What Is a Google Snippet? Why You Should Aim for Position 0

2 Dec ‘19

In: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), / By: Ripe Media

If you think the number one position in Google is where you want to be, you’re operating on old information. You need to go for position 0 — the Google snippet.

What is a Google snippet?

Understanding what a Google snippet is and how it will play into your search engine success is key for the upcoming year and beyond. Snippets are already showing up across most searches but they’re becoming even more prevalent.

Continue reading this article to learn more about Google snippets, how they will affect your search engine results and how you can improve your chances of your website being featured.

It’s Snippet Time

We’re talking about featured snippets when we talk about position 0. While a Google snippet is how our website shows up in the search engine, a featured snippet is a chosen result from the organic search results that shows up above organic search results and below ads.

A featured snippet usually has an image and a decent amount of preview text so people can decide whether to click through or not.

Many times when the preview copy of the featured snippet is engaging, people will click on this result without even looking at positions 1 through 10.

Getting to position 0 can be a great advantage because people will see your website’s content snippet showcased in all its glory. When your website is on top of the search results, it’s like Google is giving you the stamp of approval.

How to Set Yourself Up for Featured Snippet Success

Now that you understand the importance of Google featured snippets, it’s time to learn how to win the prized spot in the SERPs. Let’s get into how to get your website into the featured snippets below.

Get Ranked in the Top 10

If you’re not in the top 10 search results in the organic results, it’s highly unlikely that you’re going to get ranked in position 0. The normal SEO best practices apply when you want to get ranked in the search engines, but there are some things you can do that will help you get into position 0 if you’re already on the first page and want to secure that sweet spot.

Determine What Long Tail Keywords Can Help You Rank

If you’re worried you’re going to have to write more blog posts to target these keywords, rest assured that isn’t necessarily the case. Even if you use the long tail keyword within the copy of your current pages and posts, you may be able to secure position 0 because of it.

You may have noticed that when you search for a long-tail keyword, it is more likely that you’re going to see a featured snippet. Shorter keywords usually don’t have snippets and that’s likely because Google isn’t necessarily sure what people are looking for.

When searchers give them a lot of information by typing in a long keyword, it is easier to figure out what their end goal is — hence the featured snippets.

Look at your current content and figure out what long-tail keywords you could throw in your content naturally to help you get some recognition.

One of the best things you can do is figure out some questions you can throw into the content.

For instance, we could say something like “How do you do long-tail keyword research to get ranked in Google Featured Snippets?” And that could potentially be helpful for our post getting to position 0.

If you can’t think of questions, all you have to do is go to Google and type a query about your topic. You’ll see suggestions at the bottom of the page as well as the “People Also Ask” section.

Optimizing for Featured Snippets

Making sure your on-page SEO is on point is a must. Even if you think you’ve got everything covered, take a look again and make sure everything is done properly using an on-page SEO checklist.

We already talked about answering questions but here’s what you need to do to capitalize on those questions. You need to state the question and then sum up the answer in a concise manner.

We’re talking about just a few sentences. When you do this, you’re giving the meat of the answer to the snippet viewer and Google likes that. But don’t worry — people still often click through to see what else you have to say on the topic.

So, ask the question, answer quickly and then go more in-depth and give an in-depth explanation for your answer to the question.

State facts and organize your content well for the best results. Your article should be very specific and answer the question people have when they are clicking through to your content but you should also give answers to other closely related questions.

Google loves when your content helps solve multiple problems because that makes them look good.

And finally, don’t forget to use an image that is going to get attention. When your snippet comes up, a high-quality image is a must to get people to click to view more.

What Is a Google Snippet? – Now You Know

Now you have the answer to your question “What is a Google snippet?” it’s obvious why going for position 0 is a must.

Your website design, as well as your marketing, plays a huge part in how you show up in the search engines. All of this work can be rather time-consuming but you don’t have to do it on your own.

Do you feel like you need help with your design or marketing? Contact us today and tell us more about your project and we’ll show you how we can help you.

 

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