Around one-fifth of all keywords trigger a featured snippet

99 percent of all included bits tend to appear within the first organic position and take control of 50% of the screen on mobile phones, driving higher-than-average click-through rates (CTR).

The key to included snippet optimization lies in a few particular areas: long-tail- and question-like keyword method, date significant content that comes at the best length and format, and a concise URL structure.

Google has actually constantly been quite hazy on any details about winning highlighted bits. This held true when they were initially introduced, making them something services thought about to be the cherry on top of their SEO efforts, which is still largely the case. Having first-hand understanding about the worth and power of highlighted snippets, Brado teamed up with Semrush to carry out the most comprehensive research study around featured bit optimization to uncover how they really work, and what you can do to win them.

Revealing the highlights from an Included bits study that analyzed over a million SERPs with highlighted snippets present, this post unwraps actionable suggestions on amping up your optimization method to finally win that Google reward.

General patterns across the featured bit landscape.

With billions of search queries go through the Google search box each day, our research study found that around 19 percent of keywords activate a featured snippet. Why does this even matter? Featured snippets are known to drive higher CTR-- as another study uncovered, they are responsible for over 35 percent of all clicks.

More proving the enormous power of highlighted bits, our research study showed that they use up over half of the SERP's realty on mobile screens.

Integrate this with our findings that 99 percent of the time featured bits take over the very first organic position, which they remain in a lot of cases set off by long-tail keywords (suggesting specific user intent), and you'll get the reason behind extremely high CTR numbers.

Are some industries more likely to trigger featured snippets?

In the study, we defined industries by keyword classifications, finding that, indeed, included bit volume is inconsistent throughout numerous sectors.

The leading market, seeing a featured bit in 62 percent of all cases, is Travel and Computer System & Electronic devices, followed by Arts & Home entertainment (59 percent), and Science (54 percent), while Realty keywords lag behind all the rest with only 11 percent of keywords setting off an included bit.

included snippet optimization insights on keyword categories that trigger.

On a domain level, the industry breakdown varies a little, with Health and News websites having equivalent featured snippet volumes.

You can find the complete market breakdown within the study.

Included bits are all about makes, not wins.

Just hoping your material will win you an included bit isn't enough-- as our research study showed, it's all about hard-earned content optimization outcomes.

When it concerns optimization and keywords, employ 'the more the better' reasoning.

Our study found that 55.5 percent of highlighted bits were triggered by 10-word keywords, while single-word ones just showed up 4.3 percent of the time.

Something even better than long-tails is concerns. 29 percent of keywords triggering an included snippet begin with concern words-- "why" (78 percent), "can" (72 percent), "do" (67 percent), and in the least cases, "where" (19 percent).

included snippet optimization insights on concern keywords that activate.

The SERPs we examined consisted of 4 types of featured snippet: paragraphs, lists, tables, and videos:.

70 percent of the results showed paragraphs, with approximately 42 words and 249 characters.

Lists came in as the second-most-frequent highlighted bit (19 percent), with approximately 6 item counts and 44 words.

Tables (6 percent) generally featured five rows and two columns.

Videos, whose typical duration stood at 6:39 mins, showed up in only 4.6 percent of all cases.

Obviously, do not blindly follow this information as the principle, rather see it as an excellent starting point for featured-snippet-minded content optimization.

Plus, keep in mind that content quality always dominates quantity, so if you have a high-performing piece that includes a 10-row table, Google will just suffice down, revealing the blue "More rows" link, which can even boost your CTR.

As it turns out, URL length matters in Google's option of a website that should have a highlighted bit. Try to adhere to neat website architecture, with 1-3 subfolders per URL, and you'll be most likely to win.

Simply for recommendation, here is an example of a URL with 3 subfolders:.

xyz.com/subfolder1/subfolder2/subfolder3.

In the "to add or not to add a post date" predicament, based upon our featured snippet analysis, we 'd suggest that you release date-marked content.

The majority of Google's featured bits consist of a post date, with the Website link following breakdown: 47 percent of list-type highlighted snippets come from date-marked material, paragraphs-- 44 percent, videos-- 20 percent, and tables-- 19 percent of the time.

While fresh-out-of-the-oven content can be favored by Google, 70 percent of all content making it into the included snippet was anywhere from 2 to 3 years old (2018, 2019, 2020), implying as soon as again that content quality matters more than recency, so you shouldn't fret that putting a date on it will work versus you.