Google is considered the most effective search engine. Thus, it should easily bring user traffic to your website. While this is in theory true, as Google is constantly evolving, you need to adapt to the tweaks to retain your high ranks or secure a better position in the search results!

You have probably noticed that it has become a bit harder to build referral traffic from Google these days. While the competition has certainly become more fierce, the recent Google updates have also contributed to this issue.

One major change that has taken place recently is the ‘Featured Snippets,’ which offer content with an instant stardom in the search results. This search box appears in a snippet view, above the regular organic search results generated by the query you have typed in the ‘Google Search Bar.’

Having your content in the featured snippet box not only brings in a lot of traffic, it also demonstrates your expertise on the subject – as you are Google’s chosen one if you are in the snippet view!

How Do You Get Your Content Into The Featured Snippet View?

• Start with Keyword Research

According to WordStream, 50% of search queries are at least four words long.

Long-tailed search strings will make it more likely that your content will be featured in the snippet view. In reality, the longer the query, the higher the chance that the search results will generate content in the featured snippet view. In other words, a thorough keyword analysis should be your starting point.

Still, during the keyword research, you need to keep the following in mind:

• The search query should start with a question, such as What, When, Why, How, etc.
• You should also focus on the informational subject lines. Though Featured Snippets are intended to respond to ‘questions’ immediately, a major portion of search strings that trigger the featured snippets are long-tailed queries with no questions in them.
  
  

• Google Provides You with More Questions

According to Internet Live Stats, “Google receives over 63,000 searches per second on any given day.”

Clearly, it is important to stay informed about these searches. But, where do you get the details from?

When you choose to write on a topic, glance at the ‘People also ask’ section in the search results. The information provided will help you gain further insight into your chosen topic. When you expand the questions to view the answers, additional questions will appear at the bottom.

• Find Which Search Queries Bring In More Clicks

 Check the ‘Search Analytics’ page in Google Search Console and find out the positions your pages hold, as well as identify the top-performing queries. This will help you to adjust your content to ensure that it is featured more frequently.

• Follow People on Twitter

Heaps of opportunities are available to Twitter users. To gain maximum benefit from this platform, follow industry-specific people and look out for the questions they are often asked. This will help you approach your content from a completely new perspective, depending on the demands of the audience and your industry.

• Speak Data

Google is keen about numbers, lists and steps. When you answer a question, ensure that you include useful factual information, ideally in the forms noted above. In short, be informative, but concise.

In a study conducted by SEMrush and Ghergich & Co., 6.9 million featured snippets and 80 million keywords were analyzed, revealing that lists and comparison charts are the easiest way to get featured, as Google “adores” structured contents.

• Arrange Your Questions Systematically

Adding queries to the title and subheadings of your article will attract the readers on a personal level.

• Images Are Important Too

Take care to include attention-grabbing images that are annotated well, as this makes it easy for Google to feature your content.

Finally, though ‘Featured Snippets’ might minimize the clicks to organic search results, this is still positive development, as it forces the content marketers to delve deeper into the subject, which ultimately paves way for high-quality content. Whether or not your content is featured, optimizing it for the featured snippets will help you get to know your customers better, which will in turn ensure that you can cater to their needs effectively, improving the conversions.

Author Bio:
Mr. Duhane Williams offers a highly strategic and motivated Infrastructure to successfully manage all facets of strategic marketing and business development operations for industry leading brands, Visit https://www.venttraffic.com to read more.