For many Singapore businesses, reaching the top spot in Google’s search engine is the ultimate goal. In fact, this is why many enlist the help of professional SEO consultants. However, if you’re working on your own,  this can seem next to impossible–especially if you are in a competitive niche. Not only will it take a lot more investment, but also more effort. While this is well worth the investment, there are additional ways to increase your chances of getting to number one. And that’s by securing a featured snippet.

What’s so great about a featured snippet is that it doesn’t depend so much on metrics but about the content that you have on your website. Even if you don’t have a lot of backlinks, you can still secure this spot. In fact, there are businesses who were originally featured on page 2 of the search engines who get to position 0 as a result of one featured snippet. And this can really do wonder for your organic traffic and visibility.

What’s Are Featured Snippets?

The featured snippet’s position is referred to as “position 0” because it appears at the very top of the search results, above all of the normal results. This box contains the page title, URL, and a small snippet of the page’s content. It is usually shown as the result of a searcher’s question.

Google has a built in program that is designed to detect when a website answers a certain question and will display the answer at the top of the page. The clicks that tend to come with a snippet can dramatically increase a website’s click-through rate.

Types of Featured Snippets

When it comes to snippets, there are several types. There are those that are in the form of a paragraph. This type of snippet can be considered long-form as they offer the most detail. Then there are those that are in the form of a list. This type of snippet is usually shown in the response of a searcher who wants to know the process of doing something and need a step by step guide. These snippets may even feature images. There are also those that are in the form of a table. This type of snippet is great for price comparisons or rates. In order to achieve this type of snippet, the website owner must your a table tag. The good news is getting a snippet is not difficult.

Step 1: Figure out if a featured snippet is best for your business

Believe it or not, featured snippets are not a good idea for every business. There are times in which the business owner’s time would be better spent securing other elements of Google. For instance, if you have a local business, then rather than securing a featured snippet, it will be much more profitable for you to get your local listing into the local pack.

Conversely, if your niche is centered around providing helpful answers to users, then the featured snippet may be ideal. This means that there are terms that users want explained. There are tables that they could benefit from seeing. According to a study, the best industries for featured snippets include financial, health, DIY, time, mathematical, and requirements. The industries that benefit the least from featured snippets include local, shopping, images and videos, factual, and info.

What to Consider:

Before you run to the nearest keyword research tool to find questions that you think need to be answered, you should find out if your website currently ranks with featured snippets. SEMRush is a great tool for this. Simply check ‘Positions’ and then select ‘Featured Snippet.’ If you find out that you do, then it’s a good idea to keep in mind that just because you have one today does not mean that it will last forever. So it’s best to continue to track it.

Next, you need to find out how well your featured snippet keywords match up with your Google Search Console data. This can be especially helpful when sizing up how much of an opportunity you have. And this is especially the case if you compare your CTR data for the time in which you had the featured snippet against the time in which you didn’t. Even if you don’t have a featured snippet, you can use your competitor’s as a reference.

Step 2: Find the best keywords for your featured snippets

If you are already familiar with the concept of keyword research, then finding suitable candidates for your featured snippet should be relatively straightforward. It’s a standard digital marketing strategy. If not, then there are a few things that you should be on the lookout for.

First, you need to find high volume terms that tend to show up in the most snippets. Second, you need to focus on longer queries that will provide more than six words. Next, you should focus on questions that start with who, what, where, how, and when. You should also look for questions that are implied–ones in which the person may be looking for a simple definition.

One of the best ways to get an idea of what people are searching for is to use the ‘People also ask’ feature on Google. Whenever you type a question into the search engine you will notice this section along with a list of related search terms. There are also tools that you can use like the Answer The Public website. This site makes use of the Google Suggest API to find several variations of questions that people ask. You could also use Moz’s Keyword Explorer or Keyword Finder.

Step 3: Increase your chances

Whether you are creating a new website or already have one established, the key to earning a featured snippet is creating content that answers a question very clearly, including clean code and tagging which Google can understand, and attracting user engagement that is positive.

There are several things that you can do to make sure your content is on point. First, you need to repeat the question that is being asked by the searcher. Right after restating the question, you need to provide an answer that is short, direct and clear. You should then back your answer up with more data and images so that it is thorough. So include your most important information first and then discuss the details after the answer.

The Structure:

The search query should be the heading, or H1, of your page. The summary of the answer should be immediately after this. This paragraph should be formatted with an HTML tag that includes <p>. The answer should be approximately 40-55 words. And if you are creating a table, remember to include the HTML <table> tag as opposed to your CSS to create the layout. It’s important to note that Google rarely gives featured snippets to pages that have poor performance of low dwelling times, so it’s idea to work on your website’s performance overall.

Conclusion

Getting to the top of the search engine isn’t always easy. Even if you are someone who is working with a professional SEO agency, it can still take time to see results. However, there is a way in which you can get to the top without having to be the leading business in your industry. And that is to secure a featured snippet from Google. It all comes down to choosing the right keywords and implementing the proper structure.