Improve Your Website Visibility by Optimizing for Snippet Boxes
When you ask Google a direct question, you’ll see a box at the top of the search engine results page that attempts to provide the best answer to that question. That boxed content is known as a “featured snippet” and offers your website a rare opportunity for high visibility. Snippets are two-to-three-sentence summaries in the format of an answer to a “What is…” type of question. There are generally three different types of snippets:
- Paragraph snippets
- Bulleted list snippets
- Tables
Optimizing Your Online Presence for Featured Snippets
You can take a number of specific steps to improve the chances your website will be selected to appear in the snippet answer box:
- Use a “What is…” type question as a header in your website content—When Google is looking for pages that answer a question, it gives greater weight to those that appear to directly address the question. One of the best places to do that is immediately after the introductory paragraph on a blog or practice page.
- Start questions with “Is” or “Are”—Optimizing for snippets involves being direct. Words like “is” or “are” are more indicative of a question/answer format.
- Write a 2-3 sentence response—Make certain your answer appears in the content immediately after the “What Is…” heading. Answer the “What Is” question with a succinct answer, provide a couple of must-know facts, and stop.
- Add content that matches the snippet format—If you’re optimizing for a snippet currently in the form of a bulleted list, insert content in the form of a bulleted list. If it’s a paragraph, insert a paragraph.
- Do not include brand names—Featured snippets cannot include brand names. The goal is to provide answers, not market brands.
- Use the third person to answer the question—The purpose of the snippet is to provide an answer to a “What is…” type question, not promote a brand. Using first-person narratives potentially limits the answer.
- Give priority to snippets where you already appear in the top five organically—Studies show that the higher you rank in organic searches, the better your chances of getting a featured snippet. If you’re in the top spot, you are twice as likely to appear in a featured snippet than if you are ranked third.
It may take a few different versions of your snippet content before you make it there. Keep tweaking the content until you do.
GetLegal Can Help You Optimize for Google Snippets
At GetLegal, we bring more than 20 years of experience in digital marketing to lawyers and law firms throughout the United States. We have a thorough knowledge and understanding of Google and its products/services, including snippets, and can help you formulate and implement a strategy to improve your prospects of appearing in a snippet. We also offer extensive experience with other online marketing tools, including website development, custom content, full video production, social media marketing, directory placement, and online reputation management.
To learn how we can help you take advantage of Google featured snippets, visit GetLegalPracticeBuilder.Com or call 1-817-359-7077.
