Featured Snippets: How To Rank Position 0 In Google

How would you like to rank at the top of Google?

For most of us, reaching the summit is like climbing Everest. We sweat and toil, as we trudge step-by-step, following the recommended route.

But what if there was a way to bypass a few positions and claim the top spot, without changing your domain to Wikipedia or begging for backlinks?

In this article, we’ll take a look at how you can reach position 0 in the Google SERPs (search engine results pages) with a featured snippet.

What is a Google featured snippet?

A featured snippet is the ‘special search result’ you sometimes see above the normal search results at the top of Page 1 in Google. Most SERPs have ten results in positions 1 to 10 (excluding paid ads), but a featured snippet jumps the queue to rank in ‘Position 0‘.

Note: Featured snippets don’t appear on every SERP. According to RankRanger, they currently appear in about 11% of search queries (March 2018). One thing for sure is that they’re becoming more popular. Featured snippets rose from 2.6% in December 2015 to 9.6% by May 2017:

1 RankRanger Featured Snippet Growth

The snippet is a summary ‘extracted programmatically‘ from the page, and usually answers a question. For example, if you ask the question, “What is the best DSLR camera for beginners?” Google features this summary:

2 DSLR Camera Featured Snippet 1

The snippet contains the extracted answer from the page’s content, plus the page title and URL.

It’s important to note that Google doesn’t always use the top-ranking search result for the featured snippet. In this instance, it comes from the page in 6th position:

3 DSLR Camera Featured Snippet 2

Featured snippet vs direct answer

Don’t confuse a Featured Snippet with a Direct Answer, which, as the name implies, provides a direct answer to a query but has no link to a source.

For example, if you ask for the currency conversion, “USD to GBP“, you’ll get the direct answer:

4 USD To GBP Direct Answer

And in this instance, the answer box is interactive so that you can change currencies and amounts. Other direct answers are static; for example, “How old is the queen?”

5 Queen Direct Answer

The types of featured snippet

There are three types of featured snippet, with Paragraph being the most common according to GetStat:

Paragraph – 81.95%
List – 10.77%
Table – 7.28%

Let’s take a look at some examples.

Featured snippet paragraphs

The most common type of featured snippet is the paragraph. For example, here’s how Google answers the question, “How to edit an image on Mac“:

6 Paragraph Snippet Example

The paragraph answer comes from a series of points in the article:

7 Paragraph Snippet Example Series Of Points

Featured snippet lists

The featured snippet lists are useful for ‘process’ search queries that require a series of steps to accomplish a task. Or, as we saw earlier, they are used for ‘top product’ search queries. The list snippet is either ordered (numbered) or unordered (bulleted):

8 List Snippet

Note: The example above also includes an image.

Featured snippet tables

The table type of featured snippet shows up when you search for prices; for example, “Nikon D3400 price USA“:

9 Table Snippet

They’re an excellent way of summarizing promotions, pricing, and shipping information.

By now, I’m sure you only have one burning question: How do you rank in Position 0 with a featured snippet?

So, let’s take a look…

How to rank in position 0 with a featured snippet

There is no guaranteed way to rank in position zero, but there are quite a few things you can try.

1) Ensure you stay in position 0

If you already rank in Position 0 for some featured snippets, you should make sure you keep hold of that position.

You can check in Serpstat (aff):

[Web Analytics / Domain Analysis / SEO Research / Keywords] using the Positions option and adding the filter for Featured Snippets to see which keywords and pages meet that criteria:

10 SerpStat Positions

Then it’s a case of maintaining each of your featured snippets:

Keep your content up-to-date.
Try to ensure that both the question and the answer are short enough to fit in the featured snippet box.
Match your content to the current format of the snippet (paragraph, list, table).

Note

Serpstat is just one example of a tool that can do this. For more, check out my post on rank tracking tools.

2) Find content you’re ranking for that could be improved to reach position zero

Google featured snippets come from pages that rank in the Top 10:

11 ahrefs Where Featured Snippets Tend To Rank

So your next best option is to find your content that already ranks well and could be optimized for a featured snippet. [More on this later.]

Here’s how:

Open the Google Search Console. From the left-hand menu, click ‘Search Traffic‘ then ‘Search Analytics‘. Check the ‘Clicks‘ and ‘Positions‘ options so you can see your best-performing content. Click the ‘Position’ column to order results by the highest position and add a ‘how‘ filter to your ‘Queries‘:

Now you should see a list of your best performing content.

3) Find your competitors’ featured snippets

You can check if your competitors are ranking for featured snippets in the same way that you checked your site.

In Serpstat, enter your competitor’s domain at the top of the screen and filter your results as above.

Not sure who your competitors are?

Then use the ‘Competitors’ option to get a full list. Here are the top competitors for CNET.com:

13 SerpStat Competitors

Once you identify a target, you’ll need to create better content that’s optimized for featured snippets.

4) Research suitable keywords

The next step is to perform some traditional keyword research.

Here are a few tips to consider when researching keywords suited to featured snippets:

a) Use long tail keywords

When Ahrefs studied 2 million search queries with featured snippets, they discovered that long tail keywords triggered the majority:

Best practice suggests that writing in-depth content covering topics will naturally include hundreds of long tail keywords.

b) Use questions, prepositions, and comparisons

Featured snippets are designed to answer questions, so include direct question words – who, what, how, why, when, and where – in your keywords.

But don’t stop there.

While question keywords are best for paragraph featured snippets, it turns out that preposition keywords work best for lists, and comparison keywords for tables.

15 Moz Keyword Types

Note

Check out this detailed research by A.J. Ghergich for more details and examples.

c) Use Answer The Public

You can use the free research tool Answer The Public to compile a list of question, preposition, and comparison type keywords.

Start by entering your seed keyword and then assess the different types of questions that it suggests people are asking.

For example, when you enter ‘DSLR camera‘ you get 123 Questions, 101 Prepositions, and 100 Comparisons. The suggestions are available in both visual and list formats, plus you can download a complete CSV file.

DSLR camera prepositions in visual format:

16 Answer The Public DSLR Camera Prepositions

DSLR camera comparisons in list format:

17 Answer The Public DSLR Camera Comparisons

d) Use other keywords

Further research by Ahrefs showed that there were a group of ‘Other‘ keywords that triggered featured snippets more prominently than Questions, Prepositions, and Comparisons:

Here are a few examples from the ‘Other’ keywords group:

Primary taste sensations
Verizon lg g2 update
Windows 10 compatibility
Cocktail weiner recipe
Gmat scores range

e) Know the questions your readers are asking

You can take advantage of the ‘People also ask‘ section in Google search results to gain further insights into related questions for each topic.

For example, from ‘DSLR camera for beginners’ you get these related questions:

19 People Also Ask 1

And when you click the drop-down arrow you get even more related questions added to the bottom of the list:

20 People Also Ask 2

5) Optimize your content for featured snippets

Google is quite clever at extracting data from a web page and turning it into a featured snippet. We saw earlier how it made a paragraph type snippet from a bullet point instruction page. Conversely, it can create list type snippets from the standard paragraph text on a page.

However, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t optimize your content to increase your chances of gaining the coveted position zero.

a) Create 10x content

You should start by creating engaging content that your readers and Google love. Remember you need to rank in the Top 10 before you have a chance of reaching Position 0. And the best way to rank in the Top 10 is to produce high-quality content, or as Moz calls it, 10x Content:

It’s high-quality, trustworthy, useful, interesting, and remarkable.
Solves a problem or answers a question by providing comprehensive, accurate, exceptional information or resources.
Entertains and engages the reader with images and video.
Provides a positive user experience via the user interface, layout, fonts, and images.

Larry Kim has a theory that Google evaluates the Top 10 results for a search query and awards the featured snippet based on engagement metrics. He discovered some of his pages in position ten had 10x higher CTR and 3x longer time on site when compared to his overall average.

b) Format your content

Use headings and subheadings to divide your content into logical sections. In WordPress, you have options for H2, H3, H4, etc. as well as the standard paragraph. Follow a hierarchy so you get a natural flow. For example, in this Tailwind Review outline you can see how the subheadings work:

21 Format Headings

Format the main body of your content as a paragraph, list or table based on the information you’re presenting:

Use paragraphs for definitions or explanatory answers
Use bullets or numbered lists for a list of items or a multi-step process
Use tables for the presentation of data or comparisons
Use relevant images to illustrate your answers

c) Format your content according to the different types of featured snippet

Each type of featured snippet requires a different approach when you format your content. You’ll need to consider the number of words you use and how you answer the potential search query.

Formatting for paragraph type featured snippets

In order to provide a featured snippet paragraph answer, Ann Smarty recommends adjusting your blogging style as follows:

Ask the question in your subheading
Immediately follow the question with a one-paragraph answer
Elaborate further in the article

It’s what journalists refer to as ‘the inverted pyramid’. Start your page with the most important information that answers the question, then move onto more detailed information, before closing with related topic information.

22 Inverted Pyramid

Image Credit: The Air Force Departmental Publishing Office (AFDPO) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

When you write your one-paragraph answer, aim for between 40 and 50 words (around 300 characters). According to SEMrush, this is the most common length of a paragraph type featured snippet:

23 SEMrush Paragraph Length

Formatting for list type featured snippets

When you create a list, it’s a good idea to make it longer than the eight-item maximum so that Google adds the ‘More items…’ text.

For example, here’s the featured snippet answer to the question, “What are the benefits of using a DSLR camera?”

24 List Format Snippet

The ‘More items…’ text arouses curiosity, and you’re tempted to see what the other benefits are. The article in this example has two more items:

Weather sealing
Solid construction

Tip

Pro Tip: Please don’t make a long list just for the sake of it. Write naturally!

Formatting for table type featured snippets

Google shows a maximum of 3 columns and 9 rows in a featured snippet table. But, like the list snippet above, if your table contains more rows, it will add an ‘XX more rows’ message.

Here’s an example of a featured snippet table with a “29 more rows” message when searching for the term ‘camera prices‘:

25 Table Format Snippet