Many Dutch companies are conquering the German market by advertising online.
A big challenge here is to grow SEO traffic along with them. For organic growth, you need backlinks, content and also technical optimizations. According to a survey by Authorityhacker.com, the best position in organic traffic is dominated by a Featured Snippet in 50% to 65% of cases. In 2017, according to ahrefs.com, this percentage was still at 12%. Enough reason to take a closer look at this phenomenon. What exactly does a Featured Snippet entail? What are the advantages and disadvantages, and how do you make sure your website has a chance at this popular position in search results?
By: Katharina Becking, Online Marketing Consultant Dexport
Google has long since stopped showing only paid ads and organic search results. For example, Featured Snippets were created by Google to provide visitors with an immediate short answer to a specific question within the search results. This answer is displayed directly below any paid ads and still above all other organic search results. For websites that end up at this so-called "position 0," this can be a great opportunity to attract more organic visitors to the website and leave the competition behind.
What does a Featured Snippet look like?
A Featured Snippet can take several forms: just text, a list, table or even a video. The text in the Snippet is created directly and automatically by Google, based on the data from the relevant page. These types of highlighted search results are already known through the Knowledge Graph, for example. With a Knowledge Graph, however, the stated information comes from the Google database itself or from a website with very high authority. With a Featured Snippet, on the other hand, Google retrieves the answer from third parties and adds the link to the relevant website. Text Featured Snippets usually consist of one paragraph and have an average length of about 40 to 50 words.
Example of a Featured Snippet:
Example Knowledge Graph/Rich answer:
According to the German SEO tool Sistrix, a large proportion of textual Featured Snippets are created from Wikipedia entries. Nevertheless, it is interesting to see that now more and more Snippets also come from websites that have a lesser reach and do not rank in position 1. Decisive factors include the CTR, session duration and bounce rate of the page in question.
The nice thing about a Featured Snippet is that it appears above the organic search results. Compared to the universal search result, a Featured Snippet does not move an organic result. Therefore, this Snippet is titled with "position 0. Often, a Featured Snippet also adds an image to the text. Here, the image does not have to be from the same website as the text. Below is a Featured Snippet in the form of a list where you can clearly see that Google gets the text and the image from two different sources.
How do you win a Featured Snippet?
As mentioned, the website does not have to rank at position 1 for the search term. A search result in the top 10 can also end up in position 0 as a Featured Snippet. Google decides for which searches a Featured Snippet is shown and which domain is used for this. Therefore, you cannot explicitly indicate that you want to be considered for a Featured Snippet. Google selects the part of the website that provides the most concrete answer to the user's search query. Featured Snippets usually appear in Germany as answers to W queries such as: Who, Who, Was, Wo, Welches, Warum.
First, it is important to know what questions you want to answer. For this, tools like Google Suggest or Answer the public can be used. Are Featured Snippets already available for certain questions and is your website in the top 10? Then you may have a chance at the beloved pole position. Make sure you provide qualitative and relevant information on the question and display this information in a structured way on the website. Tables, lists, images videos and also a logical header structure provide distinct and clear information.
To qualify for a Featured Snippet it is not necessary to use so-called structured data, however, for a table or list it can be helpful to mark up the content with the corresponding code.
Position 0 - curse or blessing?
One advantage of a Featured Snippet is, of course, achieving "position 0;. The visibility of the website is increased and the CTR can also experience a positive development, as the link to one's website appears above all other organic search results. The formatting of the Featured Snippet is also eye-catching and evokes trust among users because the page is considered trustworthy by Google.
Advantages and disadvantages are often close to each other and this is also the case with the Featured Snippet. Because if a Featured Snippet already provides all the necessary information, the user does not need to click on the link. Thus, a Featured Snippet can sometimes lead to fewer clicks. Therefore, it is definitely important to keep an eye on the CTR of Featured URLs. If it turns out that a Featured Snippet brings in less traffic, it is possible to indicate in the source code of the page in question that it should not be used for a Featured Snippet.
To avoid this effect of a Featured Snippet, it is advisable to ensure that Google does not use the full information in the Snippet. With a table or a list, Google often does not display the full information. Therefore, these are excellent for a Featured Snippet because the user is encouraged to click further through to the website. The example below shows this clearly. The table is not fully shown in the Featured Snippet and Google indicates that there is more information available on the website.
Opinion
It can be advantageous to land in position 0 with a Featured Snippet. Especially if your website already provides a knowledge base or an informative blog and these articles rank in the top 10 this can be an opportunity (see Featured Snippet below). If the competitor is in position 0 with a Featured Snippet, it is definitely worth performing content optimizations to knock the competitor off the throne.
