If you’ve ever done a Google search before, you’ve probably seen a featured snippet box at the top of the search results. Writers like us have been studying Google’s latest innovation, and we’ve developed strategies which have successfully gotten many of our articles to the top of Google. In this article, we’ll show you how to get the featured snippet on Google so your content will be the first thing people see when they perform a Google search.
What Is A Featured Snippet?
A featured snippet is the box you’ll occasionally see at the top of a Google search. This box contains an excerpt from the article or a list that is presented in the article. Google introduced this feature as “Quick Answers” in 2014, but later rebranded it as the “featured snippet.” Featured snippets are designed to give users a quick, digestible answer to the question or keyword they entered when performing their search. If you’ve ever done a Google search, you’ve probably seen a featured snippet like this before.
An example of a featured snippet from one of our own websites.
How To Get The Featured Snippet On Google: Strategies That Work
Here at BlogWinners, we have experimented with many different strategies on how to get the featured snippet on Google. Here are a few of the strategies that have been successful for us, with examples of our articles that currently own the featured snippet box.
High-Quality, In-Depth Content
It seems self-evident, but high-quality content is the most important factor when trying to get the featured snippet on Google. In theory, the best content will rank at the top of Google and have the featured snippet, and that’s the case with one of our articles on yellow iPhone battery icons. BlogWinners Founder David Payette wrote this article in 2015, well before he started trying to optimize for featured snippets. Despite that fact, his article still has the featured snippet for “my iPhone battery is yellow.”
David Payette’s in-depth article on yellow iPhone battery icons owns the featured snippet on Google.
Use Simple Sentences And Give Succinct Answers
One running joke we have around here is that when trying to get the featured snippet, we try to talk to Google like a 5 year old. It may sound silly, but using clear, simple sentences in your writing will make it easier for Google to analyze your content. Let’s take another look at David Payette’s article on yellow iPhone battery icons. If you look at the featured snippet, you’ll see that the excerpt in the featured snippet is laid out with a succinct sentence with a direct answer to the question. At BlogWinners we’ve broken it down into a formula, which goes something like this:
Keyword + “because” + direct, accurate answer = the featured snippet. Use “to be” such as “is” or “are” if possible.
Use List Elements
Using list elements is a basic strategy you can use to get the featured snippet box for your keyword. This strategy is especially effective if your keyword begins with “List of…” Google is able to identify the list elements, making it easier for their algorithm to analyze the content in your article and put it together in the featured snippet box. Here’s an example using an article I wrote to specifically target the featured snippet using a “List of…” keyword:
My article “List Of Candidates Running For DNC Chair” has the featured snippet.
Featured Snippet Frustrations
Unfortunately, the featured snippet can be a bit unpredictable because the feature is relatively new. Sometimes, you may have the better content, but Google will give the featured snippet to a different article. One great example of this is an article we published on the new Apple AirPods which targets the keywords “AirPods won’t connect” and “AirPods won’t connect to iPhone.” Our article currently ranks #1 for both keywords, but take a look at the featured snippet for “AirPods won’t connect.”
The frustrating side of trying to get the featured snippet on Google.
As you can probably tell, the featured snippet here is really adding nothing of substance to what the user is searching for and doesn’t help the user solve their problem quickly. What’s also interesting about this article in particular is the fact that we rank number one and have the featured snippet for the keyword “AirPods won’t connect to iPhone.”
Our article ranks #1 and has the featured snippet for “AirPods won’t connect to iPhone.”
Wrapping It Up
You’ve probably noticed by now that your ability to get the featured snippet on Google is a bit unpredictable. This new innovation by Google is going to take some time to perfect, but we’re optimistic that the strategies that we’ve laid out in this article will get you headed in the right direction. In our BlogWinners course, we’ll show you our SEO strategies that we use every day to get the featured snippet and rank at the top of Google. We hope you enjoyed this article, and we encourage you to share it on social media or leave us a comment down below telling us about successes you’ve had in getting the featured snippet on Google.
Thanks for reading,
The BlogWinners Team
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