{"id":117661,"date":"2019-02-27T14:30:54","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T14:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/?p=117661"},"modified":"2020-02-13T17:39:15","modified_gmt":"2020-02-13T17:39:15","slug":"featured-snippets-how-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2019\/02\/27\/featured-snippets-how-important\/","title":{"rendered":"How important are featured snippets and how can you get them?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Featured snippets are one of the main engines of economic growth today, with countless businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs relying upon them to get their message out to prospective clients.<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the fact that featured snippets<\/a> are a vital part of contemporary marketing and SEO success, however, many still struggle when it comes to properly leveraging featured snippets to the greatest extent possible, with some unlucky few having no idea where to begin at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just how important are featured snippets, and how can you go about getting them? <\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a comprehensive breakdown of featured snippets and how you can bolster your SEO. <\/span><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s searchers are dominated by featured snippets <\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re familiar with just about any popular search engine, from Google to Bing, you\u2019ve likely already encountered featured snippets many times, even if you\u2019re unsure of what they are. <\/span><\/p>\n

To put it simply, featured snippets are those tidbits of information and links to websites that appear the highest in search results. When customers plug a question into Google, the first link and answer that comes up is known as the \u201czero position.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s this option that gets the most clicks and pageviews. <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s thus naturally desirable to have featured snippets in as much search queries as possible, as it necessarily directs customers towards your page and information rather than that of your competitors.<\/span><\/p>\n

So how do I get a featured snippet?<\/h2>\n

The easiest way for you to ensure that your business or website can cash in on featured snippets? Make your content search engine optimized. This helps the algorithms which power sites like Google direct curious web-surfers towards your content<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

There are many ways to make your content<\/a> SEO, though some dated methods are still in use when they\u2019ve long-since grown out of fashion. <\/span><\/p>\n

Focusing your content on a single word or search term, for instance, used to be a staple strategy for getting featured snippets. However, it\u2019s no longer ideal as the way algorithms operate has changed with time. <\/span><\/p>\n

To avoid relying on these outdated methods of getting featured snippets, you should take some time and study up on the common SEO mistakes<\/span><\/a> that too many small businesses make when trying to stand out in the digital realm. <\/span><\/p>\n

You need more than digital expertise to make your content stand out \u2013 sometimes, you just have to make sure it\u2019s not ladled with common errors and simple mistakes that a little homework ahead of time could have prevented. <\/span><\/p>\n

As brutal as it may sound, the next step is scouting out your competition to steal their techniques and swipe away their snippets to make them your own.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a dog-eat-dog world, and your business needs to do whatever\u2019s necessary in order to stand out from the crowd. Finding and stealing<\/span><\/a> major snippets that drive traffic to your rival sites is thus an imperative part of success in the 21<\/span>st<\/sup><\/span> century economy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The exception being, of course, that you have zero intention of cashing in on the ongoing digital boom. <\/span><\/p>\n

By targeting the snippets your competitors rely upon the most, you\u2019re building your market share by swiping away their consumers and luring them to your superior products or services. <\/span><\/p>\n

Stealing snippets from your competitors <\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

Don\u2019t be uncomfortable with the notion of \u201cstealing snippets\u201d from your competitors. First of all, you\u2019re not actually \u201cstealing\u201d anything in the illegal sense. <\/span><\/p>\n

F<\/span>urthermore it\u2019s a necessary part of success in today\u2019s market that everyone is aware of. You should rather view this as a natural consequence of the cut-throat nature of modern marketing, where only those on the top get any page views at all. <\/span><\/p>\n

The first thing you should do is head to a service like SEMrush<\/span><\/a> and type in the URL of your competitors so that you can get a glimpse at their site analytics<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

By heading into the \u201corganic research\u201d tab and clicking on \u201cposition,\u201d you\u2019ll be able to view the keywords<\/a> your competitors are using to drive traffic to their site. <\/span><\/p>\n

Be sure to mirror this language as closely as possible if you\u2019re trying to mimic the success of a thriving competitor. <\/span><\/p>\n

Other low-hanging fruit that you can focus on includes the social media posts of others in your industry<\/a>. These are likely jam-packed with viral content which you can study so as to embrace the better parts of their ad campaigns.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recovering snippets that have been stolen from you<\/h2>\n

You should also take some time to learn about how to recover snippets which have been stolen from you. After all, your competitors aren\u2019t going to stand idly by as you swipe their customer base out from under them. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mastering the art of tracking down and reclaiming your lost featured snippets can seriously bolster the traffic you enjoy on a monthly basis, and it can even become a sense of pride for entrepreneurs when they reclaim their lost mantle at the top of the search results in their economic niche. <\/span><\/p>\n

Take a deep dive into the art of recovering stolen snippets<\/span><\/a> and don\u2019t be afraid to run an audit to see if your competitors have been sniping away at your customer base. <\/span><\/p>\n

This brutal aspect of running a business should serve as a constant reminder of how fierce competition can be, which is why it\u2019s so important to distinguish yourself from the crowd and establish your links as credible and click-worthy. <\/span><\/p>\n

Making your featured snippets last<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

Many small business owners are enthused when they get their first featured snippet, as they rightfully recognize this moment as the turning point in their digital careers. Sustaining the momentum you\u2019ve started to develop is easier said than done, however, and making your featured snippets last once you have them should be at the top of your to-do list. <\/span><\/p>\n

By tapping into ever-spirited nature of social media, you can guarantee that your brand and links are always generating a buzz. <\/span><\/p>\n

Making your featured snippets<\/span><\/a> last isn\u2019t always possible; sooner rather than later, someone may kick you out of your spot, or worse yet your content might just become dated and thus unable to attract viewers at all because it\u2019s simply stale. Producing engaging content on a regular basis is thus an essential part of staying at the top of the featured snippet scoreboard, and to do that you should be mastering today\u2019s leading social media platforms. <\/span><\/p>\n

SEO-content and social media boards go together<\/span><\/a> hand in hand, so you need to integrate your strategies for the two if you want your digital brand to endure. Content promotion and link-building aren\u2019t easy and investing in advertisements and SEO-content that helps you bolster the potential of securing a featured snipped doesn\u2019t always come cheap. Getting a featured snippet to prominently display your brand or services online can be a godsend, however, and generate tons of business for even the smallest of companies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Consider enlisting the help of some social media talent to help you generate a digital buzz, and never stop on your quest to produce engaging, SEO content that will cut through the noise and reach out directly to users<\/a> when they search.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chris Porteous is the CEO of\u00a0Framestr\u00a0\/\u00a0My SEO Sucks, building high performing sales funnels and marketing workflow solutions for businesses across North America.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Featured snippets are one of the main engines of economic growth today, with countless businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs relying upon them to get their message out to prospective clients.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1092,"featured_media":120001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[716,232,386,32],"content_type":[],"class_list":["post-117661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo","tag-featured-snippets","tag-semrush","tag-seo-tips","tag-serps"],"acf":{"tad_independentcommercial":false,"tad_content_format":false},"post_info":{"name":"idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com","title":"","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/shutterstock_365175962-120x90.jpg","category":"SEO","timeago":"7y"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1092"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117661"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=117661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}