1.4 Million Google Featured Snippets Tested - Here's What We Found

A.J. Ghergich Ghergich & Co. Founder/CEO @SEO

Our Work

Featured Snippet Examples

Paragraph

Table

List

For a more detailed primer into featured snippets, visit my presentation from Dreamforce 2016 http://www.slideshare.net/ghergich/featured-snippets-are-the-most-exciting-thing-in-search

Why you should focus on Featured Snippets

1 Leapfrog your competition to position zero

2 Gain free organic traffic

3 Answer your customers’ actual questions

4 Earn trust from awareness to the decision phase

In a study with SEMrush, we analyzed1.4 million featured snippets.

The goal was to focus our analysis on 29 questions, prepositions, and

comparison search phrases.

Featured Snippet Questions

“How” and “Have” are strong contenders to earn list featured

snippets. “Which” has the highest likelihood of earning a table

compared to the others. Questions are fantastic at earning

paragraph snippets.

Key Findings of Featured Snippet Questions

Breakdown of Featured Snippet Questions

Featured Snippet Prepositions

Prepositions are the best by far at earning lists. “For” (11.38%

tables) and “Like” (94.09% paragraphs) are the exceptions.

Key Findings of Featured Snippet Prepositions

Breakdown of Featured Snippet Prepositions

Featured Snippet Comparisons

Comparisons are the best at earning tables. “Price” is a golden

opportunity to earn a high ROI table. Surprisingly, “vs” and

“versus” were poor performers at earning tables. “Comparing”

also had a high number of lists (31.94%).

Key Findings of Featured Snippet Comparisons

Breakdown of Featured Snippet Comparisons

Featured Snippets Overall Breakdown

How to Optimize for Featured Snippets

Optimal Featured Snippet Lengths

45 Words are Optimal for Featured Snippet Paragraphs

Longer Lists are Best

Optimized Lists

Optimized Tables

Google tends to show landscape images around 285 x 160 pixels.So landscape images, similar to the following dimensions, should be optimized for Featured Snippets.

Answer the Public Keyword Tool

SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool (Beta)

Presentation is pinned @SEO. Please retweet. Special thanks to @YuliaShevy and the research team at SEMrush for providing such in-depth research.