Have you ever been captivated by search results because of the visually dynamic rich snippets that appeared once you landed on those results in search engines like Google? I’ll give you an example. You’ve probably searched for movies before, maybe you wanted to find movie times or maybe you wanted to see what ratings it got before you spend that crucial 10 dollars to go see it. If you haven’t done this in a while, give it a try. Search for a movie that’s still in theatres. Suburbicon is a new Matt Damon film that we will use an example for rich snippets.
You get a lot from one search result. Search engines have taken to providing people with the most common information they need if the action they will take is almost certain. What do we mean by this? Well, the most likely scenarios for searching the title of the film are either to find a time to see it or check out the reviews. All of this is provided in a clean overview. If you have Google location services activated, they even provide the closest theatres. While this is very cool, it makes it harder for people that run movie review sites and the like to make a name for themselves. If people don’t need to keep scrolling, they won’t. That’s why you need to be the one with the rich snippets. You have a clear advantage over anyone on the net if you’re the one popping up in huge, helpful chunks in the search results.
This raises the question of how to get rich snippets?
The first thing you need to do is create great content that is designed to help someone. Using common SEO practices to make sure Google sees you, you should then put the structure of your content into an easy to understand format. Take a look at the example below to see what I mean.
This is a pretty common problem that people seem to have. Google recognizes that Wikihow is the authority on the subject. They offer simple images and an ordered list of instructions to make the process of changing a battery short and simple. Your approach to content should be similar. You can also apply this concept to your e-commerce store as well. Let’s say you own a hardware store and you want to sell more car stereo sets. You could make a blog post about how to install them, write something in the manner shown above, and then link to product pages for the stereos that you sell. In fact, that’s what a lot of businesses do.
Throughout the article, they add links to sell you products that help you get the job done. This strategy has become a safe and reliable way to make you the authority in your niche and get a lot of conversions. You’re helping people for free and getting your name out there at the same time.
Content for Featured Snippets
Here is a link to all our articles to help you make content that’s likely to get Google’s attention.
- Keyword Research
- Make your content super helpful and easy to understand
- Make the Article Easy to Digest
At the end of the day, there’s no magic formula for how to get featured snippets. The way Google does their rich snippets is currently in a state of flux. Sometimes people that rank in the second spot of search results are featured on the rich snippet so there’s really no way to guarantee your content will go up there. If you take anything away from this article it should be how to SEO your content for your best shot at getting a rich snippet and that your content should answer a person’s question in the simplest, most straightforward way possible.
