How To Get a Featured Snippet on Google

Among all the available real estate on search engine results pages (SERPs), the featured snippet is arguably the most valuable.

A featured snippet is a short section of text that appears at the top of SERPs with the purpose of concisely answering a search query.

Gaining even one featured snippet can be the catalyst for a significant spike in organic traffic to a website.

Blue Corona conducted a comprehensive study of featured snippets on Google to gain insight into how they are won.

In this blog, we analyze our findings and share helpful content optimizations and technical SEO tips that will give you a better chance to win featured snippets.

We’ll also explore which elements of webpages that gain featured snippets are most shared, which factors are important, and which ones may be less significant than conventional wisdom suggests.

What’s a Featured Snippet?

Rich results are the various elements found on Google SERPs outside of the traditional blue organic links. Their purpose is to stand out visually and provide a better experience for users.

One of the most common forms of rich results is the featured snippet.

A featured snippet is content that Google extracts from webpages and displays at the top of SERPs, like the example below.

Often, they provide an answer to the search query without the user needing to scroll down and clicks on links until they find what they’re looking for.

They also account for 35% of the total click share when displayed on SERPs, according to one study.

With an impact that significant, it’s clear that winning featured snippets is one of the most effective ways to dramatically increase organic traffic to your website.

A Study of Featured Snippets: What We Found

To determine the most important factors for gaining featured snippets, we analyzed webpages that currently own the featured snippet for at least one search query.

We looked at what these pages have in common to construct a list of best practices to keep in mind when publishing or rewriting content.

Below are our key takeaways from the study.

Infographic-How to Win a Featured Snippet on Google by bluecorona

Title Tags

Title tags are HTML elements that specify the title of a webpage. They appear in browser tabs and are displayed as the blue headlines of pages in SERPs.

Here’s what we found in our analysis of title tags across pages that had at least one featured snippet:

• 48% of title tags contained a question
• 48% of title tags contained the company’s brand name
• 60% of title tags contained the exact wording of the H1 heading

In terms of general takeaways, very few of the title tags were what we would consider to be optimal.

Many of them were either very short or exceeded Google’s recommended 60-character text length.

We even found one page that had a missing title tag, yet it was still able to win a valuable featured snippet.

This came as a surprise because it’s well known in the SEO community that title tags are generally an important ranking factor. However, for the purposes of featured snippets, they don’t appear to hold much weight.

Even with these findings, we still recommend using best practices when writing title tags. Framing the title tag as a question or including your brand name is perfectly fine but not mandatory.

It’s also not an issue if the title tag is essentially identical to the H1 heading. Including a version of the search query that you’re targeting in the title tag can help the page rank higher, even if it won’t ultimately make or break whether the page wins a featured snippet.

Heading Tags

Heading tags, another HTML element, are titles displayed on a webpage that are used to break up content.

Heading tags have various levels, with H1 headings being the primary headline of a page, while H2s and H3s are examples of smaller sub-headlines.

Here’s what we found with headings as it relates to featured snippets:

• 44% of H1s contained a question
• 56% of H1s matched the search query closely or exactly
• 56% of H2s where the featured snippet was pulled from matched the search query closely or exactly

Takeaway: Heading tags are crucially important for winning featured snippets.

100% of the pages we analyzed had either an H1 or H2 heading that matched the targeted search query closely or exactly, and some had both.

Our analysis indicates that Google weighs headings heavily when determining which pages contain content that provides a clear answer to a query, much more so than title tags.

Another notable finding is that H2s seem to be just as important as H1s when it comes to winning featured snippets, as an equal number of H1s and H2s matched the search query.

This may go against conventional wisdom; H1s are considered to be the most important heading with regard to page ranking.

This does make sense — after all, a featured snippet is a short section of text selected by Google, so it’s logical that they would value the heading for that section just as much as they do the primary heading for the page.

When writing content, pay special attention to headings.

Make sure either the H1 or H2 closely matches the keyword you’re targeting. Additionally, keep in mind that it’s possible to win featured snippets for multiple different search queries on one page.

Think of each section of content as an opportunity to provide a helpful answer, with the H2s for those sections signaling to Google what you’re answering.

Where on the Page the Featured Snippet Is Pulled From

We looked at which paragraph on the page each featured snippet was pulled from. This is what we found:

• 4% of featured snippets were pulled from the first paragraph
• 28% were pulled from the second paragraph
• 16% were pulled from the third paragraph
• 16% were pulled from the fourth paragraph
• 36% were pulled from after the fourth paragraph

The only surprise here is that a mere 4% of featured snippets were pulled from the first paragraph.

While the second paragraph had the highest frequency, plenty of featured snippets were pulled from further down the page.

This suggests that the first paragraph should primarily be used to introduce the topic of the page, with each subsequent section focused on providing content helpful to the user.

Featured Snippet Length

We analyzed how long featured snippets tend to be:

• 4% of featured snippets were one sentence long
• 40% were two sentences long
• 52% were three sentences long
• 4% were four sentences long

The takeaway here is straightforward — 92% of featured snippets are either two or three sentences long.

If your goal is to win a featured snippet, aim to answer the targeted question concisely in two to three sentences, and then support your answer with additional details in subsequent sections.

The second part is important because it helps demonstrate your expertise on the subject and gives credence to the information you’re providing.

Best Types of Content To Get a Featured Snippet on Google

Now that we’ve covered the most important page elements, the next step is to determine the best types of content to gain featured snippets.

The answer is to provide content that is high-quality, informative, and trustworthy.

Experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust (E-E-A-T) have long been the pillars of content that rank well on Google, and they are becoming more important with every successive core algorithm update.

Fresh content, written by real people with the user in mind, rather than solely for search engines, is rewarded.

Providing accurate, updated information that demonstrates your expertise on a subject is the best way to achieve sustained rankings and traffic and win a featured snippet on Google.

Content Optimization Tips To Rank for Featured Snippets

When you have the expertise and trustworthiness, how do you optimize your content to increase your likelihood of winning a featured snippet? Follow these general guidelines:

• Make sure your content sounds natural and is written for humans. Don’t stuff keywords in for the sake of it.
• Keep search intent in mind — are you answering a question? Providing a how-to guide? Reviewing a product?
• Make sure your headings clearly indicate the content that follows.
• Support your information with trusted resources or real-life experiences.

Ultimately, your goal should be to make the content as comprehensive and helpful as possible.

If someone clicks on your page, will they find all the information they need on that topic? Will they trust what they’re reading based on your expertise and experiences? Will they find the page easy to read, resulting in a good user experience?

If you can answer yes to all these questions, you have a great chance at winning a valuable featured snippet and driving additional traffic to your website.

Partner With the Leader in Home Services SEO

Tired of competitors outranking you on Google? Partner with a company that knows what it takes to maximize your online search visibility and establish you as the authority online.

Send us a message to learn more and to request a free marketing consultation today!