Answers to Queries

Queries and Answers

Google prioritize short and concise answers to users' queries, no more than 30 words long.

1. Answer questions
2. Be readable
3. Provide for featured snippets
4. Implement local SEO if you are focusing on local business or or local public.
5. Use schema markup
6. Improve page speed and security.
7. Try to build your content in a conversational manner, asking and answering questions.
8. Structurize your copy in short easy-to-read paragraphs with a question form subheading.
9. Create a how-to part on your page.
10. Use different lists with numbers or bullet points, tables, steps, etc.

The most common types of featured snippets are:

• Paragraphs (WHAT questions);
• Lists/ Steps (HOW questions);
• Tables;
• Images;
• Charts.

Start with the most important information to answer the question; transit to more details beyond the direct answer and add visual support; wrap up with examples or case studies.

First of all, to think of the best answer, you have to identify a simple question that users may ask when searching for something related to your area of expertise. 

When you ask a question and understand that the answer is a matter of a simple fact, like somebody's birth date, then it is a so called factoid, and it will be shown as Knowledge Graph. Thus, your question should be more complicated and require a more substantial answer.

Once you have separated more comprehensive questions from the ones that summon factoids, check the techniques that are able to trigger the use of a featured snippet.

Why everything happens? Photo by Elena.

Ws (Who, What, When, Where, Why) + How questions

Here the Why and How questions attract snippets best of all, as they require more explanation and cannot be easily answered with factoids.

Why-questions usually produce a paragraph-like snippet, like here when I asked "Why are clouds grey?"

How-questions, as a rule, trigger some practical advice, usually showing a list. Here I asked "How to watch a solar eclipse?"

Moreover, snippets for why- and how-questions usually serve as teasers and provoke the users to explore further by clicking the link.

Implied questions

Users usually do not type in the query with a question word but they surely imply it. For example, you may just type "CTR", however, in your head the query sounds like "What is CTR?" Google will also recognize it as an implied question.

Beware, common words will trigger a dictionary entry instead of a featured snippet. So the question that you devise should ask for more specialized knowledge that cannot be reduced to a simple dictionary definition.

A good way to get more ideas on search queries is by consulting "People also ask" box in the SERP.

Now you know what kind of questions trigger featured snippets. You can efficiently build your content around them. 

An easy way to find all possible queries is to use Rank Tracker:

1. Launch Rank Tracker (if you don't have it, you can download SEO PowerSuite's free version here) and create a project for your site.
2. Go to the Keyword Research module and click Suggest Keywords .
3. Pick the Google Autocomplete suggestion method from the list.

By typing or pasting your questions with wildcards to the tool (i.e., what *seo*, how *seo*, etc.) you will receive tons of suggestions related to your keywords.

You can filter your results by the important metrics, like Number of Searches and KEI, and comprise a list of questions that cover your niche.

You can check then that long-tail keywords return the featured snippets, for example, I Googled "why SEO is important":

Research answers

Well, by now you have in mind the variety of the questions that should cover the content that you want to compete with for a featured snippet. The content optimization in this case calls for good old keyword search.

Ahrefs analyzed 2 million featured snippets and extracted top 30 frequently met words in the search queries that trigger featured snippets (stop words excluded). I compiled the most common ones in a list that you can copy right away to the Rank Tracker (Keyword Research -> Suggest Keywords -> Google Autocomplete). Take the ones that are related to your niche and replace with your actual keywords:

Top keywords list takeaway

Rank Tracker is also a good tool to get the ideas for higher volume keywords and, what's more important, long-tail keywords. By pressing the Suggest Keywords button in the Keyword Research module in the app, you will get an array of options that will allow you to highly diversify your search for keywords. You may explore:

• Keywords related to your niche of the market;
• Keywords related to your site and competitors;
• Keywords from other search engines and services;
• Keywords building via word combinations and typos.

Optimize the format

Why this is important? Great content deserves decent wrapping to let Google efficiently pick up the information for the featured snippet. By wise HTML formatting, you can guide Google to the necessary spots to retrieve the data for the answer box.

Moreover, the suitable format may help you either to steal position zero from the page with weaker formatting, or to keep your page on this position — any moment you may lose your snippet to a site coming from nowhere. In case of any of these scenarios, try to check whether everything is in order according to our guidelines below. If your snippet is stolen, try to analyze why Google considered this intruder to be better than your page is and apply the changes to your page accordingly.

Here is what you should pay attention to:

1. Type-wise format: Try to format your target page according to the major types of the featured snippets:

• Paragraphs: Think of the short summary to answer a potential query — Google has a tendency to prefer the answers that begin logically as an answer would do; This single answer paragraph should be about 40-50 words to fit in the answer box. Format this paragraph in a paragraph HTML tag <p>; Put this paragraph right under the heading for the question.
• Tables: Google loves to include tables into the featured snippets, as they are much easier to understand for computers, unlike natural language paragraphs. So when it makes sense, add the tabular data or reformat suitable paragraphs into tables. Mark up the table on your page using the <table> tag. Lists/ Steps: Use a heading tag above the list on your page; Give this list a title that matches the targeted keyword. As Google can make its own lists out of the text instead of snipping the paragraph, you can format your text with subheadings (H2) where it is logical to do so. Then Google will take your subheadings and list them chronologically. Featured snippets of a list type can be tricky in a way that by giving all the steps in the answer box, you discourage users to click the link to your page — they have already got all the necessary information!

Thus, try not to lay all the cards on the table — format the text the way to save some no less important steps from the users' view. In this case Google will give "More items" link. And that is a call to click!

Clear-cut answers

If the content on your page is too long to fit in the answer box, you can chop it up to paragraphs, lists, or tables.

In case you have quite a few target questions, you can add a Q&A Section where all the related questions will be put together with ideally formatted answers.

If your page's content updates regularly, use a "last updated" tag. In this case Google and users understand how current you post is.

Request indexing by Google

Why this is important? We recommend to use Google Search Console to re-crawl your pages. Apparently, this request almost instantly updates Google's index of the page. It means that your page can gain a featured snippet the same day you did re-indexing.

If you feel that your page is well-armed for position 0, follow the procedure:

1. Log in to Google Search Console.
2. Expand the "Crawl" menu and click "Fetch as Google."
3. Put in your page address and click "Fetch":
4. It will be added to the table. Click "Request Indexing":

Useful links:

• link-assistant.com/news/voice-search-guide.html - among other things
• https://www.link-assistant.com/rank-tracker/keyword-research-tool.html - kewword research tool.

Above all, try to stay positive. Photo by Elena: View from the Toronto CN Tower.