Around one-fifth of all keywords set off a featured snippet

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

The secret to included bit optimization lies in a few specific areas: long-tail- and question-like keyword strategy, date marked content that comes at the best length and format, and a succinct URL structure.

Google has constantly been pretty hazy on any details about winning highlighted bits. This held true when they were first introduced, making them something companies thought about to be the cherry on top of their SEO efforts, which is still mainly the case. Having first-hand understanding about the worth and power of highlighted bits, Brado coordinated with Semrush to conduct the most comprehensive research study around included bit optimization to discover how they truly work, and what you can do to win them.

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

General patterns throughout the included snippet landscape.

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

Additional proving the enormous power of featured snippets, our research study showed that they use up over half of the SERP's property on mobile screens.

Combine this with our findings that 99 percent of the time included snippets take Learn here over the first natural position, which they remain in many cases triggered by long-tail keywords (implying particular user intent), and you'll get the factor behind exceptionally high CTR numbers.

Are some markets more likely to trigger featured bits?

In the study, we specified markets by keyword classifications, discovering that, indeed, featured bit volume is irregular throughout different sectors.

The leading industry, seeing a featured bit in 62 percent of all cases, is Travel and Computer System & Electronics, followed by Arts & Entertainment (59 percent), and Science (54 percent), while Property keywords drag all the rest with just 11 percent of keywords setting off a featured bit.

included bit optimization insights on keyword classifications that activate.

Yet on a domain level, the industry breakdown differs a little, with Health and News websites having comparable featured snippet volumes.

You can find the full industry breakdown within the study.

Featured bits are everything about earns, not wins.

Just hoping your content will win you a featured bit isn't enough-- as our research study showed, it's everything about hard-earned content optimization results.

When it comes to optimization and keywords, employ 'the more the much better' logic.

Our research study discovered that 55.5 percent of featured snippets were triggered by 10-word keywords, while single-word ones only appeared 4.3 percent of the time.

Something even much better than long-tails is questions. In truth, 29 percent of keywords setting off an included bit start with concern words-- "why" (78 percent), "can" (72 percent), "do" (67 percent), and in the least cases, "where" (19 percent).

featured bit 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 revealed paragraphs, with approximately 42 words and 249 characters.

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

Tables (6 percent) normally included 5 rows and two columns.

Videos, whose typical period stood at 6:39 minutes, appeared in just 4.6 percent of all cases.

Naturally, do not blindly follow this data as the principle, rather see it as a great starting point for featured-snippet-minded content optimization.

Plus, remember that content quality constantly prevails over quantity, so if you have a high-performing piece that includes a 10-row table, Google will just cut it down, showing the blue "More rows" link, which can even improve your CTR.

As it ends up, URL length matters in Google's option of a website that is worthy of a featured snippet. Attempt to stick to neat website architecture, with 1-3 subfolders per URL, and you'll be more likely to win.

Just for referral, here is an example of a URL with three subfolders:.

xyz.com/subfolder1/subfolder2/subfolder3.

In the "to include or not to include a post date" problem, based on our featured bit analysis, we 'd suggest that you release date-marked content.

Most of Google's featured bits consist of an article date, with the following breakdown: 47 percent of list-type highlighted bits originate from date-marked content, paragraphs-- 44 percent, videos-- 20 percent, and tables-- 19 percent of the time.

While fresh-out-of-the-oven content can be preferred by Google, 70 percent of all content making it into the included snippet was anywhere from two to three years of ages (2018, 2019, 2020), indicating when again that content quality matters more than recency, so you shouldn't fret that putting a date on it will work against you.