As search marketers, you may be aiming at higher ranks on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). It’s a difficult task to stay up on, given the ever-changing algorithms, which are becoming stricter and stricter with each passing year. While keywords, page title, tags and all other technical aspects of SEO are important, there’s an element you may not be fully aware of—the small box of text called the featured snippet, which appears with results when you type a search query into a search bar. It’s important for this piece to be informative, not just keyword-rich.
Featured snippets are essentially meant to provide short, quick answers to people’s queries so that they can get the information they are looking for to click a website. To fill these boxes, search engines like Google draw information directly from websites metadata. Here are a few points that show its importance:
1. Offer visibility to search engines
One of the many reasons why featured snippets have gained so much importance recently is because of the space that they occupy within Google’s search results. They reign on the search engine’s results page and boost the visibility of a particular query.
There’s also a considerable rise in paid and no-click traffic searches in recent times. Google is pushing away a huge portion of search traffic towards websites that serve valuable answers or information, especially in the context of mobile search. This is something that increases the visibility of websites that have informative featured snippets.
2. Support voice search
Believe it or not, voice search has arrived in a big way and it’s only growing in scope. It is believed that 50 percent of all queries on search engines will take place through voice in 2020. It makes sense too; users look for convenience while looking for the information they need—something that makes voice technology more favorable than text-based searches.
As such, brands that leverage featured snippets effectively are likely to show on the top of voice search results on Google. Voice assistants tend to pull answers to queries from the featured snippets of the search engine. Since search users get to hear only one answer when they use voice assistants, it’s extremely important that brands leverage featured snippets to show up on voice search results.
3. Boost engagement
Digital marketers need to focus on SEO not just to appear at the top of SERPs, but also to add some value to users’ lives. Their ultimate objective is to increase engagement. The right use of keywords can help them go higher up on the SERP ladder, but that isn’t going to engage much until and unless they use featured snippets.
Powerful and informative featured snippets are a great way to showcase a brand—and give increased exposure. When brands focus on getting more featured snippets, they are likely to engage more and grow more. The best part: This can be achieved without a tremendous uptick in budget!
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