Izzi Smith presented on winning featured snippets by focusing on informational-transactional queries, providing structured content that solves user problems, and using schema markup to create rich snippets. She discussed a case study where Sixt improved brand awareness and conversions by developing rich snippets for car model pages that included additional content and car data with schema. Another example showed promoting structured answers to their own landing pages increased the featured snippet rate and click-through rate. The key takeaways are to understand user intent, create helpful content through problem and solution research, and make information easily understandable and shareable.

1. Izzi Smith
@izzionfire
Sixt rent a car
Practical Insights into
Winning Featured Snippets
http://www.slideshare.net/IsobelSmith10

2. PRACTICAL INSIGHTS
INTO WINNING EPIC
FEATURED SNIPPETS

4. WHY I LOVE FEATURED
SNIPPETS
(AND WHY YOU SHOULD TOO)

5. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
Example: Featured Snippet for „automarken“ (EN: „car brands“)
MORE TRAFFIC

6. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
GA – sixt.de/marken/
MORE TRAFFIC

7. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
+ 233% BOOKINGS
+ 602% REVENUE
MORE CONVERSIONS

8. BRAND
AWARENESS
Small Food Blog

9. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
MOBILE
VOICE
SEARCH

10. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
THEY‘RE COOL AF

11. WHERE DO I START?

12. IDENTIFYING THE RIGHT
QUERIES

13. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
QUESTIONS
42%
Source: Source:- SEMRush

14. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
PREPOSITIONS
18%
Source: SourceSource:- SEMRush

15. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
COMPARISONS
23%
Source: Source:- SEMRush

16. EVALUATE YOUR
CURRENT RANKINGS

17. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
GSC IN GOOGLE ANALYTICS
Google Analytics -> Aquisition -> Search Console -> Queries -> RegEx

18. EVALUATE YOUR POTENTIAL
RANKINGS

19. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
ANSWER THE PUBLIC
AnswerThePublic.com

20. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
ANSWER THE PUBLIC
AnswerThePublic.com

21. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
CUSTOMER SUPPORT & SALES TEAMS

22. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
ASK YOUR PUBLIC
Hotjar Forum Websites

23. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
PEOPLE ALSO ASK BOXES

24. ASSESS THE QUERY INTENT

25. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
INFORMATIONAL
NAVIGATIONALTRANSACTIONAL „Sixt Van
Rental“
e.g. „Sixt login“e.g. „rent a car
in London“
e.g. „what is a car“
Transactional + Informational

26. FOCUS ON KEYWORDS WITH
CLICK-THROUGH-INTENT

27. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
LIMITED NEED TO CLICK:

28. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
HIGHER CLICK INTENT:

29. NOW: THE FUN STUFF

30. LANDING PAGES:
HOLISTIC OR SPECIFIC?

32. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
GO HOLISTIC IF:
CLUSTERSIMILAR,SMALLERTOPICS(e.g.FAQs)
UTILIZEEXISTINGPAGESTRENGTH
BUTMAKESURE:
TOUSECLEARHEADERS&SUBSECTIONS
IT‘SACTUALLYHOLISTIC

33. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
GO SPECIFIC IF:
REASONABLESEARCHVOLUME
TOPICCAN/SHOULDBEEXPLAINEDINDETAIL
POTENTIALFORRELATEDCONTENT
HIGHERTRANSACTIONALINTENT

34. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
DON‘T

35. PROVIDE THE
PERFECT CONTENT

36. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
F-SNIPPET WORTHY CONTENT
FACTUAL
HASSUPPORTINGDATAANDSOURCES
WRITTENFORHUMANS
IGNOREKEYWORDDENSITY(PLS)

37. @izzionfire #brightonSEO

38. GIVE IT SOME STRUCTURE!

39. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
(W) / IS / DO/ COMMON QUESTIONS:
PARAGRAPHS

40. PARAGRAPH SWEET SPOT:
40-60 WORDS

41. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
PREPOSITIONS & COMPARIONS:
LIST ARTICLES WITH CLEAR HEADERS

42. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
PREPOSITIONS & COMPARIONS:
LIST ARTICLES WITH CLEAR HEADERS

43. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
„HOW TO“ / METHODS:
LIGHT HTML <OL> <UL> LISTS

44. WHEN POSSIBLE…
BULK OUT YOUR LISTS

45. @izzionfire #brightonSEO

46. @izzionfire #brightonSEO

47. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
COMPARISONS & DATA:
HTML TABLES

48. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
COMPARISONS & DATA:
HTML TABLES

49. MAKE IT GRABBABLE

50. PROVE YOU‘RE AN EXPERT
ON THE TOPIC

51. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
PROVE YOUR EXPERTISE
E-A-T(EXPERTISE,AUTHORITATIVENESS,
TRUSTWORTHINESS)
PROVIDESUPPORTINGDATAANDSOURCES
ADDITIONAL,USEFULCONTENT
REFERRINGLINKSFROMTRUSTEDSOURCES

52. Question
KW
Structured
Answer
Heading and
Introduction!
Visual aid!
Fantastic additional
content!

53. @izzionfire #brightonSEO

54. @izzionfire #brightonSEO

55. HIGHLIGHT YOUR DATA

57. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
RICH SNIPPETS ARE QUICK-N-EASY*
Data
Schema
Mark up Rich Snippet*+ =

58. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
Data
Schema
Mark up
FEATURED
SNIPPET+ ≠

59. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
Data
Schema
Mark up
Search Engine
Understanding ☺+ =

60. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
"@type": "QAPage",
"@type": “Answer",
"@type": “Question",

61. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
SCHEMA.ORG MARK-UP TO TEST

62. OPTIMIZE YOUR IMAGES

63. @izzionfire #brightonSEO

64. @izzionfire #brightonSEO

65. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
4:3 aspect ratio
<600px
Topic Relevant
Compressed

66. DONE!
NOW WHAT?

67. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
WHERE ARE YOU IN THE SNIPPET QUEUE?
Query –site:featuredsnippetdomain.com

68. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
WHERE ARE YOU IN THE SNIPPET QUEUE?
Query –featuredsnippetdomain.com AND –secondsnippet.com AND –third.com

69. DON‘T LOSE FAITH <3

70. -CESSFUL
CASE STUDIES

71. 1. OVERCOMING LACK OF BRAND
AWARENESS WITH FEATURED
SNIPPETS

72. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
TRANSACTIONAL CAR MODEL KEYWORDS
e.g. rent a BMW 5 Series
Ranking: #1 - #3

73. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
BRAND AWARENESS IN THE UK
Google Trends Data 2013 - 2018

74. SOLUTION?
WE NEED RICHER SNIPPETS!

75. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
BUT…

76. WE NEED OUR OWN CAR RENTAL
RICH SNIPPET

77. WHAT DID WE DO?

78. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
I want
that!

79. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
Heading,
Intro & conversion
copy
Car data +
Car Schema
mark-up
Additional
Relevant content

80. WHAT HAPPENED?

81. yasss

83. @izzionfire #brightonSEO

84. RESULTS

85. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
RESULTSSixt.com
Sixt.co.
ukCar Model Pages
Generating a Snippet:
18%
Bookings:
+41%
Sessions: +46%
Bookings:
+48%
Sessions: +183%
Car Model Pages
Generating a Snippet:
28%
YoY Data from GA Organic

86. 2. RESTRUCTURING CONTENT

87. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
OLD LAYOUT:

88. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
NEW ANSWER LAYOUT:

89. @izzionfire #brightonSEO
BAM.

90. THAT‘S HOW IZZI IT IS
(sometimes)

91. 3. PROMOTING CONTENT TO ITS
OWN LANDING PAGE

93. List
Table
Paragraph

95. GSC data (past 3 months, top 1000 keywords per segment)
0,00%
5,00%
10,00%
15,00%
20,00%
25,00%
30,00%
35,00%
40,00%
45,00%
50,00%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Average CTR vs Featured Snippet CTR (sixt.co.uk)
Average CTR Featured Snippet CTR
CTR%(Secrets)

96. KEY TAKEAWAYS

97. TARGET INFORMATIONAL-TRANSACTIONAL
QUERIES TO DRIVE BOTH CLICKS AND
REVENUE

98. CARRY OUT PROBLEM AND SOLUTION
RESEARCH (NOT JUST KEYWORD
RESEARCH)

99. PROVIDE EPIC, USER-FOCUSED CONTENT
THAT SERVES A NEED

100. ENSURE YOUR CONTENT IS EASILY
UNDERSTANDABLE AND GRABBABLE
(STRUCTURED CONTENT & SCHEMA
MARK-UP)

102. THANKS FOR LISTENING,
AND GOOD LUCK!
Izzi Smith – SEO Manager UK & US @ Sixt
Twitter: @izzionfire
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/izzi-smith/