The Featured Snippet on Google’s SERP (search engine results page), often referred to as position #0, is the new #1 slot. Millions of Google searches return results with a Featured Snippet on the SERP, which means that it’s something you should aim for in your SEO strategy. But how do you properly optimize your content for the Featured Snippet?

How Does Keyword Research Impact the Featured Snippet?

Keyword research is important in SEO for a variety of reasons, but it’s also vital to ranking as the Featured Snippet. Keyword research is how you discover where your Featured Snippet opportunities are. The goal is to find out which keyword searches have a Featured Snippet in the results. Keywords that don’t return a Featured Snippet shouldn’t be abandoned, however, as you can still aim for the #1 spot.

How High Do You Have to Rank to Get the Featured Snippet?

Featured Snippets are pulled from the top ten search results. If you’re not on the first page of the SERP, then you won’t have a shot at getting the Featured Snippet. To start, you can focus on trying to get the Featured Snippet with keywords you already rank highly on. For other keywords, you should focus first on getting onto the first page because you try going after the Featured Snippet.

How Do I Write a Featured Snippet?

The Featured Snippet isn’t just your overall web page ranking highly. You can be the #1 result on the SERP and still not be the Featured Snippet. Your page needs to have what is called snippet bait. Snippet bait is a paragraph, table, or list formatted for being the Featured Snippet. Take a look at the existing Featured Snippets for your target keywords. You can use these for inspiration when it comes to the size and type of content that looks good as a Featured Snippet.

What Is Snippet Bait?

Snippet bait is a paragraph, list, or table that’s designed to be a Featured Snippet. To create one, create a subheader on your page that is a question that includes the keywords you’re targeting. Then, in the paragraph below the header, answer that question as concisely as you can. Snippet bait should be a part of a larger web page rather than a web page on its own. One webpage can actually have multiple snippet baits so long as they fit well with the overall topic of the page.

How Does Google Choose the Featured Snippet?

There isn’t someone working for Google whose job is to read through all of the contenders and choose the perfect Featured Snippet. Instead, Featured Snippets are chosen automatically by Google’s algorithm. Typically, the algorithm is looking for a specific answer to a particular query. For example, if the search query is a question, the Featured Snippet would be a concise paragraph, list, or table that accurately answered that question. For this reason, you should look for opportunities to answer questions that include your target keywords.