1.
Google Direct Answers
Mark Traphagen | Stone Temple Consulting
@marktraphagen

2.
Google’s mission is to
organize the world’s
web sites and make them
universally accessible and
useful.
Get this deck: stonet.co/googleanswersraleigh

3.
Google’s mission is to
organize the world’s
information
and make it universally
accessible and useful.
Get this deck: stonet.co/googleanswersraleigh

4.
In the beginning…

5.
moz.com/blog/the-incredible-shrinking-
serp

6.
Tabbed results

7.
Table

8.
Sliders

9.
With Knowledge Panel

10.
Form

11.
Chart

12.
Carousel

13.
Image

14.
Related items

15.
Lists

16.
Directly in search suggest!

17.
Spoiler alert result

18.
Slawski: Possible sources
• Tabular data (example: a Wikipedia info box alongside a
Wiki article)
• Relational tables that display related data in tabular
format (such as a list of U.S. Presidents and basic facts
about each)
• Colon-delimited pairs (such as “Check In Time: 3:00 PM;
Check Out Time: 12 Noon” for a hotel)
• Structured snippets
• Knowledge bases
• Query stream data merged with knowledge bases and
web documents (Biperpedia)

19.
stonet.co/RichAnswers

20.
Mostly public domain info

21.
But notable exceptions…

22.
Slawski: Possible sources
• Tabular data (example: a Wikipedia info box alongside a
Wiki article)
• Relational tables that display related data in tabular
format (such as a list of U.S. Presidents and basic facts
about each)
• Colon-delimited pairs (such as “Check In Time: 3:00 PM;
Check Out Time: 12 Noon” for a hotel)
• Structured snippets
• Knowledge bases
• Query stream data merged with knowledge bases and
web documents (Biperpedia)

23.
stonet.co/AnswerBoxTraffic

24.
Definitely NOT

25.
List with linked ellipses

26.
List with more items

27.
Looks like it shouldn’t, but did!

28.
1. Complex topic

29.
2. Brilliant title tag

30.
Megasnippet!

31.
Takeaway 1
Make sure you have clear, natural
language in your articles that
directly answers the most likely
questions about any factual
information.

32.
Takeaway 2
Every direct answer follows a formula. If
you look carefully at the pages that get
into direct answers for information your
site provides, you’ll see the pattern.
Find it for your pages and structure your
content accordingly.

33.
Takeaway 3
Create large or exhaustive lists
that Google can’t fit completely
in an answer box.

34.
Takeaway 4
Provide teaser text right after your
direct answer that hints there is
more the reader would want to
know. Chances are that text will get
included in the direct answer,
thereby enticing a click through.

35.
Warning!
Answer boxes throw off rank checking
software!

36.
Let’s Connect!
• www.stonetemple.com
• +MarkTraphagen
• @MarkTraphagen
Get this deck:
stonet.co/googleanswersral
eigh
THANKS!