So you want to rank #1 on Google? Join the club.

Earning prominent listings within the top three search positions on Google is a battle not easily fought. Not only are you trying to win out against competition, you’re also trying to appease Google’s algorithm — which updates and changes all of the time.

With the right SEO tactics and keyword research strategy, your chances of ranking at the top are much more likely. At HenkinSchultz, we’ve seen our own content and client content rank in featured snippets on Google.

A featured snippet is a special box that appears at the top of search results in order to quickly answer a query. It is a snippet of text that gets automatically pulled from a webpage.

For example, our HS Sign Shop blog post on vehicle wraps pulls up as a featured snippet for the keyword “types of car wraps”.

Ultimately, Google determines whether a page would make a good featured snippet for a user’s search request. Google will decide whether or not to elevate content to the coveted position #0.

To help you with your SEO, we’ll share our best practices and the types of featured snippets available on the world’s favorite search engine.

5 SEO Methods to Improve Keyword Rankings

SEO is a process. With SEO strategies, it can take up to six months to start seeing valuable results. Here are five ways to improve your chances of ranking in the top positions (including featured snippets) on Google.

1. Keyword Research

First, you’ll want to do your research and identify your high volume keywords. Work toward building rankings for these popular keywords and monitor the position results overtime. By organizing your SEO strategy around these target keywords, chances are better you’ll see improved results.

2. Evergreen Blog Content

Second, you’ll want to build content that is evergreen. An evergreen blog post is a piece of content that doesn’t have a shelf life. This would be content that is relevant no matter what time of year. The longevity of this content is excellent for ranking on featured snippets because you’ll have a longer period of time to improve it based on user behavior.

3. Frequently Asked Question Pages

A frequently asked question (FAQ) page is a great way to rank for featured snippets because it’s already structured in a question-and-answer format. To build one, a great place to start is by asking your sales and customer service staff what they get asked most often. Collect this information and build out the content for the page from there.

4. Appropriate Formatting

Since there isn’t a separate index for featured snippet rankings, core SEO principles will help your site rank in these results. That means best practices like establishing a page title, meta description, clear use of headings, and other SEO tactics to help organize content in the best way for indexation.

5. Continuous Updates

Finally, strive to keep your top performing content fresh with continuous updates. Giving your content a spruce here and there enables it to perform better on Google search. Start by conducting a content audit to identify where improvements should take place and proceed with the updates.

Types of Featured Snippets on Google

Google will only display a featured snippet if it knows for sure that the page contains the desired answer. Now that you know the methods to the madness of SEO, let’s get into the different types of featured snippet real estate on Google.

• Definition Box
  This type of snippet is intended to answer a search query with a quick definition or description. In our client example above, Horizon Health Care’s flu shot page ranked as a featured snippet for the keyword “flu shot south dakota”.
• Table Box
  A table will appear for queries regarding dimensions, sizes, conversions, etc. This information will appear within a table like a size chart or catalog to give users a full picture of the answer.
• Ordered List Box
  An ordered list is a numerical rundown of items with a specified order. For example, you could see an ordered list box pull up when searching for recipes and ingredients.
• Unordered List Box
  On the other hand, an unordered list will present a group of items not in a particular order. The items will be listed as bullet points instead of numbers.
• People Also Ask Box
  The “People also ask” (PAA) box generally appears under featured snippets and includes questions and answers that are related to your search. PAAs expand as a user clicks on the question to see the answer right on Google.

Need an SEO Strategy for Your Website? Search No Further.

Improving websites by revising new and existing content is a big part of our SEO services at HenkinSchultz.

We develop every client SEO strategy around keyword research, technical SEO needs, and user behavior. Then we track and analyze results to improve search performance further. Learn more about our digital services at HenkinSchultz.

Put our HS digital team to work, and we’ll create, coordinate, and track digital and SEO strategies for you. Contact us today!