Wondering how you get blog post snippets featured at the top of Google search results? Well, look no further as I will show you how I’ve done just that with many of my own blog posts. Before we begin though, it’s worth noting that there are no guarantees that you will have your articles featured by Google, as it heavily depends on the quality and relevance of your content.
To have a snippet of your blog post featured by Google, you will need to include a value-bomb of a paragraph within your blog post that answers the reader’s exact query with no fuss whatsoever. If the paragraph is clear, helpful and to-the-point then there is an increased chance that Google will feature it.
For SEO reasons, I personally like to jam-pack this helpful snippet into the second paragraph of my blog articles, right after my initial introduction, as it helps the reader to find the answer they’re looking for right away. Of course though, if they’ve clicked through from the featured snippet itself then Google will take them directly to said paragraph anyway.
Analysing a real example
As mentioned earlier, I’ve managed to get snippets of my own blog posts featured at the top of Google results. So we’ll be able to go through the general process, figuring out what worked and why. For this example, we are going to look at my blog post titled ‘Uploading To Instagram Without Losing Image Quality’. You can see a screenshot of the featured snippet below.
So in this example, you can see that I’ve written out a paragraph that directly solves the problem of ‘how to upload to Instagram without losing image quality’. Google and its magical algorithm then decided that this was the best piece of content to answer the user’s query and placed it at the top of the relevant search result.
Improving your snippet-worthy paragraph
So now that you know that the answer to getting your content featured as a snippet is to offer the best possible solution to the reader, but, how do you do that? Well, the answer to that is to do your research. Even with the extensive marketing knowledge that I have, I always take the time to go through my competitor’s content before writing my own posts.
In the above example, I actually found that there weren’t any articles solving the problem of uploading to Instagram in poor quality – not any good articles anyway. Instead, the top search results were some subreddit threads. I went through each thread and found the most helpful and relevant answers, then combined them with my own knowledge & experience to create the featured article above.
So in short, to improve your snippet… figure out the exact answer that the user is looking for or needs, and research your competing articles to improve your knowledge on the subject. Condense your answer into a single sentence or paragraph and cut out any unnecessary fat. You can always add any supporting in the following paragraphs or in the rest of the article.
What makes my featured snippet relevant?
So you may have noticed that I said that the snippet will only feature under relevant search queries, but how does Google know that it’s relevant? Well, that comes down to the choice of keywords. For those of you that are new to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), keywords are one or more words that tell Google what the content is about.
The more frequently you use these keywords within said content (i.e. a blog post) then the easier it is for Google’s algorithm to understand the purpose of the content. For instance, I’ve used the long-tail keywords of “how do you get featured snippets on Google” throughout this article. Google will use this information to file the article under the relevant search queries.
How much traffic do you get from a Featured Google Snippet?
I know you were thinking about it. Well, don’t worry. I’ve got some statistics to share with you on exactly how much traffic I’ve been getting for that very same blog post. It’s worth noting that the following screenshot is taken on the 2nd of August, so the monthly total for August (196) could realistically be over 3,000 if the trend were to continue for the rest of the month.
As you can see from the screenshot above, there was a drastic rise in website visitors for this article in July 2020, which is in line with when Google decided to feature a snippet of the article. As many SEO experts know, it’s quite normal for blog posts to take time to build traffic (indexing) but the sudden +1,684 jump from June to July (149 to 1,833) is too big to ignore.
I can’t guarantee that you will get the same results if your blog post ever gets a snippet featured by Google, as you could get less traffic or you could actually get more. The reality is that it depends entirely on the number of searches that are being made for that type of content.
If I’m being honest, even with the prior research I did, I didn’t anticipate that I would be getting this much traffic from that particular blog article. It just goes to show what kind of traffic you could potentially get if you had an article featured in a more densely-search subject, such as “how to make money online”.
Something to consider
Getting your blog post featured as a snippet on Google is only part of the battle, as you need to ensure that you keep the user on your site for as long as possible. Failure to keep website visitors on your site will increase your bounce rate, which is an SEO measurement that Google uses to evaluate the quality of your website. The higher your bounce rate, the less likely that Google will refer their users to your site.
Boosting your blog posts
The main purpose of a blog article, hopefully, is to give the reader as much value as possible. When it comes to my blog, I like to give my readers actionable information that they can implement in their own businesses. That being said, I try to go above and beyond giving one snippet-worthy paragraph of value.
When I write my blog posts, I try to get in the mindset of my readers. I try to anticipate their next question based on what they searched for, and in turn, provide the answers to those questions within a single post. What am I talking about? Well, let me explain…
If the user is searching for “how do you get featured snippets on Google?” then it’s quite apparent what they’re looking for, but then the related searches on Google might also suggest that people are also searching for “What is a snippet on Google?” and “How does the featured snippet appear?”. Both of which I could answer in the very same post – providing more value and thus giving my post the edge over its competitors.
Conclusion
Getting your blog post featured as a snippet on Google comes down to the quality and relevance of your content. If you have a helpful article that also contains a sentence or paragraph that is jam-packed with the specific answer that the user is looking for, then you give yourself a realistic chance of your article being featured.
Do have any questions or feedback? Let me know in the comments below!
2 Responses
Oh really helpful blog post, Thanks you so much. You have provided excellent stuff and useful for anyone. Ranking for a Google featured snippet is far more beneficial and successful in terms of delivering traffic to your site than ranking. The zero position will increase your company’s credibility faster than any other strategy. However, you may not always be google featured snippet, since Google may deem another website to be superior to yours. However, you can do everything you can to improve the chances of Google picking your page.
Hey Sarah, thank you for the kind words. Hope it helped!