Search Results Featured Snippet
The Best Position in Search Results
What is the search engine result listed above the organic Google search results? These are featured snippets, and Google added them in 2014. Notably, they can bring a lot of value to your motorcycle website.
Next, featured snippets are also called “answer boxes“ since they aim to deliver searchers’ “answers” quickly. Another term used for a featured snippet is search “position 0” because it comes before the first organic result.
Seven Types of Featured Snippets
Below are seven different types of featured snippets:
- Paragraph-featured snippets (seen in the “Flying Merkel Motorcycles’ History” image below) account for 70% of answer boxes.
- List snippets (seen in the “Old Motorcycle Manufacturers” image below) account for almost 20% of answer boxes.
- Tables
- Video
- Rich Answer
- Tool or Calculator
- Accordion
Anatomy of Biker Featured Snippets
Below is the SERP/search engine result page for the “Flying Merkel Motorcycles’ History” search. Notably, the description style featured snippet comes above search engine results.
Take another look at the “Flying Merkel Motorcycle History” image. Again, only the featured snippet and the first Google organic result are shown. Notably, the motorcycle website listed in the featured snippet differs from the website listed as the first organic result.
This is not uncommon, and I’ll explain why below. But obviously, you’d choose to have your site as the featured snippet instead of the first result.
Next, below is the SERP for the “Old Motorcycle Manufacturers” search. The list-style featured snippet appears above the organic Google search results.
Another unique feature of these snippets is that they go directly to that section of your biker website when clicked. Also, you will see that the descriptive information is above the URL and the SEO title of the page.
Featured Snippets Value
Often, featured snippets take up more space than a search result. So, if your site has this position, that one result is almost impossible to miss.
If your website also has the first ranking, it will take up most of the search results above the fold. Note that “above the fold” refers to the content you can see on your website before it scrolls down. More specifically, it is “above” the bottom of your screen.
Next, having the top position adds to your site’s credibility. Also, there is some prestige to come up as the featured snippet. Plus, the prominence of the listing brings extra branding value.
How Featured Snippets Are Selected
Now, you can’t buy the featured snippet. Instead, Google chooses them. One item that helps Google determine the featured snippet is your SEO.
In addition to quality SEO, your motorcycle website’s content structure also increases the chance of being a featured snippet. The more your page is structured like a featured snippet, the better your chance of being a featured snippet.
* 99% of the time, the answer box results are chosen from the first page (top-10 listings) (Searchenginewatch.com).
So, this opens up the opportunity for more sites to be in the answer box.
Note that the first Google result is not always the featured snippet. This is because they are not chosen strictly by a motorcycle site’s SEO. Along with your SEO, Google also considers the below factors when determining if and what web page is in the answer box.
Optimizing for Featured Snippets
Below is how to improve your chances of your site being a featured snippet. Since paragraph and list snippets account for almost 90% of featured snippets, I’ll focus on them.
* Only 19% of Google searches have answer boxes (SearchEngineLand.com).
So, your search engine services company or person should search to see if a particular search has a featured snippet. Then, they should choose one of your pages that comes up high for that phrase. Next, they can write content for your website that is better than the current snippet to try and take position 0. This is complex and another reason why your marketing department is invaluable.
Also, your website’s developer will need to add structured data. This helps Google understand more about your page, improving your chances of getting the featured snippet result.
Optimizing for a Paragraph Snippet
First, optimizing for a paragraph snippet helps if your webpage asks a question your target audience searches for. For instance, “What is a motorcycle jockey shifter?”
Then, below the question, you should answer it in 40 to 60 words. Note that the text should be concise, objective, and organized. Also, sometimes Google will use your meta description in featured snippets. The description area is another area where you can write content that follows the advice above.
Next, the majority of the descriptive snippets are longtail keywords (searches with four or more words). After researching keywords, have your marketing expert target the valuable longtail keyphrases. In addition, it is important to A/B test your pages. You can take the one that ranks the best and then modify it to have the best opportunity to get the featured snippet position.
Lastly, you can learn more about the basics of motorcycle marketing or other online marketing on our blog. One important article is about how excellent customer service can significantly improve your bottom line. Also, all articles focus on motorcycle world websites.
