Why do featured snippets matter?

For many companies and businesses, a website that can show off their talents and abilities is an asset. This can increase awareness of the business, and encourage more local, and national customers to put their trust in your brand. However, a well designed website is only part of the solution. You also need to consider how to reach your potential audience. And the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is a crucial part of your organic traffic. As a result, you will need to consider search engine optimisation, to get your website to a position of prominence. And this could include securing a featured snippet result. But what is a featured snippet? And why do featured snippets matter? Well, here at Pumpkin Web Design, we are Preston’s leading web design and web marketing professionals. We work across Preston, and the North West, including Southport and Wigan, as well as Manchester, to provide valuable web design, SEO, and marketing solutions to a range of clients. As a result, we have produced this guide to featured snippets.

What are featured snippets?

Featured snippets are a type of rich result that will add more value for searchers on Google. These are answers or paragraphs taken directly from a website, alongside an accompanying image, and put inside a box, right at the top of the search results. This is known as position 0. Currently, around 9% of all search engine results pages have one rich result option, which may not always be a featured snippet. Knowledge cards and video carousels are also popular.

To select featured snippets, Google will look at which websites deliver the most concise, relevant and direct answer to a specific question. This will be the be the answer that is most helpful for the searcher. And as a result, you need to consider this when creating any type of content for your website.

The featured snippet then is the first thing that any searcher will see. And as it usually features about 50 words, taken directly from your content, they will also read it too. This will increase traffic to your website, and ultimately increase your chances of converting this traffic into satisfied customers or clients.

Why do featured snippets matter?

So, why should you try to secure rich results, like featured snippets? Well, featured snippets can bring a range of benefits to your business, including:

• increasing brand awareness- every featured snippet is designed by Google to attract the attention of the searcher. And this means that if your answer is highlighted by Google, the chances are, most of the searchers attention will flick to this, at least at first. More attention means that more people will be made aware of your company, and you should also see an increase in traffic resulting from this.
• increasing traffic- The more people that see your featured snippet, the more your company will be recognized. But also, the more chance there is of people clicking through to your website. An increase in traffic can lead to more sales, and more sign ups.
• voice search- with voice search ever increasing, and dedicated smart speakers in around 15% of homes in the UK, voice search is becoming increasingly important. And if you want Google Assistant to be able to read out your website, and a part of your text, you will need to secure a featured snippet first.

For more information and advice about web marketing, get in touch with the experts today, here at Pumpkin Web Design.