Google’s Featured Snippets: How to Get Your Content to Appear

In the rush to get on the front page of Google, a major SERP opportunity stands out as the most useful and most relevant available: featured snippets . The bits of text at the top of many informational searches in Google, featured snippets can drive a ton of attention toward your site and can be an invaluable weapon for marketers. How can you create content that has the chance of ranking in featured snippets? While many marketers assume featured snippets are the territory of SEO masters or brands with million-dollar marketing budgets, that isn’t true at all. In fact, it’s easy to rank for featured snippets with organic content only. You just need to know how. What are featured snippets? Featured snippets are the informational content that shows up in Google’s SERPs immediately after the ads and sponsored posts (if available). This search for “how to show ROI for marketing” features a snippet from Marketing Mo: If there had been sponsored ads around this search term, they would appear above the snippet, which ranks as the top organic result. Google shows what it considers high-quality content in this space because it’s focused on fulfilling user intent . 5 tips to create featured snippets The good news is that, as a form of organic content, the featured snippet box is available to everybody who knows how to optimize their content accordingly. Yet, it’s tough news — you have to work hard to gain it. How do you make your content fit? If you can’t buy the space, how do you take proactive steps to ensure that your page earns the top spot? Here are a few simple steps I’ve used to create content that ranks in the snippets. 1. Create content specifically to answer questions. Provide in-depth answers. Featured snippets […]