How to Dominate Search Results with Featured Snippets & E-E-A-T

How to Rank for Featured Snippets
Tech Tales Team
2025-02-04

Everyone wants to be on the top when it comes to Google search results. But what’s even better than rank 1 on the first page of Google? It’s position zero. If you’re wondering how to rank for featured snippets, this is your opportunity to grab that top spot and gain faster visibility than your competitors

Also termed as featured snippets,  position zero is now allowing many websites to gain faster visibility than any of their competitors. Google rolled out this feature to help users get a summary of the topic they were interested in, allowing them to quickly find relevant information without needing to go through multiple links.

Due to their format, featured snippets present answers in the search results like an overview, eliminating the need to dive deeper. As helpful as this feature is, it’s also a coveted position to be at from the SEO point of view. This blog will walk you through steps that will enhance your chances of getting on featured snippets.

A snippet is like a summary or description that the user will see for a search result on Google. To automatically generate a relevant snippet, Google scans many websites on the internet and mainly relies on the page’s content. 

To feature content from a website, Google decodes information from a page’s meta description and provides a clearer depiction of the page on the snippet. This also includes a link to the source page and its URL.

A featured snippet sometimes also shows up as an image, a list (either ordered or numbered), a table, or a direct answer to a user’s query. These snippets are particularly useful for addressing the five “W” questions: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. Featured snippets are useful for mobile users, as mobile search traffic has overtaken that of desktop. 

Since a snippet is the first thing a user would notice, chances are they might click on the link and research further — accounting for increased website visits. 

There are various kinds of featured snippets, each aimed at delivering distinct types of information to the user: 

  • Paragraph snippets — offer responses in concise text blocks. These occupy about 82% of total snippets
  • List snippets — displayed as either numbered or bulleted lists, making them ideal for recipes, guidelines, or any content that requires a structured format
  • Table snippets — present data in a grid format, such as pricing or timetables

Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness — are the pillars for successful content online, and so are crucial elements of Google’s key update EEAT. This core update set out to make helpful content more accessible to users in order to satisfy their search requirements with lesser efforts. 

Using this framework, Google evaluates your website on the basis of your credentials and reliability. Experience means your firsthand knowledge on the topic, Expertise counts as qualifications and achievements of the publisher, while Authoritativeness counts your website’s standing as a credible source. Lastly, trustworthiness ensures that your information is reliable. 

Each part of your long-form content, (especially blogs and landing pages) should reflect that you have spent considerable time in your industry making an impact and serving clients/customers. 

Since this type of content is designed for your audience, it helps Google prioritize your content in search results and snippets.

Some may think it’s pure luck to get yourself featured on snippets, but that’s not it. 

Here’s how to apply these insights to produce high-quality content optimized for snippets:

1. Rethink your content strategy

Is your content designed to help users without putting in a lot of effort to understand it? Do you break lengthy answers into digestible bits to help them read and retain information? If not, then you may need to consider creating a series of blog posts that explore related topics in depth. 

Each post can address different facets of a larger subject, providing your audience with comprehensive coverage that search engines may favour for snippets. Additionally, use your research to revisit and reformat existing blog posts. 

2. Try different content formats 

If certain formats, like paragraphs or lists, are currently performing well, update older content to align with these trends. 

Also make sure to update your content format according to the most common snippet styles for your target keywords to better cater to both user and Google preferences. 

Most readers skim content, and that’s why we include headings to help them navigate through a problem. Optimizing your H2 and H3 headings in a way that they directly respond to the key questions your audience might search for on Google. Start by including questions like “what is” in headings.

This can improve the user experience on your site while creating a logical flow, making it easier for readers to quickly locate the information they need. This not only meets user intent but also boosts SEO, as Google prefers content that is well-structured and easy to navigate

4. Have a rich FAQ section

If you have some long tail keywords to target, you can incorporate them at the end of each page in an FAQ section. By including questions related to how, why, when, where, etc you can increase your chances of grabbing the position zero.

Conclusion

Now that you know how to optimize for featured snippets, it’s easier to get started. However, there’s a challenge —staying updated with the newest SERP features and changes in Google’s algorithms can be challenging. If you’re occupied with other business priorities, a digital marketing agency in New Zealand can help you achieve your SEO goals – with less hassle and resources.