How To Get Featured Snippets: A Shortcut to the Top of Google

Structuring Your Content for Snippets

Atif Sharif
Doctor of  SEO
4 min readApr 17, 2024

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Suppose you are looking at the internet for one of those items, say dinosaurs or how bake a cookie. Just type your query to Google, bang — you get the answer.

To start with, boxed in right at the top are the answers that are directly suitable for your query. It is called a featured snippet, and it is broken down into short bullets on one page, summarizing the needed information without clicking any links.

Have you ever wondered why a website’s content appears like that?

Let’s drop anchor and discover how you can create your own distinctive content that will lead to snippets in the top most positions.

First of all, we will check, what is it, a featured snippet. When you search for something on Google, it will make the attempt in providing the most relevant answer to your question.

Sometimes it doesn’t only present some search results in sequence but also a box at the top of the page with a brief answer. This is the answer taken from website content. It is meant to provide you with a summary, without the need of you to click and read it further. It’s cool to get information instantly in a short fashion!

The next question is how you can be the one spot in these featured snippets. Besides, an important thing is to know that Google prefers articles, which are informative, easy-to-understand, and related to the chosen field.

On the other hand, while you write the content for a website or blog, think about what people can be seeking while they search for your topic. Do you need to keep it short or highlight specific points?

Think of what your audience is hoping to find out and audience and give the answer.

Moreover, how-to guides and step-by-step instructions also come up for featured snippets beside list and table.

Most people would search such videos or some step-by-step like ‘How to Tie a Tie’ and ‘How to Make Pancakes’ in this case. With the instructions, well-structured content and the like the chance can be high that this paper will be the first among the search results.

Keywords too performs very important task of pulling featured snippets. Think about in what form people will do Google search when they want to get the information on your topic.

Interlay those keywords into your content but do it naturally. Thus, this builds up a context for Google with regard to what your content is about and in which search queries you should appear as a featured snippet.

Moreover, it’s crucial that you produce the best possible content that gives your readers invaluable value. Google simply works to ensure that engaging with its advanced search engine is an experience that is insightful, constructive, and sincere.

Therefore, aim to provide true, accurate, and research-based data if it is required. Incorporate instances, study examples, or actual experiences to help to liven up your content and make it more reliable.

This is another idea that can bolster your probability of being featured if you update your content on a regular basis. Google favors fresh and constantly updated content, because they are more likely to serve user’s needs as they evolve.

If you have a blog or a website, try to spend some time revisiting your older articles every now and then and updating or complementing them when necessary. This way Google knows that your content is at the moment and valid.

Content advertisement can also bring this content into Google’s notice, and it could be a featured snippet. Portion your content on social networking sites, interact with your audience, and urge others to put your content links. The more exposure the content gets, the higher the chances of its placement on the features.

At the end, never give up and keep trying. Conquering featured snippets is not possible to one day. It is not an overnight process, but requires tenacity, perseverance, and enthusiasm to stay on top of it all.

Keep on trying out varied types of content, improving the quality of your keywords and measuring your results. From this lesson, You should learn to distinguish the things that work and quit using those that don’t, and consistently improve your content strategy.

To summarize the point, to have a featured snippet in the Google search engine results, you have to provide valuable, well-arranged and optimized content. Knowing the search words being used by the readers, using the correct keywords and good answers, you can have a better chance of being ranked higher in search results.

In other words, guide people to the records they can access easily and quickly. Keep honing and refining your content, follow the lastests trends and without a doubt, you will get the featured snippets!

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Atif Sharif
Doctor of  SEO

SEO & PPC Expert, Content Writer. Helping companies attract potential customers through organic search results. Contact me: https://direct.me/atifsharif