What’s even better than ranking first in the organic results on SERPs? Position zero! But what is position zero? And why should I want it? Let's discuss...
It’s a unique concept and the SEO holy grail. Position zero (P0) can prevent your content from getting lost in the sea of search results. It is more like having the spotlight shine on your content.
Skip to: Featured Snippet Optimization (in 5 steps)
What Does Position Zero Mean?
Position Zero, or P0, means an organic spot between paid ads at the top of the search engine results page (SERPs) and the organic search results below.
It displays the content that answers the person’s question without requiring them to click through to a website.
Importance of Position Zero
Search engines have increased the number of paid ads and the prominence of position zero results. They have lowered the organic search results and reduced the number of organic results that can appear on page one of SERPs.
So, while organic search results are essential, optimizing for featured snippets to secure position zero is more important.
Users typically place greater trust in position zero content than in ads. The visibility and traffic of your website can get a significant boost with your content appearing in position zero.
To users, position zero is like Google’s stamp of approval. Position zero will also increase the number of qualified leads you get.
To summarize, the key benefits of position zero are credibility, visibility, increased traffic, and better leads.
About Featured Snippets
Featured snippets occupy the much-coveted ‘Position Zero.’ According to Google Search Central, featured snippets are special boxes that display the descriptive snippet first.
This format is the reverse of the regular search results. Usually, featured snippets contain only one listing. In some cases, there might be more than one.
Example of a featured snippet
Within Google search results, featured snippets and Knowledge Graph information may appear on their own or in the ‘People also ask’ section.
Additionally, webpages that appear as a featured snippet won’t appear again on page one of Google’s organic search results.
Featured snippets differ from rich snippets/rich results, which are organic search results with enhanced visual appeal and more data.
When a SERP includes a featured snippet, the click-through rate (CTR) for the page in the first position of organic search results drops by 5.3%.
The design of featured snippets is designed to draw users' attention. That’s probably why featured snippets have the highest CTR (42.9%).
Source: Smart Insights through Sistrix
When a user clicks a featured snippet, they are typically taken to the part of the page that contains the answer to the query (i.e., the part that appeared in the snippet) via automatic scrolling.
Featured Snippet Optimization (in 5 steps)
- Understand your market and opportunities
- Do keyword research
- Use questions in your headings
- Arrange your content and use structured data
- Learn from your competitors
Featured snippets prioritize the page's content over link metrics. Even SERP results on page 2 can rank in position zero with a featured snippet.
Here are a few tips that can help you optimize for featured snippets and position zero:
1. Understand your market and opportunities
The first step is to understand the opportunities for your site. Featured snippets may be less valuable in some markets.
On the other hand, if your website serves a niche where FAQs and detailed steps/processes are in high demand, you will benefit from optimizing for featured snippets.
You also need to understand the type of featured snippets that are more useful/popular in your niche and optimize for that type of snippet.
2. Do keyword research
As with all SEO best practices, you need keyword research backing your efforts to appear in featured snippets. Featured snippets appear for terms with higher search volume.
Long-tail queries are more likely to return featured snippets. Question words and action words are most important for featured snippets.
Also, pay attention to search terms with implied questions if you wish your content to appear at position zero.
Source: Freepik
3. Use questions in your headings
It is a simple trick. You’re handing over the snippet's content to Google on a platter.
The user query should be prominently displayed as a question on your page. Follow this question with a concise answer (40-60 words), and follow it up with details.
When your content appears in a featured snippet, the user will see the short answer and know the content they are seeking is available on your page.
The user must click the link to your page to obtain the detailed information.
4. Arrange your content and use structured data
Search engines look for code on your site that can let them know easily and quickly what your content is about.
Structured data provides explicit clues about content and makes crawling easier.
It’s even more critical that your content has a clear, structured format. Wherever applicable, use lists or tables.
Delineate the steps in processes and mark them clearly. By structuring your content properly, you will increase its potential for selection for specific types of featured snippets.
Attaching a video to the answer for a ‘how-to’ question is more likely to earn a featured snippet and a higher CTR.
5. Learn from your competitors
Study your competitors and learn about the popular featured snippets in your market. You can use online tools to identify the keyword groups where your competitors have successfully secured featured snippets.
With the aid of tools, you’ll be able to understand the topics, the target keywords, the type of featured snippets, and the users' search intent.
You might even benefit from the SEO recommendations that the tools offer. You need to deliver more value than your competitors through your content: optimizing your content strategy—how to create content that converts.
Wrapping Up
Earning the P0 spot is like securing SEO gold. Superb, user-helpful content is paramount for securing a featured snippet and ranking in position zero.
To increase your website's credibility, traffic, and visibility, featured snippet optimization should be on your SEO strategy list.
