Start optimizing your anchor text strategy for SEO in 2020

Anchor text optimization is one of the easiest SEO strategies that you can use to skyrocket your ranking. 

But what exactly is anchor text and how you can use it to achieve your SEO goals?

That brings us to today’s post. Here are what you will learn:

1. What is anchor text?
2. What makes a good anchor text?
3. How will the anchor text affect your SEO strategy?
4. What are the anchor text strategies you can use in 2020?
5. What are the different types of anchor text you can use in your content?

Let’s start!

What is anchor text?

In short, anchor text is the visible and clickable text in a hyperlink that links to another location on the web.

Generally, anchor text appears as blue and underlined like this: Lead generation mistakes. You’re probably familiar with that already. These days, we can see many websites use different styles and colors for links. 

This is how anchor text looks like in HTML:

<a href=”https://biq.cloud/blog/lead-generation-mistakes/”>Lead generation mistakes</a>

Anchor text is an integral part of SEO which has a great impact on search ranking factors. It helps search engines to read your site and understand its relevance to the user’s search. 

For example, if we look at the anchor text below, “ideal length of content”, we can guess that it will lead to a page that talks more about the topic of ideal length for content. Well, that’s how it is supposed to be. 

The “ideal length of content” is an anchor text that leads to this blog post- https://seopressor.com/blog/the-ideal-length-for-every-online-content/. The linked source talks about what is the ideal length for every content. 

Using the anchor text in the excerpt above helps the readers to know what to expect if they click them. 

Anchor text and SEO: Is anchor text important for SEO?

The short answer is: YES!

Anchor text gives important information to not just the reader but search engines too. It helps search engines to understand the context of the website and gives a clear idea of your website and what it is all about. 

Looking back at the previous example, “ideal length of content”, search engines understand the referred page is about a content’s ideal length.

The keywords in the anchor text are one of the many signals search engines use to determine the topic of a website.

It analyzes the anchor text people use when linking to websites to see how authoritative a site is on various topics. Websites are more likely to rank high in search results for keywords related to them.

Now, let’s look at the example of a good and bad anchor text:

Bad anchor text

Click this link, click here

Using “click this link” as your anchor text will not tell much about what the referred link is about. It could lead the user to content that does not match their interests.

As a result, it will increase the website’s bounce rate and this gives a bad signal to the search engines. 

Good anchor text

Anchor text vs hyperlink, how does anchor text work, anchor text generator

Using a descriptive anchor text helps Google’s bots to instantly understand what the linked page is about. It will help pages rank for queries related to the topic. Most importantly, the users will have a better idea of what the linked page is about.

Anchor text for backlinks, internal links, and external links

Backlinks – link that comes from someone else’s website to yours

Internal links – link that directs the readers to the target page on your own website 

External links – link that directs the readers from your website to a different website

As a rule of thumb, you can’t really influence the anchor text of your backlinks, but you can do so for your internal link building or also known as “inlinking”.

By linking related pages internally, you can actually boost your rankings on Google. Your website structure is used to determine the quality of your on-site SEO. And a good inlinking is the key to it.  

Thanks to anchor text, it makes the linking easier to understand for your readers and search engines as well. Hence, Google bots will be able to freely crawl through your website which directly improves your site’s SEO. 

Read more on how to use an internal link to quickly boost your website’s ranking position (You guessed it right, this is another example of anchor text!).

Anchor text best practices: Optimization strategy

Now, what makes a good anchor text? Know that using good anchor text practices can result in a positive impact on your SEO. 

In this section, you will get to know how to optimize your anchor text for better SEO performance in 2020.

Let’s dive in! 

1. Keep anchors relevant to the content

Keep this in mind: always do it for the searchers’ best interest. 

Google or any other search engines always want to offer the best and relevant information to their users. 

Unfortunately, not all anchor texts are able to deliver what they have promised. This results in a high bounce rate and low average time on site. Thus, the lower ranks on search results.

The next time you want to create an anchor text, ask yourself this question: how relevant is this anchor text to the referred link?

If the anchor text is “social media engagement strategy”, the destination link should talk about topics that are related to a social media engagement strategy. For example,

• Tips to improve my social media engagement
• Social media engagement examples
• How to increase social media engagement organically

Just imagine if any of the anchor text above leads you to a pet shop website… It does not make sense in any way, right? Would you find it relevant or valuable to you? I’m sure it’s a 100% no and it would be the same for Google. 

The anchor texts should (always) offer real value to the users.

2. Keep your anchor text natural

Your anchor text should be natural in the eyes of readers. It must flow naturally within your content. 

Always remember that you are writing for humans and not bots. To give you an example, exact match anchors often don’t look natural in the context of a web page.

We will look further into the different types of anchor text in a while.

When you try to force a specific exact match anchor text on your content, your reader and the search engines will easily notice. 

As we all know, Google’s algorithms are getting smarter every day. Therefore, you should avoid using multiple repetitive and keyword-based anchors on your web page. It doesn’t do any good to you especially when Google detects them. Failure to do so may result in a penalty. 

Google is now becoming more and more rewarding to quality content that uses sentence structure variations. By using anchor text naturally, you are more likely to see better results in the long run.

3. Keep your anchor text brief

More is not always better. There is no restriction on an anchor text length but it is best to keep it short and sweet. 

To illustrate this better, let’s look at the example below:

“Keep your anchor text length as short as possible, but still relevant to your readers. Your goal is to make anchor text easy to read and able to deliver real value to readers.” 

Using anchor text that has too many words does not really help readers, but only making it hard to understand and lose track of what you’re linking to.

Here’s how you can fix them:

“Keep your anchor text length as short as possible, but still relevant to your readers. Your goal is to make anchor text easy to read and able to deliver real value to readers.”

Shorter anchor text length definitely helps readers to read them and know what to expect.

4. Make your anchor text stand out

Why would you hide the anchor text when it does not serve its purposes? 

Anchor texts are there to let readers notice and click the link when it is relevant. Therefore, you may want to make sure your readers can easily see the links in your content. 

I am very sure we are already familiar with the common blue underlined text, but we are not limited to just that. We are free to express our creativity using other colours and styles, as long as it helps readers to see it is a clickable text.  

Let me share with you some examples that I’ve found on how you can style your anchor text. Anchor text example:

Example 1: Red colour

Example 2: Orange colour

Example 3: Bold and underline

It is actually pretty easy to change your link’s colour. 

<a href=”yourlinkhere.com” style=”color:red”>Text here</a>

Just change ‘red’ to your preferred colour and it is done!

How do you make sure your anchor text stands out in your content? I would love to hear from you. Do let me know in the comment below!

5. Distribute your anchor text in the right proportions

Some may have overlooked this important practice; the distributions of your anchor text should be proportionate. 

It’s hard to tell the ideal distribution of an anchor text, but it is best to avoid overstuffing with exact match and partial-match keywords on your content. You can rely on branded and website name anchor texts as it is allowed by the search engines.

Check out the top-performing website anchor text distributions in your niche or industry. Explore and discover their distribution percentages of the different types of anchors to get a good idea of what they have been practicing to gain the top ranking. 

6. Don’t over-optimize

Everything has its own limit. Avoid overstuffing with exact match keywords because it may result in penalties. Using the same keyword too many times does not bring any good to your site. Not just in the eyes of the Google bots, but also readers. 

In short, keep your anchor text natural and spread it across your site in an appropriate proportion.

7. Track your hard work

Tracking your anchor texts is a must. Track the percentages of all kinds of anchor text. It is to make sure that you are not over-using certain keyword anchors for one particular web page. 

Failing to do so means you will risk falling into the “over-optimized” category. Also, you don’t want to let your hard work go to waste.

You can easily get this done by using BiQ’s Link Intelligence. 

Tracking your anchor text would help you to follow a systematic process and avoid overusing keywords that are already used.

Types of anchor text

As a matter of fact, there are different types of anchor text you can use. 

Here are the six common types of anchor text that you may have noticed on different websites:

 The six common types of anchor text.

1. Exact match anchors

Exact match anchor text includes the exact keyword or phrase that you are targeting. The exact match would be exactly the keyword that you want to rank for on the search engine result page. It is without any keyword variations or diversification.

Example: BiQ’s Link Intelligence helps you to manage your anchor text distribution.

If “link intelligence” is my target keyword, then my exact match anchor text would be “link intelligence”.

Exact match anchors are known to have the power to increase your rankings. At the same time, it also has the power to get your site penalized by Google. This is because using the same exact keyword excessively leads to keyword stuffing.

2. Partial match anchors

Partial match anchor text includes your target keyword with some variation. It has all the keywords of your target keyword but is not an exact phrase.

Example: BiQ’s latest Link Intelligence helps you to manage your anchor text distribution.

The keyword variation for the anchor text above is “latest”. Using keyword variations is a more organic alternative to using the same keyword repeatedly on a page.

3. Branded anchors

Branded anchor text contains your business’s brand name and it is unrelated to your target keyword. 

Example: BiQ’s Link Intelligence helps you to manage your anchor text distribution.

“BiQ” is a branded anchor text as it is the name of an SEO Suite. Branded anchors are the safest type of anchor text. 

4. Naked link anchors

Naked link anchor text means the URL itself is being used as the anchor. 

Example: BiQ’s Link Intelligence (https://biq.cloud/closed-beta-invite/) helps you to manage your anchor text distribution.

The link is described as “naked” because you can see the whole URL being displayed as its own text.

5. Generic anchors

Generic anchor text is the common anchor that you see everywhere. It is completely unrelated to the link that you’re linking to. 

Example: Click here to see how BiQ’s Link Intelligence can help you to manage your anchor text distribution.

Generic anchor text uses non-specific keywords or phrases like “learn more”, “click now”, “more info”,” read here”, or “click this button”. It encourages the readers to click but may not be able to tell them what the content of the referred link would be about. 

This may hurt the user experience if the content of the referred link is not able to deliver what the user wants. 

By adding a short description before using the generic anchor text would help the user to know what to expect before clicking the anchor text. 

6. Image anchors

There isn’t any actual anchor text for images but there’s what we call an alt tag. The alt tag is a description of what the image is about.

Example: <a href=”https://biq.cloud/closed-beta-invite/”><img src=”/linkintelligence.png” alt=”BiQ’s Link Intelligence”/></a>

It’s obvious that search engines cannot interpret images. Because of that, alt tag plays an important role by telling search engines what the image is about.  Alt tag should be kept short to maximize its impact. 

One thing to take note: Don’t excessively use the same alt tag as this will lead to keyword stuffing. Again, the search engines disfavor such strategy. 

Conclusion

In 2020, anchor text still has a big impact on SEO, but the game has changed. To make it work effectively, keep your anchor text natural. Make sure it is not over-optimized and maintains a good proportion of keywords to help boost your ranking. 

You can’t really control who links to your site and the anchor text they use to link you. So try your shot at internal linking. 

The best part about internal linking is you can control the anchor text used within your site. With this in mind, I would suggest you to use the anchor text best practices to govern how to best use anchor text within your own website. When done right, anchored links will help to enhance user experience on your website. 

Can you see how anchor text strategy applies to your SEO strategy in 2020?

Try them out and let me know in the comments below if you have done so!

I hope you have a great year ahead!

If you’re looking for an SEO strategy that can quickly boost your website ranking position, you are in the right place. 

Today, we will discuss the most overlooked SEO tactic; internal linking. 

You’ve probably heard about internal linking a lot, but have you really gotten deep into the topic and implemented the strategies in your search optimization? Chances are you’ve been doing them all these while, but may not get the chance to explore how it can really help your SEO. 

In this blog post, we will look into these fundamentals about internal linking:

• What are internal links?
• Why should you invest in better internal linking?
• What is an ideal internal link structure?
• How to find which content you should link to?
• Top Internal Linking Mistakes That You Probably Have Done Before
• Conclusion: It doesn’t cost you anything.

Let’s dive in!

What are internal links?

In short, internal links are links that connect your web pages to one another in the same domain. 

Before we go further, let’s look into what is site structure and how it is related to internal link. The site structure is bound to internal links because the search engines use internal links to find your pages and determine how it is related to one another. 

Internal links function as a personal tour guide to the search engine crawlers. They give these crawlers an idea of your website structure to the search engine; which to enter and not. Other than that, they show the hierarchy on your site, allowing search engines to know which pages are most important and has more value than the rest. 

Internal linking may appear difficult, but you will learn that it is actually very simple once you read until the end of this post.

Internal links vs External links

Some of you may be asking, what is the difference between internal and external links?

An internal link only links to pages in the same domain, while an external link points to an entirely separate domain.

External links may be links from your website to another website to provide additional information for your readers. They serve as a great benefit for your readers because they can easily find more resources from your content.

With that being said, it does not mean you should stop doing external linking. Linking to trustworthy and informative materials will help improve the credibility of your website, whereas adding poor materials will indefinitely hurt your site.

Why should you invest in better internal linking?

Let’s take a look at the four benefits you will be getting by doing strategic internal linking. 

1. Internal linking helps Google to discover your new content

Just finished writing new content? Hooray!

It’s time to let the search engine know about the good news… but how are you going to do it? 

Here’s what Google says: 

“Google must constantly search for new pages and add them to its list of known pages. Some pages are known because Google has already crawled them before. Other pages are discovered when Google follows a link from a known page to a new page.”

Yes, you have gotten the answer there! Link from a page that is already indexed to your new content.

2. Internal linking helps search engines to understand the structure of your website

A proper internal linking tells search engines how different pages interact with one another and which pages are truly important. 

Site structure helps search crawlers navigate and understand your website easily. For example, the more internal links you point to a page, the more important search engine bots will think that page is. 

The goal is to make it easy for search crawlers to understand your website by letting them be aware of which pages are most important and should be shown in the search results. 

3. Internal linking helps users navigate the website 

Again, think of internal link as your personal tour guide. It functions to guide or navigate you from one place to another, not just the search engines but also us,humans. 

Visitors will appreciate it when you can bring them to pages that are relevant to their interest. For example, while reading this article about remedies for a sore throat, it also mentioned about gargling with salt water to soothe a scratchy throat. Since I would like to know what “scratchy throat” meant, I proceeded to click on the link, and it’ll lead me to a page that explains further about the topic. 

Tip: Create the linking path depending on what is the next step you would like to see your visitors do.

The benefits visitors are getting here are the same as what they’d get from a guided tour; clear direction and guidance on what to do and where to go next.

4. Internal linking prompt visitors to act as calls to action

What is the ultimate reason you want someone to visit your website? Once you’ve identified the answer to this question, use internal linking to do exactly what it is that you want them to do. 

Let’s look at this example by Marketersmedia. They have this article explaining “how MarketersMedia works?”. If you scroll until the bottom, you will see a link that will prompt you to learn more about their starter pack by clicking on the internal link. 

5. Internal linking improves time on site

Have you ever find yourself reading various content in a single website for more than 30 minutes? To be honest, I have done that before! 

Linking to related posts can easily help to increase visitors’ time on your website and lower bounce rate. Visitors are more willing to stay on your website longer as long as you are giving them real value.

Just take a look at this blog post by Aileen:

Travelers who are planning to travel to India may find this post helpful because it includes some links that are helpful to them. 

What’s better? It is all linking to the same domain. It is the same feeling as reading a book that has all the information you need in one place.

What is an ideal internal link structure?

Now you know the benefits of using internal links. Next, let’s look into what you can do to make an ideal internal link structure for your visitors and search engines. 

Include keywords in your anchor text

Anchor text is where the link is added. Basically, it is a short description of the linked page. Don’t just limit yourself to using primary keywords, but also secondary, tertiary, or any related search terms. 

Take note: if there are too many of a site’s links containing the exact same anchor text, it may be a sign that the links are not acquired naturally and Google will start to see them as suspicious. 

Focus on link relevance

Before you decide on which pages to link, look at the type of content those pages focus on. Only link them to one another if the two are directly related. 

Links that point to content related to the topic of the source page are likely to send stronger relevancy signals. This ranking signal itself plays a vital role in the SERPs ranking. 

Link useful content to visitors

Readers love content that provides value to their daily life. What benefits the readers, favor search engines. Therefore, you may want to think carefully before you link to the content. Be in their shoes and only link pages that provide real value to the reader.

Tip: Understand your buyer’s journey to decide what type of content matches with their intent. 

Maintain a reasonable number of links on each page. 

Google Webmaster Guidelines recommends everyone to limit the number of links to a reasonable number. But the thing is, nobody knows what exactly is the “reasonable” number that we should be using.  

Well, there is no magic number to how many links you should use but keep in mind that if you were to point to the same destination multiple times on the same page, priority will be given to the first anchor text. 

Don’t orphan pages

Search engines may find their way to find orphan pages, but users can’t. Users can’t possibly find them as there is no single link found on the entire website. 

Orphan pages are bad for your SEO. So, make sure every important page is linked or you may even choose to delete or block them from indexation.

How to find which content you should link to?

If you have just 10 articles published on the internet, it may sound easy to decide which pages you should link to. But imagine if you have over 500 or 1,000 content published up until today. Which content should you be linking to?

Let’s start with the free method; using the search engines. 

Type in [site:yourwebsite.com “keyword”] on the search box. You will see a list of web pages from your entire website that includes all the keywords you are targeting.

Replace the URL with your website and include your target keyword in quotes. These are the pages that contain the exact phrase you are searching for on your website. 

Basically, Google will show you the strongest page on a topic you’ve searched at the top of the search results. Try them out when you want to find which existing content you should link to your new content. 

Let me know if you have tried them out in the comments below!

Top Internal Linking Mistakes That You Probably Have Done Before

Starting off not knowing anything, I made some of these mistakes before and I wish I could turn back time and fix them. The good news is you do not need to go back to how I’ve gone through in the past and fix them now because it is all within your control. 

As quoted by Susan C. Young, “You are the author of your own life story”. It applies to internal linking too: You are the author of your internal linking!

Go through the list below and check if you are doing any of the top internal linking mistakes. I hope you’re ready to see your site rank high after learning what you shouldn’t be doing and implementing them. 

Let’s start!

1. Linking to irrelevant pages

When you link your content, you are telling both search engines and users that the content you are linking is worthy and the most relevant. 

Let’s say you run a website about cooking classes. You’ve got a blog post about “why you should take a cooking class”, and another blog post about “best cooking oil”. Should you link the two pages? Probably not because these topics are not anywhere relevant. 

Instead, you could link the blog about “why you should take a cooking class” to a post about the benefits of home-cooked meals or frequently asked questions about the cooking class. The relevance between those content would be much higher than the previous example. 

2. Adding too many links in your content

It is not about the number, but the quality of the link. Just imagine seeing many links in your content like this:

If we were to think from the visitor’s point of view, what do you think of the example above? Chances are you will feel confused or even annoyed with the plethora of links presented. Always remember to focus on giving real value to your visitors rather than simply adding links in your content. 

3. Linking to same pages

This is another mistake that you’d want to avoid when doing your internal linking strategy. Using different anchor texts pointing to the same pages may look tempting in your effort to rank that page, but it does not work that way.

Although search engines will crawl every link they come across, they will only evaluate the first anchor text. The best practice is to have just a single internal link pointing to a single destination. 

4. Overly using same anchor text

As we know it, anchor text is the signals Google uses to determine what a web page is about. However, we should not over-optimize an anchor text. For example, if you want a page to rank for “digital marketing” and you internal link 100 times to that page with the same anchor text, doesn’t it look spammy?

Instead of using the same exact anchor text, look into semantic or related keywords to the keywords that you want to rank. Use them to give more meaning to the keyword that you want to rank without being labeled as spam.

5. Broken internal links

Isn’t it frustrating when you see a “sorry, page not found” message? Now imagine this happening to people who visit your website. They’ll most likely hit the back button, and it’s worse if they choose to close the tab. This means you’ve just lost a potential customer.

Broken links affect not just your website conversion but also the user’s experience on your website, your reputation, and your SEO efforts. Of course, this can be avoided if and only if you conduct site audit regularly to check for any broken links and fix them instantly. 

6. Links are not visible to the user

Still remember what internal linking can do? It can prompt your visitors to take action. But if the links are not visible to the visitors, how are you going to convince them to click it anyway? Visitors need to know which areas of the page are plain static content, and which areas are clickable.

Another reason why you should make the link visible is – Hubspot found that the anchor text call-to-actions increased conversion rate by 121%. Want to increase conversion on your website? Make sure your internal link is visible.

In fact, it can be as simple as marking your internal links in color or underline them. Visitors will thank you later.

To sum it up, here are the top 6 internal linking mistakes that you should be avoiding:

1. Linking to irrelevant pages
2. Adding too many links in your content
3. Linking to same pages
4. Overly using the same anchor text
5. Broken internal links
6. Links are not visible to the user

Conclusion: It doesn’t cost you anything

Internal link may not earn you link equity-like external links do, but they’re essential for directing traffic to your pages that attract fewer links or need a boost in the SERPs.

It is a strong signal to both the search engine and visitors that the content you’re linking to is really good and that they should check them out. With this, you are not just helping the readers by giving good content recommendations but also helping in your SEO.

The best part – unlike other SEO strategies, internal link is something you can control. Moreover, it is not too complicated or difficult to execute. 

With the power you have in your hand, it’s your turn to breakthrough! Go back to your content, and identify the linking opportunity that lies ahead of you.

In my past blog posts, I have shared with you some of Google’s elements, tools, and features. They include Google’s Featured Snippet, Google Trends, and Google Autocomplete.

Today, we will go deeper into details about Google Autocomplete.

What Is Google Autocomplete?

Do you see the words in bold? They’re called autocomplete.

Google Autocomplete is a feature you experience within Google Search on both desktop and mobile. It allows users to perform very quick searches.

How? As the name suggests, it tries to complete your intended search query automatically, as you write.

Are Autocompletes prediction or suggestions?

Google calls these autocomplete as “predictions” rather than “suggestions”. Yes, there’s a difference.

A prediction is a forecast; something that is likely to happen. On the other hand, a suggestion is just a recommendation, something that users’ may not intend to look into but will consider.

As soon as users type in something in the search bar, they usually have something in mind already. That is why it is more appropriate to call them predictions rather than suggestions.

The Google Search predictions change whenever a new character is being entered in Search. For instance, the image above shows autocompletes for “how”. When I type in “d” after “how”, the predictions change.

This feature is so helpful that it has been introduced in various other platforms. To name a few, they are Quora, YouTube, and Wikipedia.

How does Google determine these predictions?

Let us all hear from Google on this;

We look at the real searches that happen on Google and show common and trending ones relevant to the characters that are entered and also related to your location and previous searches.

Danny Sullivan, 2018

How Autocomplete Improves Your SEO

Not many webmasters utilize the autocomplete feature. Well, not effectively. Believe it or not, Autocomplete can actually improve your SEO.

Improving your SEO means putting more effort into making your website better so that it is ranked higher in the search engine.

SEO activities include optimizing your site for mobile, creating helpful content, and getting backlinks.

Today, I will share with you 3 things you can do with Google Autocomplete that will help you rank.

1. Keyword Research

Keyword research is part of SEO. Keyword research is done to find out what topics people really care about now.

It is important to rank for the “right” keyword. The one that will help you increase the quality and quantity of website traffic.

How you can use Autocomplete to perform keyword research is simply type in a short-tail keyword in the search bar and you will see long-tail keywords in the dropdown list.

Long-tail keywords are keywords that are specific. They gain lesser traffic because they’re more targeted.

However, most webmasters go for long-tail keywords because users who look it up are very likely to take action. They are relatively easier to rank too.

Let me share with you a simple trick you can use for keyword research when using Autocomplete.

1.1 Long-Tail Keyword Research Trick using Autocomplete.

Some of you may know about this already. But I believe this will be helpful for those who do not know it.

Unconsciously, we’re only using autocomplete to complete the end of a search query. For instance, “chocolate cake” then you’ll see predictions such as “chocolate cake recipe”, “chocolate cake shot”, “chocolate cake shake”.

Now, those predictions are long-tail keywords but you can get more out of it. Now, click in between the two words and hit ‘space bar’. You will then see predictions of words in between the two words.

And last but not least, you can also do the same at the very front. Put your cursor on the first letter, click it and hit ‘space bar’. You will be given predictions of words in front of your search term.

Look at the amount of good long-tail keywords you can get from Google Autocomplete! Instead of a blog titled “How to make a chocolate cake”, you can go for “How to make vegan chocolate fudge cake”.

From Google Autocomplete, you’re getting loads of keywords you can use for your content. Although not many, people who actually search that long-tail keyword of yours will very likely stay on your page and read.

Tips: Consider using a keyword research tool like LSIGraph to check the trends, monthly search volume, cost per click, and competition of the keyword.

2. Content Idea

Now that you’ve got the right keyword, it is time to create helpful and relevant content for the users. The keyword research you’ve done has given you a list of keywords you can use to create content.

Make a search on the keyword you want to write about. You will then be returned with a list of websites ranking for that keyword. Click on pages that entice you and learn a thing or two from them.

Take note of the way they present information, the length of the article, and who they link to.

It’s always good to get ideas and broaden your perspectives in order to craft a better article.

3. Competitor Analysis

The autocomplete feature has given you many new long-tail keyword ideas. Keywords that are relevant to your initial keyword. Now, you can see all kinds of potential keywords you can rank for.

Take a look at the websites that are ranking for all of them. Take note of the keywords they use.

Enter the keyword you have chosen on the search bar and compare your page with the top 10 results. Then, analyze and identify common keywords all 10 of your competitors are using.

Consider using WordGraph, a tool that helps you to do exactly these. With the results WordGraph generate, you can either choose to include the keywords in your content as well or do keyword research and use words that would perform better.

Showing up for Google Autocomplete

Wouldn’t it be great if your business showed up in Autocomplete as people type in a keyword?

For instance, an amateur chef has just discovered “XO sauce”. He went to look for more information about it on the search engine.

Now, I want you to see the differences and the impact of having your brand in autocomplete.

Result for “XO Sauce”:

Now, if the users decide to click on the autocomplete, here’s the result for “XO Sauce Lee Kum Kee”:

See? The chef may not have heard of Lee Kum Kee before or maybe heard of it but never had the time to look it up. Now, the chef knows a lot about Lee Kum Kee.

To sum up, having your name in the autocomplete helps you to stand out from the rest and increases traffic, just like how Lee Kum Kee stands out from other brands that sell XO sauces.

How to Influence Google Autocomplete

As mentioned above, how Google determines what to show in autocomplete is based on a few factors. To keep you refreshed, I will put them in a list form. Search predictions come from:

1. The characters you type in the search bar
2. Relevant searches you’ve done in the past
3. Searches that are trending and popular in your area

So, it seems like there is actually a way to influence Google Autocomplete. The ultimate goal here is to have your brand show up in autocomplete.

The Big Question: HOW?

Let’s focus on #3. What we can derive from this is “the higher the popularity or search volume, the higher the possibility of appearing in autocomplete.”

It does not necessarily need to be keywords that have long-term popularity. Google algorithm also considers keywords that have a sudden spike in terms of popularity.

Do we agree on this?

So, here’s the real question you need to ask yourself.

How can you increase the popularity and search volume of your name?

There are many many ways you can work this out. I’ll share with you some of the general methods most businesses are using now.

Providing good customer service goes a long way. When your customer is satisfied and content, they will talk about you to all their friends. What will probably happen next is that their friends look you up on the search engine.

Next, invest some time in building a social media presence as well as promotion. With social media, you’ll be able to reach a huge number of people. There isn’t really a limit to it.

As people discover your presence on social media, if they like you, they may look you up on the search engine to get more information. Again, you’re getting users to type in your name in the search engine.

Now, here’s one method I’ve observed that’s becoming popular among businesses. Using press release distribution services.

The number of press release services continues to rise over time. These services help distribute their clients’ press releases to thousands of end-points which include media outlets, newsdesk, and authoritative sites.

These end-points have a large viewership each. Once again, people who come across your press release on these endpoints will search you up on the search engine.

All in all, if your keyword is appropriate and as long as you’re making people type in your name in the search bar, it will likely appear in the autocomplete.

Important Note: More Accurate Results

In order to get the most accurate result, you need to either:

1. Sign out of your account
2. Use Incognito mode
3. Turn Web & App Activity off

Here’s a little guidance on #3.

1. Visit Google Search Help.
2. Click on ‘See & control your Web & App Activity’.
3. Click on Anchor link “Activity controls”.

Lastly, pause Web & App Activity.

That’s it!

You’re probably wondering why you need to turn this off. Well, if you leave it on, it will save your activity on Google sites and apps.

Then, it will give you faster searches and better recommendations based on your activity and not the users.

Conclusion

All in all, Google Autocomplete benefits both users and webmasters.

From the users’ standpoint, users save their time when autocomplete predicts correctly the users’ intended search query. Besides that, users are also able to broaden their horizons with the feature.

From the webmasters’ standpoint, webmasters get long-tail keyword ideas, content ideas as well as the ability to perform competitor analysis.

Me, personally, I use it to reap the benefits of both users and webmasters. I also use it for entertainment purposes.

How?

I would type in a few characters and words, and then Google will return me with some hilarious queries searched by other users. Here’s an example:

I searched “Sometimes I like to cover myself” and look at what’s in the dropdown. Apparently, “blanket” is not in the dropdown.

It is pretty interesting that people actually look these up in the search engine. My favorite for this query has got to be “Sometimes I like to cover myself in dirt and pretend I’m a carrot.”

We’ve reached the end of this article. I hope you’ve learned a few things here today. Have you ever come across a hilarious Google autocomplete? If you have, feel free to share some laughs at the comment section down below.

Google is constantly doing their best to provide the best user experience possible. Every action they take is aimed to enhance the users’ life. 

One of Google’s initiative to provide a great search experience is the introduction of the featured snippet. Let’s get to know about Google’s featured snippets better. Here are 8 things you need to know today. 

1. What is a Featured Snippet?

Perhaps some of you do not know what this is called, but you’ve definitely seen this block before on the search engine result page (SERP).

It is a snippet chosen to be featured by Google when it thinks the page and content are most relevant and helpful to the users’ search query.

A featured snippet is also known as “Position 0” because it ranks highest among all snippets, including the Top 1 organic result.

2. Featured Snippet, Rich Snippet, and Knowledge Panel

The second thing you need to know today is that featured snippet, rich snippet and knowledge panel are three (3) different things.

I’ve already explained what a featured snippet is above. So let’s move to “Rich Snippet”.

Rich Snippet

A rich snippet is a regular snippet in the SERP with additional details displayed such as ratings, reviews, events’ date and so on.

Rich snippets are more attractive than normal snippets because they have more details. In case you would like to know, the details in rich snippets are obtained from structured markup.

Here’s an example of two rich snippets and a regular snippet between them:

Knowledge Panel

Now, let’s move on to Google’s Knowledge Panel. It is the panel we usually see on the right side of the SERP. Some people actually mistake it as a featured snippet.

The function of the Knowledge Panel is to provide brief information about entities like organizations and people. The information may include “nice-to-know” facts, social profiles, and age.

The information from the knowledge panel is obtained from Google’s knowledge base, called the Knowledge Graph. It provides Google with information gathered from a variety of sources on the Internet.

Wikipedia is one of the top sources Google obtains information from. There are things you can do to get a Google Knowledge Panel such as getting a Wikipedia page and using schema markup to tag your website elements.

Here’s an example of a Google Knowledge Panel:

3. Types of Featured Snippet

Now that’s explained, let’s move to the types of featured snippet there is and I’ll also provide you some tips for each of them. There are 4 types of featured snippets. They are as follows:

i. Paragraph

Paragraph snippet is one of the most common snippets users see. It shows up for a lot for “question-based” queries such as queries that include “how, what, where and when”. It also shows up for definition and comparison queries.

Google will pick the best content and feature the part of the content which answers the query. In a paragraph form. Here’s an example:

Tips: Have a straight-forward answer in your content so Google can extract it and present it to the users.

ii. List Snippets (Ordered and Unordered)

The second most popular snippet is the list snippet. There are two types of list snippets. The ordered, which has numbers in them and unordered, which has bullet points in them.

The list snippet is popular among step-by-step and checklists queries. If applicable, turn your content points into a list. Specify whether it is an ordered or unordered list.

Tips: Using tags like h2 and h3 lets Google understand your content better. Google may use the tags to create a list and put them on the featured snippet.

iii. Video Snippets

Video snippets do not appear as frequently as the two types of snippets mentioned above. However, I feel that the video snippets are pretty helpful too if users actually have time to spare to watch the video.

The good thing about this snippet is it suggests you and skips to the part of the video that answers your query. How cool! Here’s an example of video snippets in case you haven’t see one before:

Tips: As mentioned, video snippets are pretty rare. Short-tail queries are usually answered in paragraph forms. Try using long-tail keywords for your video.

iv. Table Snippets

Table snippets do not appear often as well for search queries. Maybe it’s because not many websites have tables in their content. Maybe.

Here’s an example of a table snippet:

Tips: To increase the chances of having your snippet featured, add a table, if applicable. If you’re comparing several products, the table makes it easy for the users to analyze and compare. The users and search engines will appreciate it. Now, you have two things Google may feature.

There you have it, the 4 types of featured snippets. These are the 4 elements you may want to consider including in your content.

4. The Featured Snippet Is Regularly Updated

Google updates and tweaks its featured snippet regularly. This year itself, there are at least 2 big upgrades. With this, it is safe to say that the featured snippet is here to stay.

It will continue driving traffic to whichever page is in Position 0. So, start optimizing your content to rank in position 0. I will share with you the steps you can take in “8 – How to Increase Your Chances Of Getting Featured”.

For now, let’s take a look at some of the changes made this year.

i. Algorithm Update

Google updated its algorithm this year, hoping it improves its systems’ understanding of what information remains useful over time and vice versa.

Google acknowledges that the featured snippet has been showing out-of-date content in the past. Here’s an example as seen on Search Engine Roundtable:

Before Algorithm Update:

After Algorithm Update:

The algorithm update has indeed done a great job of providing fresher and relevant content in the featured snippet for queries where timeliness is a concern. If you noticed, the two contents are 4 years apart.

In the span of 4 years, lots of new models and brands have existed. There were definitely better and newer phones for photography. The content before the algorithm update was just not helpful at all. Let’s be thankful for this algorithm update.

ii. Featured Snippets Anchor and Highlights

Featured snippets anchor and highlights were first introduced in late 2018. However, back then, it only worked for mobile and if it is an AMP page.

It is a pretty cool feature. Since the mobile screen is way smaller, the page would be much longer as compared to the desktop version. The anchor and highlights feature will automatically bring users to that part of the content on the featured snippet. Take a look at it below:

At the time of writing, August 2019, Google confirmed that they are testing the anchor and highlight feature for the desktop version.

If you noticed, Google featured every word in that paragraph on the featured snippet. Perhaps, having a straight-forward answer in your content will increase your chance of getting featured.

5. How Google chooses content to be featured

Let’s hear from Google on this:

Featured snippets come from web search listings. Our automated systems look at the web listings and determine if it would be useful to highlight one of them. They are especially likely to appear for searches that are phrased in the form of a question.

Google Search Help

Basically, Google’s systems determine whether a page is helpful for a user’s search request. And, it also means that as long as you have a snippet, you stand a chance to be chosen to be featured.

What you need to focus on is providing helpful content. Now, let’s get into the benefits of having a featured snippet.

6. Benefits of Having a Featured Snippet

Having a featured snippet will most likely change the fate of your website, positively.

i. Increase in Click-Through Rate and Website Traffic

The very first and most obvious benefit of having a featured snippet is the increase in click-through rate and website traffic.

We all have trusted Google as an information provider. We believe that the first or top 10 content is among the best. Hence, we only click into links on the first page or maybe even just the first result on the page.

With that said, we can agree that position 0 definitely increases a website’s click-through rate and what comes with click-through rate is traffic.

If the featured snippet answers the question of the users, the first organic result may not even get clicks. The higher you rank on the SERP, including position 0, the higher the click-through rate and website traffic you’ll get.

ii. Increase in Brand Awareness

Another benefit of the featured snippet is increase in brand awareness. The featured snippet increases your visibility significantly. It is the first thing users see upon their search.

This is especially true for users on mobile. The featured snippet takes up the whole screen upon the users’ search. Take a look at how the featured snippet looks like on mobile:

Wouldn’t it be good to have your brand and content be the first thing users see? Also, if you noticed from the images above, there are at least 11 million results and it can go as high as 3 billion results. Being in the featured snippet is a pretty big deal.

iii. Increase Website Authority

I’ve mentioned earlier that all of us, if not most, have put our trust in Google. We believe that Google only gives us the best experience possible.

Webmasters do not have the option to mark their page as a featured snippet. Google’s systems make the decision. With that said, if your content is featured, users will see you as an authority and a trusted expert.

Once your content has been featured, you can expect an increase in traffic from time to time. People who are satisfied with your content will definitely come back to you for more answers.

7. Chances of Getting a Featured Snippet

You cannot mark your page as a featured snippet, but you can increase your chances of getting one. Here are the things you can do.

i. Source content ideas online

The featured snippets are on the SERP for only one purpose. To provide answers to users’ queries as quickly and accurately as possible.

So, the best thing to do is to browse the Internet and find out what questions people are asking. Let me share with you some tools you can use to get content ideas.

Google

Yes, Google. Almost all of us look for answers on Google. The search engine has the Autocomplete feature itself. You only need to type in a few keywords and you will be able to see search queries that are popular and relevant. The autocomplete is in bold:

AnswerThePublic, Quora, and QuestionDB

Besides the autocomplete, you can also use tools like AnswerThePublic, Quora and, QuestionDB (sources questions people asked on Reddit). They give you long-tail keywords and questions people are asking.

The good thing about Quora is that you’ll get to understand the thoughts of others on that particular topic or question. You may just learn something new.

ii. Keyword Research

Similar to sourcing content ideas online, keyword research tools like LSIGraph, give you hundreds of other phrases and terms you can use to rank.

Generally, LSI keywords add context to your content. But, they also help in this case. These tools generate closely related keywords to your keyword.

Then, you can use keywords that you find will be easy to get a featured snippet or keywords that do not have a featured snippet yet.

Here’s an example:

Initially, I wanted to get a featured snippet or rank for “how to run faster”.

But, there already is a featured snippet by Wikihow. It is a good website that provides lots of information so it may be a little difficult to replace them.

A quick search using a keyword tool, LSIGraph, gives me closely related keywords I can target to get a featured snippet.

It also tells me the volume of the keyword, which is how many people search for the keyword a month. Here’s the result:

Websites do not need to focus on the keyword “how to run faster” only, they can also find other keywords that are searched by users and get ranked for that.

If you can’t seem to get a featured snippet or rank for one keyword, considering its LSI keywords would be a great idea!

Editor’s note: I have written about free and freemium keyword research tools in my last blog post. Read it here: 13 Best Free Keyword Research Tools.

iii. Update Your Content

It’s always a good idea to keep your content up-to-date. Especially when timeliness matters.

Google had a new algorithm update that helps it’s systems to understand the content that remains useful over time and what becomes out-of-date more quickly.

Always revisit your content and see if there are any broken links and information that are outdated. Always update your content if you want Google and the users to like you.

iv. Have an FAQ page

Consider having an FAQ page. An FAQ page is a page that contains a list of frequently asked questions.

Many question-based queries have a featured snippet. Having an FAQ page definitely increases your chance of getting a featured snippet as it answers questions people may ask.

v. Provide a straight-forward answer

The featured snippet shows approximately 56 words. If you remember the tip mentioned in 4 (ii), I highlighted that Google does extract every word in a paragraph to be featured.

Having one or two sentences that answer the question straightforwardly makes things easier for Google’s systems. It can also be in a list or table form.

vi. Use header tags

Header tags like <h2> and <h3> are used to make content clearer and easier for users to read. It also helps search engine crawlers to understand your content better and faster.

Search engines will actually treat them the text in headings as points of your content and may feature them in a list, ordered or unordered.

8. Opting-out of Featured Snippet

For whatever reason, if you do not want your content to be featured, you can actually opt-out of it.

All you need to do is add the <meta name=”robots” content=”nosnippet”> tag on your page.

However, while adding the tag will prevent your content from being featured in position 0, it also removes your regular snippet in the SERP. Meaning, that particular page with that tag will not appear on the SERP at all for any queries.

Conclusion

It is clear to us that getting featured in Position 0 definitely has great benefits for your website. You gain brand awareness, traffic, and authority.

Google does not let webmasters mark their page as a featured snippet, but webmasters may increase their chances of getting featured on Google’s featured snippet.

All webmasters really need to do is create value and great experiences for their readers, as well as ensure that the content can be easily read by the search engine crawlers.

It is a fundamental rule for every webmaster. Though it isn’t entirely easy, hard work and persistence will pay off.

I hope that this blog post has helped you to understand Google’s Featured Snippet better today! Share with me your thoughts on this and let’s discuss further in the comment section down below!

Looking to get your website appearing on Google’s featured snippet and attract tons of traffic? 

You’ve come to the right place!

The “trick” is to know what and how you are getting them.

In fact, featured snippets are nothing new. It has been around since 2013 and we have witnessed tremendous growth of its appearance over the years. 

Looking at the growth and popularity of this topic, I’ve decided to share with you on how you can get your sites featured. 

Allow me to give you a heads up on today’s topic. In this post, we will be covering:

• What is a Google featured snippet
• What are the four types of featured snippets
• Why should you  care about featured snippets
• How can you mark your page as a featured snippet
• How to find featured snippet opportunities
• 8 Optimization Tips for ranking in Google’s featured snippets

What is a Google featured snippet?

The featured snippet or Google snippet is actually pretty simple to understand. It is a summary of an answer to the user’s query. It is also known as position zero because it is placed right on top of the first ranking website.

According to Google,

“We display featured snippets when our systems determine this format will help people more easily discover what they’re seeking, both from the description about the page and when they click on the link to read the page itself. They’re especially helpful for those on mobile or searching by voice.”

Google

The primary objective has always been the same, that is to help searchers in getting what they want when they are performing any searches. But it’s worth noting that not every search result has a snippet. 

If you’ve not noticed before, there are actually a few types of featured snippets in the search results. Let’s look into them below.

What are the four types of featured snippets?

Here are the four primary ‘types’ of featured snippets:

1. Paragraph

Paragraph or text featured snippets are the most common snippets that you will stumble upon in the search results. According to Getstat, the most popular featured snippets are paragraph snippets as it takes up around 81.95% of the total snippet.

This is because they provide a direct answer to a user’s query. This snippet usually shows a paragraph type-answers to questions like how, who, why, when, and what. 

An example of the paragraph featured snippet:

2. Lists (numbered, bullet points)

The list featured snippets come in 2 types: numbers and bullets

The numbered featured snippets appear when the searchers are looking for a set of steps to complete a certain task. While the bulleted snippets show a compressed view of the content in a list where the order doesn’t really matter. 

Example of the list featured snippet:

3. Tables

The table featured snippets show structured content in an easy to understand format. It is often used for comparison purposes. Google will reformat the data found on the website into what it thinks is the most useful for the searchers. 

Example of the table featured snippet:

4. Video

Other than text snippets, Google may also feature video snippets from Youtube. It pulls in relevant videos that they think are likely to best answer the user’s query.

Example of the video featured snippet:

Now that we understand the four types of featured snippets, let’s talk about why you should care about featured snippets in 2019 and beyond. 

Why should you care about featured snippets?

1. High click-through rate (CTR)

Getting your website displayed on position zero of the result page is the same as being featured on the Forbes’ front page. You’ll get the fame that you deserve for being featured; you’ll get more clicks too.

As found by Hubspot, content with a featured snippet has a 2x higher CTR in search results than content that is not shown in a featured snippet. This is generally true as your website gets the chance to appear twice on the first page.

2. Increase in organic traffic

No matter what business you are in, when you have a website, it means you want website traffic. And Google featured snippets will help you achieve that without a doubt. 

SEOPressor saw an increase of 200% in traffic after their articles got featured on snippets. 

This traffic usually comprises of those who are interested in your content. Giving them the content that will be able to answer their questions will make them stay on your website.  

3. Increase in conversions

Now, if you can increase your CTR by 2x then your conversion rate will also follow by a 50% increment. 

More clicks simply mean more chances of your website in convincing more people to convert into your customers, provided that your website is able to get people to do certain actions. Since we’re talking about this, feel free to check out this blog on how to map keywords to your buyer’s journey.

4. Increase brand awareness

Being featured on Google’s snippet helps to boost your brand awareness. More people will see your website and this automatically gives an impression that you are the most credible source of information for the users’ searches. 

Indirectly, they will view that your content is the most authoritative and trustworthy in your niche. 

How can you mark your page as a featured snippet?

The short answer is you can’t just simply wish for it to happen. 

It is up to Google’s systems to determine whether your page would make a good featured snippet for a user’s search queries. If it does, then it will be elevated. 

But, the good news is you can work out some optimization on your page to get chosen for featured snippets.

How can you find featured snippets opportunities?

Before we go into snippet optimization, we will need to identify whether there are any snippet opportunities found for a particular query.

First, take out a paper and list out all the keywords that are related to your business. 

For example, if your business is about conducting a baking class, keywords that are related to your business could be, “how to bake a cake”, “learn to bake a cake”, or “baking class”. 

Now the important question is this: how do you know if all these keywords have featured snippets? 

Ask Google

The best place to search for featured snippet is from Google because it is where you want your snippet to be featured. I will be sharing with you a few ways on how I used Google to find featured snippet opportunities.

The simplest way is to observe what phrases appear when you type your keyword in the search box. This is known as the Google Autocomplete. You can get a basic idea of what people are searching for once you start typing in a keyword.

When you type “how to bake”, you’ll also get some other keyword suggestions such as “how to bake a cake without eggs”, and “how to bake a cake for beginners”. These are some of the keywords with high intent because it returns with commonly asked questions and searches terms for a given subject. 

Keywords that appear in the suggestion usually will have featured snippet. Let’s pick one of the keywords suggested by Google, “how to bake a cake without eggs” and then type in the search box:

See! It immediately returns results with a featured snippet on “How to Make a Cake Mix Box without Eggs”. When I attempted to select the other keyword, “how to bake a cake for beginners”, it returns with featured snippet too:

Another way to check if there is an existing snippet on the search result using Google is to check out the People Also Ask section:

Let’s take the first question “What are the ingredients used in baking cake?” and put them in the search box:

It returns with featured snippet too! 

The People Also Ask section highlights questions that are closely related to the search topic. It lays out the common questions that people ask regarding the topic itself. In other words, Google is basically giving you a free look at what questions they think is deemed relevant or related to a topic. 

So what does that mean? 

All those keywords from Google Autocomplete and People Also Ask are a good place for you to start finding featured snippet opportunities. Select and compile keywords that are relevant to your product or service. Then, create content surrounding the topics and optimize them to rank in Google’s featured snippets. 

Now you know how to find featured snippet opportunities, let’s move on with the optimization part!

8 Optimization Tips For Ranking In Google’s Featured Snippets

Here are 8 useful tips you can use on how to appear in a featured snippet.

Tip 1: Get your content on the first page

95.58% of featured snippet pages already rank in the top 10 SERPs in Google. So if you want to rank in a featured snippet, you must first get your page up on the front page of the Google search result.

If your content is already ranking on the first page, you may continue with the rest of the snippet optimization. If you’re not, you may want to start with optimizing your content to rank on page one for your target keywords. Check out this post on 13 best free keyword research tools for you to start your keyword optimization. 

You don’t have to be ranking on #1 or #2 to make it to the featured snippet, but ranking in the top five ranks will definitely give you higher chances of being featured in snippets. 

Tip 2: Use words that are likely to generate featured snippets

Upon researching on featured snippets optimization, I came across a study of ‘The Best Words and Themes To Generate Featured Snippets’ by the STAT team.

Their study revealed the top common queries that generate featured snippets which include:

Go through the list and check which words would be effective additions to your titles. 

Tip 3: Create a proper format for your content

A proper format content will make it easier for Google to understand your content type. The easier it is for Google to understand your content, the higher is your chance of being featured in the snippets. 

Depending on which featured snippet you are trying to rank, use the HTML code below:

For Paragraph Featured Snippet

<h2>QUESTION</h2>

<p>ANSWER</p>

</div>

For List Featured Snippet

<h2>QUESTION</h2>

<ol>

<li></li>

<l1></li>

<l1></li>

<l1></li>

</ol>

</div>

Check what type of snippet is being featured for the keywords you are targeting. If Google is pulling a paragraph, create a paragraph structure to increase your chances to get into the featured snippet. 

Tip 4: Add A Question and Answer page on your site

Adding a Q&A page to your site will help Google understand your content easier. 

When creating a Q&A page, list out all the questions that are related to your overall topics. You can get ideas on the questions that people have frequently asked through the People Also Ask section on Google. 

After you have a list of questions that are relevant to your topic, compile them and provide a clear and concise answer in short paragraphs. 

Tip 5: Maintain within the optimal word count

According to SEMrush’s discovery, the most common length of content in featured snippets is between 40-50 words. 

But I noticed that some snippets may have more than 50 words such as in the example below. It’s 63 words to be precise!

Even so, I would strongly recommend that you keep your answers between 40 to 50 words. Keep your answers concise and specific to get higher chances of being featured. 

In any case, it’s not the quantity that matters, but the quality. 

Tip 6: Use high-quality images 

If you noticed, featured snippets often include an image in the snippet box. And the interesting thing about a featured snippet image is that it can come from different websites. 

There’s no way to make sure Google will use the image that you want them to, but it’s a good practice to always use high-quality images for your posts. 

Another best practice for high-quality images is to always put alt text and title for your image. The alt text describes what’s on the image. It helps Google to understand your images better. 

This is a complete HTML image tag for your reference:

<img src=“image.png” alt=“image description” title=“image tooltip”>

Tip 7: Post videos on Youtube

Hubspot analyzed over 160 featured clips and it resulted to these interesting findings:

• 80% of the featured clips contained the exact keyword in their title
• The video length doesn’t matter 
• It’s important to keep your video content updated because the average video age was 4 years and 8 months. 
• Your videos’ Youtube ranking doesn’t affect your chances of being featured. 

We found out that most of the video snippet answers a user’s “how to” question. Choose a video title that is related to such question. Or you can also use the title suggested in Google’s People Also Ask section. 

After selecting the right title for your video, the easiest way to optimize your video is to create a voice transcript for all of your videos. It will be easier for Google to recognize the text. Thus, giving you higher chances for your video to get featured in the snippets. 

Tip 8: Do better than the existing snippet

Once you’ve found a featured snippet opportunity, check how the current website ranks for the snippet. 

When optimizing for a featured snippet, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. Identify the format being used in the snippet and replicate the format to your content. However, you should not simply copy your competitor’s content. 

Spend some time on figuring the searcher’s intent. Give what the searchers want and you are on the right track. You want to give what’s best for Google and also the readers. 

To sum it up, here are the 8 optimization tips you can use now to rank your pages in featured snippets:

• Tip 1: Get your content on the first page
• Tip 2: Use words that are likely to generate featured snippets
• Tip 3: Create a proper format for your content
• Tip 4: Add a Question and Answer page on your site
• Tip 5: Maintain within the optimal word count
• Tip 6: Use high-quality images 
• Tip 7: Post videos on Youtube
• Tip 8: Do better than the existing snippet

Conclusion

Featured snippets aren’t that complicated. 

As we are living in a fast-paced world, we want quick answers to our questions. Google, as the master of user experience, acknowledge the needs and gives what’s best for the searchers; featured snippets. 

While there’s no exact formula to get your website on the featured snippets, the easiest way is to always produce quality content that Google and humans will love. Focus your effort on creating engaging content that answers the user’s query. 

Once you are on the first page of search results, you will have a good chance of snatching that snippet. Use the eight featured snippet tips above and keep optimizing! 

If there is a will, there is a way.

How will you apply this to your own SEO efforts? If you have any queries and additional information to share, please do so in the comments section below! I’ll be more than happy to discuss further on this topic with all of you.