Jennifer Slegg: Competing with Google in a Featured Snippet World
- 1. COMPETING WITH GOOGLE IN A FEATURED SNIPPET WORLD State of Search 2015 Dallas, TX
- 2. Competing with Google in a Featured Snippet World How Websites Can Win 2
- 3. About Me Jennifer Slegg I am the Founder & Editor of The SEM Post You can find me at @jenstar @TheSEMPost www.TheSEMPost.com 3
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- 5. NEED TO THINK AS A USER 5
- 6. NEED TO THINK AS A USER Not as a Webmaster… Or a Site Owner… 6
- 7. WHY GOOGLE LOVES FEATURED SNIPPETS And no, it doesn’t require a tin foil hat… 7
- 8. 8 “We’re trying to get you direct answers to your queries because it’s quicker and less hassle than the ten blue links Google used to show. This is especially important on mobile where screens are smaller and typing is harder. ” - Eric Schmidt
- 9. 9 “Because mobile phones can be difficult to use, Special Content Result Blocks can help mobile phone users accomplish their tasks very quickly” - Google Search Quality Rating Guidelines, Oct 2015
- 11. ▸For featured snippets: State question either explicitly or implicitly on the page, then answer the question. Gary Illyes, Google Webmaster Trends Analyst 11
- 13. KNOW & KNOW SIMPLE ▸New to the 2015 Google Search Quality Rater’s Guidelines ▸The intent of the query, regardless of whether it is asked as a question. 13
- 14. KNOW & KNOW SIMPLE KNOW QUERIES ▸ Information queries that are broad, complex and/or in- depth, and do not have a short answer ▸ Queries on controversial topics ▸ Queries with no definitive “right” answer Usually no featured snippet 14
- 15. KNOW & KNOW SIMPLE KNOW QUERY EXAMPLES ▸ Barack Obama ▸ New York City ▸ Graves Disease ▸ What nickel is used for ▸ Should I invest in Starbucks stock 15
- 16. KNOW & KNOW SIMPLE KNOW SIMPLE QUERIES ▸ Know Simple queries seek a very specific answer, like a fact, diagram, etc. ▸ This answer has to be correct & complete, and can be displayed in a relatively small amount of space: the size of a mobile screen ▸ If most people would agree on a correct answer, and it would fit in 1-2 sentences or a short list of items Many have featured snippets 16
- 17. KNOW & KNOW SIMPLE KNOW SIMPLE QUERY EXAMPLES ▸ How tall is Obama ▸ New York City Population 2013 ▸ Who is Graves Disease named after ▸ What is the symbol for element nickel ▸ What is the Starbucks stock price 17
- 18. KNOW & KNOW SIMPLE ▸All Have Rich Answers 18
- 19. KNOW & KNOW SIMPLE KNOW VERSUS SIMPLE A Know Simple query asks for a simple fact, which can be answered completely in a small amount of space & the Know query answer is more complex. Google Search Quality Rater’s Guidelines October 2015 19
- 20. KNOW SIMPLE = FEATURED SNIPPET JACKPOT! 20
- 21. FINDING Finding featured snippets you already have 21
- 22. FINDING FEATURED SNIPPETS ▸You could already have featured snippets ▸Websites are reporting they see none, when they actually do 22
- 24. FINDING FEATURED SNIPPETS ▸Find Your Featured Snippets ▹How ▹Why ▹When ▹What ▸Implied Know Simple queries. ▹How tall is Daniel Radcliffe versus ▹Daniel Radcliffe’s height ▹Smallest DLSR camera ▹What is smallest DLSR camera 24
- 25. IMAGES Getting Images in Featured Snippets 25
- 26. IMAGES 26
- 27. IMAGES 27
- 28. IMAGES 28
- 29. Technical: Images Technical Tricks: ▸“og:image” ▸Use ALT keywords ▸Keywords in image name ▸<meta property="og:image" content="http://cognitiveseo.com/blog/wp- content/uploads/2014/05/Panda40.png" /> 29
- 30. VIDEO Featured snippet secret weapon 30
- 31. VIDEO ▸Google Shows YouTube FS 31
- 32. VIDEO ▸Must have voice in video ▸Source is transcript not description (which is wrong) ▸160k views 32
- 33. RECIPES A new kind of snippet 33
- 34. RECIPES ▸Benefit from expanded Featured Snippet description 34
- 35. RECIPES 35
- 36. RECIPES ▸Bing 36
- 37. RECIPES ▸Bing 37
- 38. BEWARE How to lose a featured snippet 38
- 39. LOSS OF A FEATURED SNIPPET Loss of a Featured Snippet ▸ Lowes.com ▸ Keyword “Water Heaters” ▸ Title: Water Heater Buying Guide 39
- 40. LOSS OF A FEATURED SNIPPET Loss of a Featured Snippet ▸ New Content Added ▸ Duplicate; No Canonical 40
- 43. LOSS OF A FEATURED SNIPPET ▸The New Winner 43
- 45. CONTENT ▸ All results from first page ▸ Seen as low as #5 with featured snippet 45
- 46. CONTENT ▸ Panda “Cures” Can Hurt ▹ Content Removal Warning • Word count • Forums • UGC • Comments 46
- 47. CONTENT ▸Avoid the Hard Sell 47
- 48. CONTENT ▸A “Free” Shopping Ad 48
- 49. RELATED QUESTIONS “People Also Ask…” 49
- 51. RELATED QUESTIONS ▸ These do not skew to the Wikipedias of the world ▸ They aren’t featured snippets of the query ▸ Some don’t rank on the first page for query ▸ BUT they all answer the question 51
- 53. RELATED QUESTIONS ▸ BONUS ▸ More ideas for content! 53
- 54. Thanks! Jennifer Slegg Founder & Editor of The SEM Post @jenstar @TheSEMPost www.TheSEMPost.com 54