How To Get Your First Google Featured Snippet

This post will show everything you need to do to get your first Google-featured snippet.

A couple of days ago, I found out that some posts on my lifestyle blog rank on the first page of Google with a few featured snippets.

Of course, my excitement was off the roof. I’ve been super strategic with my blog from the beginning, so I wasn’t surprised when I got these results quickly.

As always, with all my achievements, I’ll take a step back to review all the strategies I’ve used to reach this point in this post.

But before we dig in, here are some key statistics you need to know about my lifestyle blog;

• It was created in May 2019 but was primarily inactive until April 2020 during the first lockdown.
• It’s a lifestyle blog with three niches, primarily skin care.
• Its significant traffic sources are Pinterest (80%) and Google (20%), and organic traffic is increasing daily.
• It has about 100,000 page views and gets about 12,000 monthly average views.
• It has a Domain Authority of 22 (Oct. 2020)
• It has less than 100 published posts, and 97% are optimized for SEO. The only exceptions are the pages.

Now that these statistics are out of the way, we understand the kind of blog we’re dealing with.

I’d like to mention that I have seven years of digital marketing experience.

So, aside from one Pinterest course that I bought, which is responsible for most of my Pinterest traffic, every other strategy, including SEO, is self-taught.

Here is how to get your first Google Featured Snippet in no time.

Since we’re focusing on Google, this part will dive deeper into my SEO strategies.

SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization for those new to the term.

It just implies all your strategies to get consistent traffic from Google. It’s as simple as that.

Now, SEO is majorly split into two;

• On-page SEO is optimising your entire blog and posts for Google traffic.
• Off-page SEO is all the signals that tell Google that your blog should be taken seriously and deserves all that sweet organic traffic.

While SEO can get complicated and advanced very quickly, there are two key things that you should have at the back of your mind; Content and Links.

On-page SEO ensures that all your blog posts are optimized for keywords actively searched for on Google.

Off-page SEO is getting as many high-quality blogs/websites as possible to link to your blog.

These are called backlinks.

So, the two significant things that can get you a Google Featured Snippet are a well-optimized and structured blog post and good-quality links.

So, how do you write great content that ranks on the first page of Google?

On-Page SEO Strategies

Before now, I used to avoid SEO because I thought it was too technical.

I spent some time in my career as an SEO Content Writer, so content is definitely one of my strengths.

This means that my On-Page SEO Strategies were flawless.

All I needed to do was implement them.

If you are new to On-Page SEO or you just need a refresher, here are all the things you need to do to get results;

Do Keyword Research.

While everyone blogs for different reasons, if you are serious about organic traffic, you’ll only write content with keywords that are searched at least 10,000 – 100,000 times monthly.

Don’t pick short-tail keywords (one to two words) that are highly competitive or are searched 1,000 or 1 million times monthly.

Choose long-tail keywords with three to four words and write in-depth posts.

Your post should be 1000-1500 words and above, depending on the niche.

Use keyword tools like the Google Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest to pick your keywords.

Some people also like KeySearch as well.

Writing long posts was really a struggle for me for a long time.

These days, I do it almost four times a week on both of my blogs.

Optimize your posts for SEO.

If you use WordPress, you should use the Yoast SEO plugin or RankMath, which are becoming popular.

It will show you all the steps you need to take to ensure your post is well-optimized.

Use the headings to structure your posts.

This is key if you want your post to be picked up as a Google Featured Snippet.

Google loves concise information that is well structured.

Sprinkle your long-tail keyword in your post a few times.

Try not to overdo it by keyword stuffing.

Internally link related content to your post to tie your blog together.

Use external links to boost the credibility of your post.

Clean up your URLs and stick to your long-tailed keyword.

Write a concise meta-description with your long-tailed keyword.

Write Great Content.

Writing generic content is easy, but it won’t set your post apart because everyone is doing it.

So, you need to think outside the box for content ideas.

Think Search Intent. Before writing content, put yourself in a typical user’s shoes.

If you struggle to develop something, type your long-tail keyword into Google and look at its results.

See the kind of content for the keyword, and then write something similar but better.

These days, I do a lot of comparison posts and guides (not 500-word ones) because they work and help me rank for competitive keywords.

If you can’t come up with new content ideas, do some research, check out other authoritative blogs in your niche and see what is trending.

TIP: If your title tag is long, move your long-tail keyword to the beginning so it doesn’t get buried.

If possible, use original images.

While this tip might be difficult because of the various niches available, try using your own images if possible.

I started with my iPhone, but now I have a DSLR that I use to take my own photos.

I don’t have the best photography skills, but my images are decent enough for a featured snippet.

Plus, the more pictures I take, the better my skills improve.

Rather than using stock photos that have been used repeatedly, taking your own pictures will increase your chances of ranking on the first page for a keyword.

In addition to my posts, I optimize my images with long-tail keywords, which is why you can see all of them in the featured snippet.

Site Speed matters a lot, too.

I used to be with a very slow hosting company.

As a result, my blog had quite a lot of downtime.

Two months ago, I moved to Lyrical Host, a cheaper alternative to SiteGround, and I’m sure you’re seeing the results from my receipts.

My blog is super fast, and I have zero downtime.

These are some of the signals that tell Google that my blog deserves to rank on the first page.

Off-Page SEO Strategies to Get a Google Featured Snippet

In my opinion, On-page SEO is pretty easy if you know what you’re doing. Off-page SEO is where the work is.

Most of the strategies for Off-Page SEO are tied to link building which is the very foundation of Google Algorithm.

This is the process of building high-quality links to your website, which signals to Google that your website is trustworthy and, in turn, helps to boost your rankings.

Now, you’re probably wondering what is so difficult about getting links.

Before now, any kind of backlinks to your website used to be okay.

However, over the years, the Google Algorithm has become more advanced, and the digital space has become even more competitive and saturated.

Over time, this has lowered the effectiveness of low-quality links.

So, for your backlinks to have any significant effect on your rankings, they have to come from a website with a high domain authority.

One of the reasons I was able to rank that fast was that I got a high-quality backlink from a credible website with a domain authority of 81.

That’s pretty high for my DA of 20 at that time.

Of course, with that single high-quality backlink, my DA went up to 22.

When you pair that with my well-optimized posts, I was able to easily get a Google Featured Snippet.

It goes without saying that when it comes to backlinks, quality is more important than quantity. 

Don’t rush to get any links just for the sake of it.

Here are some foolproof ways to get backlinks:

Help A Reporter Out (HARO)

This is easily my best discovery of 2020.

HARO is a service that connects reporters to sources.

So, reporters and editors from all the major and minor digital publications are looking for sources for their articles.

Registering with HARO gives you three emails daily with tons of enquiries from different industries.

Your job is to sieve through those requests to find the ones you can respond to.

When you find one, you respond to the reporter, and if they are interested, they follow up with a few questions.

If they decide to use your response as a source, you get rewarded with a backlink.

This is one of the sure-fire ways to get press coverage and a high-quality backlink.

Now, that seems easy, yeah?

Well, not really.

These days, based on what I have noticed, the majority of the enquiries are specific.

The reporters are gravitating towards experts and licensed professionals.

If you fall into any of these categories, good for you.

If you are like me and you don’t, you just have to work harder to find requests that you can genuinely answer.

As I mentioned earlier, I got a single backlink from an authoritative website through HARO, which boosted my rankings.

So, give it a shot. It will definitely take a while, but it will be so worth it in the end.

TIP: Make sure that you are getting a do-follow backlink rather than a no-follow backlink.

This ensures that some juice from the authoritative site is passed to you.

Guest Posting.

There is much speculation about the effectiveness of guest posts.

As far as I am concerned, they still work.

The only issue is getting genuine websites to respond to guest post requests.

Many websites claim that they accept guest posts, but when you reach out to them, it’s all radio silence.

They never get back to you.

There’s also a category of websites with the most ridiculous conditions for guest posting that completely put you off.

These challenges don’t mean you should put off guest posts.

They work if you are ready to put in the work.

So, if you have connections in digital media, take advantage of them.

Link Swaps

Since I hate the platform, I won’t dispute that Facebook groups have been pivotal for my blog.

In terms of link building, I’ve found similar blogs with which I can swap links.

This involves joining a link-building group and posting your blog and niche as a post.

You’ll get responses from people in similar niches.

You’ll then add their link to any relevant post on your blog and vice versa. If you’re link swapping, make sure the content is related.

You don’t want to give Google a spam signal that will affect your rankings.

While the links from the Facebook groups might not be as authoritative as those from HARO, they are better than nothing.

At every point, always ensure that your backlink profile is a priority.

In Conclusion,

Writing SEO-optimized posts and getting a high-quality backlink is how I got a Google Featured Snippet.

I hope this post has helped you identify your areas for improvement and what you need to do about them.