate to use it, send out surveys asking what they need help with.

Keyword Research

To get a lot of traffic you are going to need a keyword that gets many searches per month since this is the best way to get exposure from a featured snippet.

Although, it may be better to have one or two keywords to get the most views having an excessive 5 words tend to be chosen for snippets. The reason is it allows the search engine to show a snippet that is relatable to the user’s question.

Get to the Point

Try and answer the question as clearly as you can, without using too many words. The goal here is to make the sentences informative, but basic for all users to understand.

NOTE: A snippet is not a full article, rather a couple of sentences solving a problem.

Furthermore, having keyword rich sentences are way better than dragged out long paragraphs, which are not to the point. To get a featured snippet you must provide quick answers that are informative.

Beat Your Competitors

Competitors will also be providing simple answers to a common problem in your niche, which is why you must beat them.

Offer additional information that is useful to users that are likely to click onto your website, thus increasing the chances of obtaining a snippet.

Use HTML to Format Content

Formatting your website is one of the most important aspects of a blog because if the audience sees poorly formatted content they will be discouraged to return.

First off you should know basic HTML and use tags effectively. Make sure that the search query is in a header tag for example <h1> or <h3>.

However, the answer to the query should be in a paragraph tag, which is <p> and not in a header tag <h1>. Also, it is best that the solution to the problem is solved in 54-58 words because having dragged out content will reduce the chances of getting that featured snippet.

Separate Wheat From Chaff

There is no point in doing the first five steps without completing the last one, which is making the content easy to understand.

If the answer is embedded in an ocean of text then readers and better yet Google will have a harder time finding it, thus achieving a snippet will be harder.

Although this shouldn’t be a big problem for most sites it’s still something you should double check.

Conclusion

It’s a great feeling solving customer’s problems and achieving a featured snippet in the process.

Also, have in mind that Google’s algorithm is always changing so what works now may not work in the far future.

Take the tips mentioned above into consideration and you’ll have a bunch of featured snippets in your industry positioning you as an authority.

Guest contribution by Antonio: A marketing specialist and a blogger at a dissertation writing service EduGeeksClub.com. He loves writing about SMM, marketing, education and productivity. He will be happy to meet you on Facebook.