Use this step-by-step guide to learn the basics of optimizing for featured snippets to help boost brand reputation and drive organic traffic.
It’s no secret that featured snippets are powerful. Every SEO professional (including yours truly) aims to own any available featured snippets for their content.
These expanded, descriptive search results appear as a special box prominently displayed at or near the top of the search results page (SERP). Optimizing for featured snippets (FS) can help Google better understand when your page is the best answer for a relevant query with one of these search features available.
In this column, you’ll find my tried and tested strategy for optimizing for featured snippets (including examples), my curated content calendar template for featured snippets (which you can copy and use), and FAQs to clear up any remaining questions about FS. You’ll learn:
What are featured snippets?
4 types of featured snippets you can target.
A 12-step process for optimizing for featured snippets.
What’s new in featured snippets?
FAQs for featured snippets.
Let’s get started.
What Are Featured Snippets?
Featured Snippets are the expanded snippets that appear on the first position of the Google SERPs. The purpose of the Google featured snippets is to answer the user’s need right there in the search results.
Here is Google’s definition:
Users wishing to read the complete content can click on the URL of the featured snippet.
When Google launched featured snippets, some sites were able to achieve two results on page 1 of the SERPs, which initially drove dramatic improvements in organic visibility and traffic.
But as with all things SEO, happy days never last forever; see this tweet from Danny Sullivan:
Boost Your Content with Keyword Intent Analysis
With Semrush's keyword intent metric, it's never been easier to quickly align your keywords with the right audience and the right content.
Try it FreeOptimizing for featured snippets is not just about adding questions to your headlines and subheadlines. It’s much more involved than that.
4 Types Of Featured Snippets You Can Target
When looking to optimize for featured snippets, you need to understand the types of featured snippets available.
Paragraph Featured Snippets
Seventy percent of featured snippets are the paragraph type, with an average of around 42 words and 250 characters.
Most of these featured snippet titles start with “What” or “Why,” indicating that they are largely informational in nature.
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Pro Tip: Most of the “What” question keywords have the highest search volume, but you have to find out the question keywords with low Keyword Difficulty (KD) score to win them.
Listicle Featured Snippets
An average of 19% of featured snippets are of Listicle type, consisting of an average of 6 items and 44 words.
You’ll find two kinds of listicle featured snippets: ordered and unordered lists.
Ordered List
Unordered List
Pro Tip: Listicle featured snippets are derived from “How” and “Why” keyword terms. If you’re looking to get featured snippets faster, they’re your go-to topics.
Table Featured Snippets
Around 6.3% of featured snippets are of the Table type. They have an average of five rows and two columns with 40 to 45 words.
Pro Tip: To optimize for this type of featured snippet, mark up relevant content in a table format using the table tags in HTML. Some are tempted to make graphics for tables, but then you’re missing out on this opportunity.
Video Featured Snippets
Only 4.6% of featured snippets are of the video type, the average one being 6 minutes and 35 seconds in length.
Pro Tip: If your audience heavily consumes video content, a video featured snippet is your way to success. Look for the keywords with low search volume and tada! You’ve got them.
How To Optimize For Featured Snippets
Whenever you see a competitor ranking on featured snippets, you should have this one question in mind:
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How do I steal those featured snippets and get one for my website?
Here’s how to get started.
1. Identify Competitors’ Featured Snippets
Stealing competitors’ featured snippets is not easy.
Put the competitors’ URL in Semrush and look for the keyword groups that own featured snippets.
Now, you want to:
Export the list.
Categorize them into different types of featured snippets.
Sort them by higher search volume.
Highlight the low KD score.
And gather them to initiate planning.
Copy this content calendar template to start planning, implementing, and optimizing your content to rank.
Don’t forget to add the content topics and the type of featured snippet in your content calendar to keep track of why you’re optimizing the page.
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2. Gather The Keywords For Each FS-owned Content
Once you’re done with finalizing the content topics, it’s time to identify the keywords present on the content currently owning featured snippets.
Click on the down arrow in Semrush beside the selected keyword to see the expanded information on the keywords ranking on featured snippets.
Collect the related as well as question keywords and add them to your content calendar.
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3. Understand Searcher Intent
One of the most important considerations in optimizing for featured snippets is understanding the search intent behind each triggering query.
Three types of people search for your keywords:
Potential customers.
Influencers who persuade your potential customers to buy from you.
And your competitors.
You’re going to write the content for the first two. Each will have different intents while searching, but it will always be informational (and navigational when users want to click through them).
Because there was only one search intent for a featured snippet, I thought to classify them further into four categories depending on whether they want:
A specific answer.
A brief answer.
A comparison.
A video.
Get A Specific Answer
Here, a user search query is a question that requires a specific answer. This type of FS has a lower CTR as people come to get a specific answer and typically do not want or need to read further.
This type of FS can help in brand building but is unlikely to drive a lot of traffic.
Get A Brief Answer
Here, the user expects a paragraph or listicle type of featured snippet as shown in the types section above. If users want to get more information, they’ll click on the results.
This type of search query assists in both CTR and brand reputation.
Get A Comparison
This type of search query comes up with a table type of featured snippet. The table content is larger than what Google Featured Snippets can show. So, this type of search intent is most likely to boost the CTR.
Get A Video
And lastly, if users are looking for “how-to” answers and a video attached to those answers, it will get the maximum CTR.
Understand the different types of informational search intent behind the search query. They are relevant to the type of featured snippets available, which can help you plan and optimize your content.
4. Run A Competitive Analysis
Go back to Semrush and open its SEO content template tool. Input your keyword or content topic, select the targeted location, and click on the green button.
You’ll get the below SEO recommendations for your content to plan the content optimization for featured snippets.
Your top 10 rivals for target keywords to let you understand whom you’re going to compete with
Key recommendations from them in terms of what your content must have, backlinks it shall acquire, readability it must have, and recommended text length to serve the user search intent and expectations.
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Suggestions on how they’re using target keywords so you can use them better.
Basic SEO recommendations to make your content search-friendly.
5. Create/Update The Content Outline
By now, you have the content topics, their targeted keywords, type of featured snippet, its search intent, and a pool of SEO recommendations from
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