A snippet word means a small piece. So, in the digital world, it means small and brief information about content that is available on a webpage. These are brief texts appearing on top when a user searches for a certain topic. A snippet of information is related to users searching and is automatically taken from a webpage by googles system. Snippet appears differently from the standard platform because it shows a description above the link to the webpage. When you search These short snippets, help users discover what they are seeking. It is meant to answer users’ questions quickly. Only those content is shown which Google considers as high-quality information. There are rich snippets and featured snippets.
What Are Rich Snippets?
Rich snippets are search results that contain more information to it. This more information is pulled from the data inside that webpage. In a rich snippet, more value is added to a normal search result. Below we can see what other information can be added.
- Reviews – Displays a star rating out of 5.
- Recipe – Here it will show a picture of the recipe, preparation time, and ratings.
- Music – It will show the release date of the album, genre, artist, producer, studio name, and length of music.
- Product – Gives information about the product if it’s in stock or not, price, and review.
- Organization – Provides key information about the organization, address of headquarters, stock price, CEO name, logo, and contact detail.
- Top Stories – It shows top news related to the topic searched.
- Video – Relatable videos are suggested as per searched content.
Rich snippets are basically just search results with additional information.
What Are Featured Snippets?
Featured snippets are search results that appear on position zero which is on top of the first search result. It is different from other search results because it has a description above the webpage link. It is supposed to quickly answer the user’s query. Information that appears in the featured snippet is pulled from the webpage according to the user’s search. Google’s automatic system determines if the information will be relevant or not as per the request. So that in the end, it provides quality content to the user. Featured snippets are available in different types, that is definitions, tables, ordered lists, and unordered lists.
- Definition – This is a text-based snippet, here users can get direct and short queries for their search. Information in this snippet is pulled from the webpage. It basically e answering users’ questions. It can include pictures also as per the search by the user.
- Tables – If the webpage contains structured data, then it will pull that information and show it in the form of a table for better readability. It’s not necessary that a webpage should have a table any data that can be shown in the form of rows and columns will work.
- Ordered List – Ordered list comes in two formats steps list and a ranking list. Step list when you must perform specific steps to complete a task like preparing a dish or going through some tasks. Rank list when certain things must be in rank order like top universities or top restaurants. It is displayed in the number list.
- Unordered List – Unordered list comes in a bullet list, here headings are given with bullets. This list is used when information doesn’t have to be in a specific order. It basically turns data into bullet heads so that information appears in compressed form. It is just a list of information there is no ranking or order.
- YouTube Snippet – When Google gathers information from other sources like YouTube, it will give you a link to the video that will give an answer to your query. Her answer can be taken from the video’s description or it will highlight the timestamp where the answer will be available.
How Featured Snippet Is Different From Passage Indexing?
Passage indexing is a feature of the ranking system of Google. If a page has a lot of information about a specific topic in passages, then it picks the passage that is more relevant to the searched query and displays it. It goes through the whole page and picks up the most appropriate passage that matches the search.
Passage indexing only checks the relevancy of a passage that fulfills the query of the search whereas the featured snippet displays the quickest answer to the query by checking the relevancy of the whole topic on the page.
Importance Of Featured Snippet
Featured snippet is important it provides answers quickly which helps in saving time. It displays information in different which look more appealing to the user. Even marketers can get huge benefits from it because featured snippets are displayed on top of the page. Because of its appearance on the top, it can grab the attention of users which can help increase your click-through rate.
Benefits of Featured Snippet
- Since the featured snippet appears on top of the search results, it will help boost the visibility and awareness of your brand.
- Featured snippet grabs the attention of users, and therefore helps increase CTR (click-through rate).
- Featured snippets are mostly shown whenever a voice search takes place. SIRI or Google Assistant reads these featured snippets aloud. Users can access these websites for more information.
- When your page’s CTR increases that means traffic is also increased. More traffic means better ranking. That means it helps boost your SEO performance.
How To Optimize Content For Featured Snippets?
- Keywords – Do research on keywords that have a high chance of triggering featured snippets. No time should be wasted on keywords that will never trigger featured snippets. It’s better to spend time conducting research on keywords.
- Definition – Sometimes people look for the meaning of words or phrases. If your page contains the brief meanings of such words or phrases, then there’s a high chance of your page appearing on the featured snippet.
- Answering the question – If your page has a short paragraph that answers the user’s searched query. It will trigger a featured snippet so that the user can quickly get an answer.
- Structured data – Make sure your page has well-structured information, so that if there’s a requirement to make a table or list of the data it should be possible.
- Quality content – High-quality content increases the chances to trigger featured snippets. If the content is more relevant to the search, more chance of a featured snippet.
- Mobile friendly – Since access to mobile is quicker therefore chances of featured snippet triggering is higher in mobile platform. So, make sure your page is optimized for mobile platforms. In mobiles, 50% screen is covered by featured snippets.
- Ranking webpage – There is a high chance of a featured snippet if your page is high in the ranking. If your page has a good number of visits and organic traffic it will increase the chance of featured snippets. Better the ranking of the page better the chance of a featured snippet.
- Include FAQ – An excellent method to trigger featured snippets is to have an FAQ section on your page. Frequently asked question sections have questions related to your product and services along with relevant answers to them. These queries should be the ones where people ask one another about the services.
Google’s Policy For Snippets
Featured snippets have unique positioning and most of the time it read aloud by Google Assistant. Therefore, there are some policies for the featured snippet.
- Featured snippets should not include explicit content or indecent language.
- It should not contain any information that encourages hate against any individual, ethnicity, religion, nationality, or gender, or attribute to systematic discrimination.
- There shouldn’t be violent content.
- It should not promote harmful content like self-harm, mutilation, eating disorder, or substance abuse.
Conclusion
A rich snippets is the best way to generate more traffic to your webpage because of its appearance on top of the search results. It’s not mandatory to have your webpage ranked no. 1 to have a featured snippet. If your webpage contains rich-quality content, then there will be a high chance of triggering featured snippets. Try to put yourself in the customer’s place to better understand what is their queries and give them the right answers. If a customer gets meaningful and helpful content, it will help in growing traffic to your webpage. Optimizing and updating your page will keep your ranking high. To gain more fruitful information, then stay updated with – Antraajaal.com