What does the featured snippet update mean for your SEO?

on page and off page seo Preston

Google is the undisputed number one search engine in the world. And this is because it focuses on placing the best possible results in front of the searcher, using ranking factors of relevance, originality and quality of content, to organise website results into hierarchical order. So for companies and businesses, trying to secure the top ranking position on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) producing quality content is an essential part of the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. The biggest success indicator for the quality of the content is generally seen as the ranking position, with featured snippets, or position zero being the coveted top spot. But what is a featured snippet? And what does the featured snippet update mean for your SEO? Well, here at Pumpkin Web Design, we are Preston’s leading web design and web marketing professionals. We provide valuable web design, SEO, and marketing solutions to a range of clients, across the North West, including Southport and Wigan, as well as Manchester. As a result, we have produced this guide to everything small businesses need to know about the featured snippet update.

What are featured snippets?

Featured snippets are also known as rich results, and these are shown above the organic content on the SERP, generally with a larger selection of text, and an associated image, boxed off from the rest of the search results. This is incredibly attention grabbing, and generally secures the majority of organic traffic for that web result.

Featured snippets are also the content that is read out by Google Assistant when using voice search. In this instance, when a users asks a specific question, the featured snippet will be read out, and the user sent a link to the web-page. None of the other search results will be noted at all.

What does the featured snippet update mean for your SEO strategy?

Just this week, Google have released a featured snippet update. But what is this update, and what does it mean for your SEO strategy? Well, the aim of this update is to de-duplicate some search results. In the past, when your company landed a features snippet, the usual link would also appear at some point within the search results. This meant that businesses could technically land two SERP positions for the same search term, and as a result, secure a lions share of the organic traffic. While this is great for companies and businesses, the initial searcher is not benefiting from the double links, and so by de-duplicating these results, Google is aiming to improve the user experience. So what does this mean for you?

For companies and businesses the featured snippet update will probably not mean any changes at all the organic traffic level, as the majority of organic traffic is driven by the features snippet, and not your duplicated link. But it does mean that:

  • For any features snippet results you have, you will lose the duplicated URL
  • URLs in featured snippets that are also ranking on page two of the search engine results pages (SERPs) may have that listing removed

Why not get in touch with leading digital marketing experts, here at Pumpkin Web Design, for professional, results driven digital marketing support?

Pumpkin Web Design Ltd is a small and highly results driven digital agency working for like minded clients in Preston, Chorley, Southport, Blackburn, Burnley, Morecambe,Wigan, Manchester, London, Warrington, Blackpool, Lancaster, Leyland, Lytham St Annes, Bolton, Chester and the UK. Our services include web design, SEO, content marketing, video production, brand design and much more.