Data-backed insights on featured bit optimization
Around one-fifth of all keywords activate a featured snippet
99 percent of all featured snippets tend to appear within the first organic position and take over 50% of the screen on mobile phones, driving higher-than-average click-through rates (CTR).
The key to included snippet optimization lies in a few particular areas: long-tail- and question-like keyword strategy, date marked material that comes at the right length and format, and a succinct URL structure.
Google has constantly been pretty hazy on any information about winning featured bits. This held true when they were initially introduced, making them something businesses thought about to be the cherry on top of their SEO efforts, which is still mostly the case. Having first-hand understanding about the value and power of highlighted bits, Brado coordinated with Semrush to perform the most comprehensive research study around featured snippet optimization to uncover how they really work, and what you can do to win them.
Exposing the highlights from an Included snippets study that evaluated over a million SERPs with featured snippets present, this post unwraps actionable tips on amping up your optimization method to finally win that Google reward.
General patterns across the included snippet landscape.
With billions of search questions go through the Google search box every day, our study discovered that around 19 percent of keywords trigger a highlighted bit. Why does this even matter? Included snippets are understood to drive greater CTR-- as another research study revealed, they are responsible for over 35 percent of all clicks.
Additional showing the tremendous power of featured snippets, our study showed that they take up over 50 percent of the SERP's real estate on mobile screens.
Integrate this with our findings that 99 percent of the time included bits take control of the first organic position, and that they remain in many cases activated by long-tail keywords (suggesting particular user intent), and you'll get the factor behind exceptionally high CTR numbers.
Are some industries more likely to activate featured bits?
In the research study, we specified markets by keyword classifications, finding that, certainly, featured bit volume is inconsistent across various sectors.
The top industry, seeing a featured bit in 62 percent of all cases, is Travel and Computer & Electronics, followed by Arts & Entertainment (59 percent), and Science (54 percent), while Real Estate keywords drag all the rest with only 11 percent of keywords setting off a featured bit.
included bit optimization insights on keyword classifications that trigger.
Yet on a domain level, the More helpful hints industry breakdown differs slightly, with Health and News websites having similar highlighted snippet volumes.
You can discover the complete industry breakdown within the research study.
Included snippets are everything about earns, not wins.
Simply hoping your content will win you a featured snippet isn't enough-- as our study showed, it's everything about hard-earned material optimization outcomes.
1. Optimize for long-tail keywords and concerns.
When it pertains to optimization and keywords, use 'the more the much better' reasoning.
Our research study discovered that 55.5 percent of highlighted snippets were triggered by 10-word keywords, while single-word ones just appeared 4.3 percent of the time.
One thing even better than long-tails is questions. 29 percent of keywords triggering an included snippet start with question words-- "why" (78 percent), "can" (72 percent), "do" (67 percent), and in the fewest cases, "where" (19 percent).
included bit optimization insights on concern keywords that set off.
2. Use the ideal content length and format.
The SERPs we examined consisted of 4 types of highlighted snippet: paragraphs, lists, tables, and videos:.
70 percent of the outcomes revealed paragraphs, with an average of 42 words and 249 characters.
Lists came in as the second-most-frequent highlighted bit (19 percent), with approximately 6 item counts and 44 words.
Tables (6 percent) usually included 5 rows and 2 columns.
Videos, whose average period stood at 6:39 minutes, showed up in only 4.6 percent of all cases.
Of course, don't blindly follow this data as the principle, rather see it as a good starting point for featured-snippet-minded content optimization.
Plus, bear in mind that content quality constantly dominates amount, so if you have a high-performing piece that features a 10-row table, Google will simply cut it down, revealing the blue "More rows" link, which can even improve your CTR.
3. Don't overcomplicate your URL structure.
As it turns out, URL length matters in Google's choice of a site that deserves a featured bit. Try to stay with neat site architecture, with 1-3 subfolders per URL, and you'll be most likely to win.
Simply for referral, here is an example of a URL with 3 subfolders:.
xyz.com/subfolder1/subfolder2/subfolder3.
4. Make regular material updates.
In the "to add or not to include a post date" issue, based on our featured bit analysis, we 'd recommend that you release date-marked material.
Most of Google's highlighted snippets include an article date, with the following breakdown: 47 percent of list-type highlighted bits come from date-marked content, paragraphs-- 44 percent, videos-- 20 percent, and tables-- 19 percent of the time.
While fresh-out-of-the-oven material can be favored by Google, 70 percent of all content making it into the included snippet was anywhere from two to three years of ages (2018, 2019, 2020), suggesting once again that content quality matters more than recency, so you should not worry that putting a date on it will work against you.