An increase in traffic leads to an increase in potential clients. This is common knowledge in the world of SEO. And that's why many brands don't hesitate to put in the needed effort to attract users to their websites. But doing so can prove challenging.
As a brand, you can attest to this. Getting users to click that link to your webpage is not always as easy as it sounds. Sometimes, it may seem too impossible. But in reality, it's not.
SEO offers different ways to convince users that your website has what they're looking for. And one such way is through Snippets. But what is it? Not to wonder, this article answers that question.
What are Snippets?
A snippet is a small part or, an extract of a piece of text. In SEO terminology, it refers to that piece of writing below your title tag that describes the content of your page on SERPs.
Depending on the search query, it may refer to the meta description tag that you insert. However, if that description is not relevant to the query at hand, Google will insert theirs (depending on the case, Google may extract the snippet from the body of your text or even use part of your meta description).
Importance of Snippets in SEO
As stated earlier, Snippet remains an effective way of proving a site's relevance to users. How? Since the snippet serves as a part of your text, it informs users on what to expect from your website. Without a doubt, if your snippet does not appeal to them, they'll keep on scrolling which results in a loss of traffic for you.
To avoid that, it is best to start optimizing your snippet for higher rankings. But how do you do so? Before we delve into that, let's first consider Featured Snippets.
What are Featured Snippets?
Featured Snippets are simple answers that Google selects from the body of a webpage and displays as immediate answers to the search query.
At first glance, you may wonder how that's any different from your regular snippet. Well, look again. While your regular snippets are placed under your header tag on Google's SERP, Featured snippets are placed at the very top of the page. They aim to provide immediate and accurate answers to the query at hand.
Without a doubt, websites that get featured enjoy more exposure to users. And this, in turn, leads to more traffic and a higher click-through rate (CTR).
Hence, featured snippets hold much more value in the SEO world than your regular description. So, back to the question: how do you optimize your snippets for higher rankings?
How to Optimize your Snippets
1. Keyword Research
Of course, before creating any content, you'll need to have a target keyword in mind. These target keywords should be strongly based on your brand. After all, the final aim is to convert visitors into clients.
While carrying out your keyword research, you should keep one thing in mind if you're aiming for featured snippets: Target long-tail keywords! Unlike head keywords, long-tail keywords are more specific. They are phrases that are most likely to be used by searchers when making a query. And they've been proven to trigger featured snippets more than head keywords.
In addition to long-tail keywords, aim for search queries in question format. This implies that you optimize for the standard Wh- words such as why, when, and what.
2. Provide simple answers
As seen above, Google aims featured snippets toward answering the searcher's query. Hence, providing simple yet accurate answers to your target query remains the most effective way of gaining featured snippets.
3. Content structure
The main work when targeting featured snippets lies in the structure of your article. Below are two tips to keep in mind when creating your content.
Use of headings and paragraphs. The way you make use of headers and sub-headers affects how Google views your content. When optimizing for snippets, ensure your H2 is in a question form (for example, what is the internet?). Then in the following paragraph, provide the answer to that question. Without a doubt, this is the number one tactic for gaining featured snippets from Google.
Use of lists. While most snippets are usually in paragraph form, some answers requires a list. In such cases, after the H2 in question format, the list that provides the answer to that query should follow.
That's all! Optimizing your webpage while aiming to get featured snippets is very much easy. However, you only need to keep repeating the process. And, of course, ensure your content is high-quality and easy to read. Once you do, you'll be very much closer to winning that Featured Snippet.
Wrapping Up
As a brand, optimizing your Snippets comes with lots of benefits you certainly won't like to miss. To that end, you have to be ready to put in all the needed effort. All that said, it may take some time before you start observing the results. And this is especially so if your previous web pages don't rank high on Google's SERP.
Are you discouraged? You shouldn't be. Instead, that should be your driving force. After all, practice makes perfect. The more you implement the steps above, the higher the quality of content you'll be creating. You will get better at keyword research, and creating easy-to-read articles. And above all, you will become an expert in organizing your article for featured snippets.
By doing so, you will experience an increase in SERP rankings. And as seen above, this comes with an increase in traffic, CTR, and potential clients. And in time, Google might award you with a featured snippet. So without delay, get started on your optimization.