What is Position Zero?

Several years ago, Google rolled out "Featured Snippets," which is their way of optimizing the search experience for users. Not sure what they are? Head over and conduct a search on Google. Since their introduction, many search terms today return a specially promoted result, prominently displayed at the very tippy-top of the search results: the Featured Snippet. This innovative response to lessen search paralysis in an age when simple queries return millions of results has shaken up search engine optimization.

Position Zero

Before, the top spot you could occupy on the search results was #1. The algorithm for determining this is complex and slow to improve; moving from #7 to #1, for example, could take months or years of slogging through, especially with how the age of a webpage weighs in. With this new feature, though, there's now a result displayed even before any of the websites: the Featured Snippet, #0. Any search result from the top 10 can be the featured snippet, so with a few quick tweaks, you can improve your chances astronomically and hit the top near-instantaneously.

Checking the search term database reveals that approximately 12.9% of terms will return a Featured Snippet, with Google continuously aiming to increase this number. This change has completely altered the way search engine optimization works for front page results, now.

The Metrics

Are the changes worth it, though? Looking at the metrics of featured snippets reveals some interesting information. For one, featured snippets typically reduce overall clicks, from about 74.2 percent to 70.2 percent likelihood. This makes sense because the idea is to provide the user with a condensed briefing on their search query, but it can also lead to a reduction in traffic. Even more funnily, featured snippets tend not to be the most clicked: one study found that they received about 8.6 percent of clicks when holding the top spot, while the #1 result received 19.6 percent of clicks on average. Compare this to a search without a featured snippet, where the top result receives 26 percent of clicks. This means that, while the featured snippet is not necessarily the most popular go-to, it does pull clicks from the #1 result and funnels them to results further down.

Regardless of the seemingly small effect featured snippets have on driving traffic; they are still an incredibly viable goal to pursue. Especially if you are struggling to raise your organic results position from lower down in the top 10, striving to secure featured snippets can provide a valuable boost to website traffic. To that end, there are a couple of ways to improve your chances of becoming the featured snippet.

Gaining the Top Spot

First things first, ensure your content is informative and up-to-date. Google will not pull old or misleading information for their featured snippets. If you're already ranked in a few featured snippets, try to secure those as best you can. Including both the question and the answer on your webpage, provided they are kept succinct, can help to improve your chances. Even better, look at the formatting of the featured snippet you are attempting to obtain and marry your content to that style. Whether there's an image, a bulleted list, a table, or simply a block of text, the formatting of your content should emulate that of the snippet to best up your odds. Keep in mind, though, that they are snippets, and the average snippet is 40-50 words long.

An excellent way to optimize your chances is spreading out your content. An FAQ page, if applicable, can be turned into a goldmine for SEO. Directing each answer to open in a different subsection of the main FAQ page forces you to keep your answers short and sweet, increasing the likelihood Google will pick up on them.

Finally, and perhaps most obviously, provide in-depth, quality content. Featured snippets are triggered more by long-tail keywords than short, and by search queries that are neither a question, comparison, nor preposition. This means they tend to be quick snapshots of relatively complicated or involved topics, rather than simple queries that can be broached quickly by a full website. It may seem evident, but the truly best way to rank in featured snippets is to produce an abundance of useful content. Otherwise, you'll be beaten out by someone Google found more deserving.

About the Author

Craig Corbel is the Vice President of Marketing and Design at Solution Web Designs, an agency that caters to small and mid-sized companies in the tristate area. Learn more by visiting their website.