HOW TO OPTIMIZE
FOR GOOGLE’S
FEATURED
SNIPPETS
By Ann Smarty
@seosmarty
Brand & Community Manager at
Internet Marketing Ninjas
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
AHREFS study: ~12%
Mozcast: ~15.5%
Semrush: 12.4%
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
Featured snippets have been around since 2013
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
#Pubcon
WHY CARE?
@seosmarty
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
Should I say more?
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
David Kutcher of Confluent Forms
#Pubcon
Ben Goodsell:
• Traffic increased by 505%
• CTR increased from 2% to 8%
• Revenue increased by 677%
@seosmarty
 Higher traffic (+ having two listings in one SERPs)
 Higher cconversions
 Brand recognizability and trust (which comes with
better conversions)
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
#Pubcon
Friend or Foe:
@seosmarty
#Pubcon
Friend or Foe:
@seosmarty
#Pubcon
Friend or Foe:
@seosmarty
It’s either your page that’s being
featured or your competitor’s
#Pubcon
HOW TO GET
FEATURED?
@seosmarty
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
AHREFS study: 99% already rank in top 10
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
AHREFS study: 30% rank #1
#Pubcon
Research those
“long-tail” keywords
where you rank or
can rank in top 10
@seosmarty
#Pubcon
…the more words are
typed in a search box, the
higher the probability
there will be a featured
snippet…
@seosmarty
AHREFS study
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
Serpstat.com
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
Competitor research with Serpstat
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
Ahrefs
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
Competitor research with Ahrefs
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
SEMrush
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
Competitor research with SEMrush
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
Google “People Also Ask”
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
Search Console: "Search Traffic" and then "Search Analytics."
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
Search Console: "Search Traffic" and then "Search Analytics."
#Pubcon
Go Beyond
Traditional Keyword
Research Tools: Ask
People
@seosmarty
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
Buzzsumo Question Analyzer
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
MyBlogU.com
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
Search and Monitor Twitter [Keyword ?]
#Pubcon
Organize those
keywords
@seosmarty
#Pubcon
It turns out that a single page
can also "be featured" for
thousands of search queries…
@seosmarty
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
• A generic keyword => a section or a category of the blog
• A more specific search query => the title of the article
• Even more specific queries => the subheadings of the article and thus define its
structure
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
Sample structure
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
Serpstat “Cluster”
#Pubcon
Answer questions
concisely
@seosmarty
#Pubcon
The average length of a
paragraph snippet is 45 words
(the maximum is 97 words)
@seosmarty
A.J. Ghergich
#Pubcon
It’s not about the length of the
article itself, it’s about
answering a specific question
concisely
@seosmarty
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
Optimizing for a particular featured box
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
For an exclusive
insight into more in-
depth featured
snippet optimization
tools, come to Jim
Boykin’s session
tomorrow
OCTOBER 18
11:10 am
Salon D
#Pubcon
Takeaways
By Ann Smarty
@seosmarty
Brand & Community Manager at
Internet Marketing Ninjas
#Pubcon
@seosmarty
 You'll discover hundreds of new content ideas (=>
diversify your rankings)
 You'll learn to research each topic thoroughly (=>
improve your rankings)
 You'll learn to structure your articles better (=> lower
bounce rate and higher conversions)
Being featured in Google search results is your
incentive to work harder on your content
#Pubcon
THANK YOU!
By Ann Smarty
@seosmarty
Brand & Community Manager at
Internet Marketing Ninjas
#Pubcon

How to Optimize for Google' Featured Snippets #Pubcon