Data-backed insights on highlighted snippet optimization
Around one-fifth of all keywords trigger a highlighted snippet
99 percent of all featured snippets tend to appear within the first organic position and take control of 50% of the screen on mobile phones, driving higher-than-average click-through rates (CTR).
The key to included snippet optimization lies in a few particular areas: long-tail- and question-like keyword technique, date significant content that comes at the right length and format, and a concise URL structure.
Google has constantly been pretty hazy on any details about winning highlighted bits. This held true when they were first presented, making them something services thought about to be the cherry on top of their SEO efforts, which is still mostly the case. Having first-hand understanding about the worth and power of featured snippets, Brado coordinated with Semrush to perform the most thorough research study around included snippet optimization to reveal how they truly work, and what you can do to win them.
Exposing the highlights from a Featured bits research study that analyzed over a million SERPs with featured snippets present, this post unwraps actionable ideas on amping up your optimization technique to finally win that Google prize.
General patterns across the included bit landscape.
With billions of search questions run through the Google search box each day, our research study discovered that around 19 percent of keywords set off a featured bit. Why does this even matter? Featured bits are known to drive higher CTR-- as another research study discovered, they are responsible for over 35 percent of all clicks.
Additional showing the tremendous power of featured bits, our research study showed that they use up over half of the SERP's real estate on mobile screens.
Integrate this with our findings that 99 percent of the time featured snippets take over the first natural position, and that they are in the majority of cases triggered by long-tail keywords (suggesting specific user intent), and you'll get the reason behind extremely high CTR numbers.
Are some industries more likely to trigger featured snippets?
In the research study, we specified markets by keyword classifications, finding that, undoubtedly, included snippet volume is irregular across various sections.
The top market, seeing an included snippet in 62 percent of all cases, is Travel and Computer & Electronics, followed by Arts & Entertainment (59 percent), and Science (54 percent), while Property keywords drag all the rest with just 11 percent of keywords activating an included snippet.
featured bit optimization insights on keyword classifications that trigger.
On a domain level, the market breakdown varies somewhat, with Health and News sites having equivalent featured snippet volumes.
You can find the complete industry breakdown within the research study.
Included snippets are everything about earns, not wins.
Simply hoping your content will win you a featured bit isn't enough-- as our study showed, it's all about hard-earned content optimization results.
1. Enhance for long-tail keywords and questions.
When it comes to optimization and keywords, use 'the more the much better' logic.
Our research study discovered that 55.5 percent of featured bits were triggered by 10-word keywords, while single-word ones only showed up 4.3 percent of the time.
One thing even much better than long-tails is questions. In fact, 29 percent of keywords triggering an included snippet begin with question words-- "why" (78 percent), "can" (72 percent), "do" (67 percent), and in the fewest cases, "where" (19 percent).
included bit optimization insights on question keywords that trigger.
2. Utilize the right content length and format.
The SERPs we examined consisted of four kinds of highlighted snippet: paragraphs, lists, tables, and videos:.
70 percent of the outcomes revealed paragraphs, with approximately 42 words and 249 characters.
Lists was available in as the second-most-frequent featured bit (19 percent), with an average of 6 item counts and 44 words.
Tables (6 percent) typically included 5 rows and 2 columns.
Videos, whose typical duration stood at 6:39 mins, appeared in just 4.6 percent of all cases.
Obviously, don't blindly follow this information as the golden rule, rather see it as an excellent starting point for featured-snippet-minded material optimization.
Plus, keep in mind that content quality always dominates quantity, so if you have a high-performing piece that features a 10-row table, Google will simply cut it down, showing the blue "More rows" link, which can even improve your CTR.
3. Don't overcomplicate your URL structure.
As it turns out, URL length matters in Google's choice of a site that should have a highlighted snippet. Attempt to adhere to cool website architecture, with 1-3 subfolders per URL, and you'll be most likely to win.
Just for referral, Visit this link here is an example of a URL with 3 subfolders:.
xyz.com/subfolder1/subfolder2/subfolder3.
4. Make frequent material updates.
In the "to add or not to add a post date" problem, based on our included bit analysis, we 'd suggest that you release date-marked material.
Most of Google's featured snippets consist of a post date, with the following breakdown: 47 percent of list-type featured bits come from date-marked material, paragraphs-- 44 percent, videos-- 20 percent, and tables-- 19 percent of the time.
While fresh-out-of-the-oven material can be preferred by Google, 70 percent of all content making it into the included bit was anywhere from 2 to 3 years of ages (2018, 2019, 2020), suggesting when again that content quality matters more than recency, so you should not fret that putting a date on it will work against you.