Have you heard about “position 0” or “ranking #0”? While it may seem like nonsense, it is actually very important real estate of the search results and you should know how to maximize your space there!
What Is Ranking #0 or Position 0 Really Called?
The official name for holding the top spot on Google is called a featured snippet. This is the short blurb that Google pulls out from one of the top 10 results to answer the question directly in the search results page, rather than sending the user to another website to find what they are looking for.
Here is an example where Blue Corona’s own site shows up as the featured snippet as well as in the regular organic rankings:
Benefits of Being in “Position 0”
What makes featured snippets a unique opportunity for big wins is that obtaining a spot for your site isn’t dependent on your site’s authority. Which means you can attain a featured snippet for your site without having the highest authority out of the competitors, or without being the number one result in the regular SERPs—a win-win if you’re trying to jump above the regular search results and have your webpage featured as the expert.
There have also been studies with the featured snippet spot and industry leaders found that being the featured snippet resulted in higher click-through-rate to the website, even though part of the answer to the search query was already provided within the search engine results page! [read more on SearchEngine Land]
How to Be the Featured Snippet
The first step for having your site in “position 0” or as the featured snippet is to be ranked on the first page for that question or query. Google doesn’t always pull from the top organic result for the featured snippet, but it will always be something that is ranking on the first page.
To increase your chances of being featured as one of Google’s rich answers, you should:
- Identify a simple question and include that question within the text of your page
- Provide a direct answer right after the question
- Offer valued added info
- Make it easy for users (and Google) to find
- Use ordered lists, bullets, or tables that Google can read to take up more real estate in the “zero” ranking spot
Learn more about featured snippets and rich snippets from Google »
Search Engine Optimization from Blue Corona
As Google begins to answer more queries with Featured Snippets, it’s going to be harder and harder to achieve click-throughs to your site and maximize your online real estate in the search engine results pages. Whether you need help starting an SEO campaign or improving your current strategy, our search engine optimization experts can help!
At Blue Corona, we offer online marketing services, including SEO. Contact us today to learn more about our services.
About The Author: Hannah is the Organic Team Lead at Blue Corona. If she's not busy daydreaming about the training session for her team, you can find her improving client conversion rates and planning her next trip.
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