What are featured snippets: explain with examples

Safalta expert Published by: Ishika Jain Updated Sat, 05 Nov 2022 10:39 AM IST

Highlights

It's crucial to have a featured snippet because it's an additional SERP feature you can secure. Typically near the top of the results page, featured snippets provide you more exposure to searchers and can increase brand recognition.

Source: safalta

If you oversee marketing for just a small company, you are aware of the difficulty in crafting content that will drive visitors to your website. Even now the best content may struggle to appear at the top of a SERP without a plan.
Thankfully, there are several strategies to improve your chances of standing out. Featured snippets are among the best methods for attracting people to view your material. To provide users with short answers to their questions, Google shows highlighted snippets. On a SERP, they appear before the best organic results for a keyword. These snippets, if you can acquire them, can assist you in increasing traffic and your audience.

Table of Content:
Describe the featured snippet:
Featured Snippets: Why Are They Important?:
Various Featured Snippet Types:


Describe the featured snippet:

Google continuously evaluates and upgrades its search results pages (SERPs). With the layered look, Google presently gives users, a user from the search engine's early days might probably not recognize the website. The simple featured snippet is where it all began for search features like curated recipe links, top stories, and knowledge panels. When they initially debuted in 2014, featured snippets caused quite a stir mostly in the search engine optimization (SEO) industry. Instead of visiting the top-ranked website, consumers were now going to remain on the search engine, right? Google was stealing website clicks! That is detrimental to business!

Featured Snippets: Why Are They Important?:

By offering a succinct response to a searcher's question, a snippet box makes life easier for Google users. Users are expected to be able to scan the snippet to find a straightforward response to their query without having to sift through numerous SERPs websites. You need featured snippet ads as a marketer since they draw readers in and raise the likelihood that they will visit your website. When a user searches, they appear as the first result. Featured snippets can help your website in the following ways:
  • Increases click-through rate (CTR):  Although the sample provides customers with a straightforward response to the query, they might well be searching for more in-depth details. By clicking on your featured link, customers can quickly find what they're looking for.
  • Gains credibility: Featured snippets position your company as an authority on a topic. They greatly increase the likelihood that consumers will regard you as just a thought leader in your industry.
  • Enables you to profit from voice technology: Featured snippets are frequently used by virtual assistants such as Siri, Google Assistant, and Microsoft Cortana to respond to users' vocal search inquiries. Each day on PCs and mobile devices, more than 40% of web users conduct voice searches.
  • Demonstrates that your information is helpful, effective, and well-organized: Featured snippets assist you in assessing your content. It's a solid indication that the material on your website is worthwhile to readers if Google selects it to be included in a snippet.
  • Aids in removing users who aren't interested in purchasing: Since users generally find what they're looking for, featured snippets improve "no-click searches" (searches where a user doesn't click any results). This implies that there is a greater likelihood that a user who clicks on the link (for things like product information) is considering making a purchase.
Various Featured Snippet Types:

Not all featured snippets are created equal. Depending on the kind of data a user is looking for, Google as well as other important search engines may utilize one of a few categories. It will be easier for you to structure your information and offer it the greatest chance of getting included in a featured snippet if you know which sort of snippet fits best the topic. We'll discuss various featured snippet types and describe how Google employs them to deliver information throughout the following few sections.
  • Definitions, Explanations, and More about Paragraphs:
    Users can get a succinct, useful definition or a quick fact about a subject in this snippet. Certain requests centre on inquiries or the need for more information. There are definition boxes as well. These are simple questions where consumers are looking for the definition of a term or concept in its simplest form.
  • Tables:                                                                                                                                                                                                            Users can better visualize data for various comparisons with the use of this kind of snippet. Tables make up a sizable portion of Google's highlighted snippets.
  • Lists:                                                                                                                                                                                                                Lists can be employed to rank items, outline a procedure, or distinguish between various products. The ordered or unordered list featured snippets are available, and bulleted lists are available both for ranked & unranked items, features, and "best of" lists.
  • Videos:
    Given that YouTube is one of the most popular search engines on the planet, it makes sense that you'd want to attempt and rank for video-featured snippets as well. A video will be included in a featured snippet if it answers a user's question the best. For "how-to" questions, video-highlighted snippets can be helpful.
It's crucial to have a featured snippet because it's an additional SERP feature you can secure. Typically near the top of the results page, featured snippets provide you more exposure to searchers and can increase brand recognition.

What are features and snippets?

To swiftly respond to a searcher's question, featured snippets are brief text excerpts that are displayed at the top of Google's search results. A featured snippet's content is automatically retrieved from websites that are included in Google's index.

What makes featured snippets crucial?

A featured snippet is significant since it shows another SERP aspect you can control. Featured snippets, which are typically at the top of the results page, provide you with more exposure to searchers and can increase brand recognition.

How do you optimise highlighted snippets and what are they?

The goal of feature snippets is to provide users with as much information about the subject as quickly as possible. This means that the material you're optimizing needs to make an effort to cover the subject in as many words as you can in two to three phrases. For the sake of this rule, conciseness is crucial.

What does an SEO snippet mean?

The snippet, which is one search result among several, often includes the title, the URL, and a description of the page. A snippet's content corresponds to portions of the search query, and your keyword will be highlighted in the snippet description.