In today’s digital age, your brand needs all the help it can get in order to reach the right target audience and be a step ahead of competitors. Every single day, there are new tools and processes being established to help brands take their business to the top. One such option for brands to increase their digital presence is the Google Snippets box. Whenever someone types a query in Google like the answer to a financial question or a DIY medical cure, a box pops up at the top of the search results. This box contains a small, relevant answer to their question along with a link to the website (the source of the information, basically) that is answering their question. The Google box snippets give businesses an extra edge by featuring them on top of Google’s results. If you want your brand to make it to the snippets box, here are some ways through which you can adapt your SEO strategies in order to achieve that.
1- Make your keywords stronger
According to numerous studies conducted on the effectiveness of keywords, the majority of featured snippets are triggered by users searching for long tail keywords. The more detailed a question is, the more probability there is of a featured snippet popping up. Before choosing your keywords, you need to research them thoroughly and properly. Question type queries are the ones that mostly get answered with snippets, so be sure to include terms like “what” and “why” in your keywords. Long tail queries with no questions in them also yield snippets sometimes if they are phrased in a way that means to seek information. Another useful tool for you is the “People also ask” section. This section will provide you great insight into questions related to each topic.
2- Optimize your content
Even if you write useful, fresh content, use all the proper keywords, and make regular publishing of content a part of your content strategy, it won’t reach the right audience unless you optimize your content accordingly. It’s important to use the right kind of language in your writing so that your content effectively answers the question that is being asked by the user. You need to use proper and easy language with a basic vocabulary so that the user does not end up confused instead of better informed. Furthermore, your content should be structured in a way that reads like an answer to a specific question. For example, if you want your website to be featured in a query for a DIY bookcase, your content’s heading should sound something like “These are 5 steps to a DIY bookcase”. The more simple and to the point your content is, the more chances it has of being featured in the snippets box.
3- Adopt Schema Markup
While semantic markup will not give you a guarantee of landing on Google’s featured snippets, it will surely give you a boost to get there. Schema markup is used by Google to understand the content you put on your page. Google looks for specific information which comes from a credible source for its snippets box. If you use the rel=publisher tag in your posts, then Google will associate your content with a credible source. This will help you land your page in the snippets section. Once your content is ready, you can use the Google Search Console to test your structured data so you can find and fix any errors that might prevent search engines from reading your site properly. If you find any errors that might cause search engines to block your page or display incorrect information, then you can edit the data in order to better suit the needs and guidelines of the search engine.
Making sure that your content follows all these guidelines is just another step that you are taking in the direction of the betterment of your business. You need all the edge you can get in order to always be one step further than your competitors. Getting your page cited in the Google snippets section is like letting all users know that your business has Google’s stamp of approval. This will not only help you reach your customers faster but will also help you build a strong base of credibility. The journey to the snippets box is filled with a lot of challenges and it depends on you whether you want to brave it alone or take the help of seasoned professionals for guidance.