These are cream-of-the-crop excerpts that show above the search results answering the searcher's questions. This is the money spot, where your blog post can shine front and center. Featured snippets can come in many different ways; they can come in the form of a paragraph, list, or table.
What does a featured snippet look like?
Someone making the search of ‘how to travel and work full time’ would have a good chance of clicking on this article and not bouncing off.
How do you write for Featured Snippets?
After performing keyword research, you may find a long-tailed keyword that is a question a searcher may be asking. You want to pose the question in a header tag (H1, H2, H3, etc), near the top of the page and answer the question below it.
What type of words trigger Featured Snippets?
Who or What or When or Where or Why or Are or Was or Which or Will or How or Have or Does or Do or Can or Is or Should.
Note that not all featured snippets come from a question, featured snippets are also shown with a query with a preposition like ‘for’, ‘like’, ‘to’, ‘with’, and ‘without’.
Different kinds of results show different questions. MOZ did a fantastic study on the matter and found different words may elicit a different featured snippet type.
Most of the time Google shows a paragraph, however, some words trigger other featured snippet types. How and Have questions could show a paragraph, but How and Have both have a higher probability of showing a list than other questions.
For the most part, many of the question-type words will show a paragraph if a featured snippet is shown. If a list is an appropriate way to answer the question, then ask the question and answer the question in list form at the of the page.
Five Featured Snippet Types on Google Search
Paragraph: usually appear when a question is searched
Lists: numbered lists usually appear when a step-by-step sequence and bullet point lists usually appear when a non-sequence search is made
Table: appears when data is pulled by Google during a search
Videos: appears when a relevant video is found during a search, usually on YouTube
Double-Featured: this is when two snippets appear together and usually show an image and paragraph content from two separate sources.
Other Featured Snippets Best Practices
If answering the question in paragraph form, keep the paragraph to 40-50 words.
If answering the question in a list, have more than 8 items in the list so Google displays ‘show more' at the bottom, so the searcher must go to your site to view the rest of the list.
If showing a table in your blog post, have no more than 3 columns and have up to 9 rows.
If there is a relevant image for your paragraph, list, or table, make sure to add your keyword and query in the image alt tag and file name. Sometimes Google may show an image from one site and a paragraph from a completely different site.
Always keep your paragraphs, lists, and tables compelling, and unique and draw the searcher in to want to go visit your blog and view your post.
If you see a featured snippet you want to win for, make your content better than the current snippet and follow best practices. Ding. Ding. Ding.
Interesting Read: The Different Types of Featured Snippets and How to Get Them
Make your blog post rise to the top and answer the question the searcher may be asking!