How to Win Position Zero on SERPs

Position zero, AKA the featured snippet—the holy grail of SERPs since its implementation in 2014 as the highest-featured result to many questions being asked online. It’s the search result that shows up in its own box at the very top of a SERP, before the top search result. While not every question gets a position zero answer—according to a major study from Ahrefs, only 12.29% of search queries had a snippet—the ones that do tend to be frequently asked.

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There are few important things to know about featured snippets before trying to craft your content to their liking. Featured snippets:

• • are typically viewed as the “one true answer” to the question being asked.
  • help voice search by providing those reliable answers.
  • are organically generated.

That last point is important to remember because there are some guidelines on how these snippets are organically generated. To be found for snippets, the result must be on the first page—the Ahrefs study found that 99.58% of featured snippets are in the top 10 positions on Google, with the top 5 being the majority of those featured. The content must also be relevant to the search term and be completely correct. If it is formatted nicely, singling out answers to the search queries, it also has a better chance.

But how can you write content with potential search queries in mind? Well, the best way is to look at what sort of queries get featured snippets. The main types of searches that get them are:

• • 5W’s and H
  • How-to guides and instructions
  • Recipes
  • Comparisons
  • Price Breakdowns

The 5W’s and H point refers to questions asking the basic points of knowledge about anything—who, what, when, where, why, and how. If your content answers one of these questions and is formatted correctly, it has a much better chance of ending up at position zero. How-to guides and instructions generally lead to explanatory paragraphs or lists, another favored format for featured snippets. Recipes are the same. Comparisons and price breakdowns lead into the other format that position zero boasts regularly, which is a table. If your content is dealing in harder data, putting it into tables and lists is highly useful and is loved by search engines.

The way to build position zero-ready content consists of 6 steps:

• • Give a direct answer to a question.
  • Provide details after the answer to support and describe it.
  • End your content with strong examples and supporting evidence.
  • Optimize your site for various platforms and SEO.
  • Create other great content to build the credibility and traffic to your site.
  • Boost your SERP position with backlinks and marketing strategies that bring in more engagement.

Reaching position zero is tough, and it will take a lot of time and effort to build viable content that is likely to be featured. This goes hand in hand with having enough credibility to get you ranking high on SERPs in the first place. But if you can start to do the tips mentioned above, you’ll be well on your way to having your content hit that coveted position zero on SERPs.

If you want content that will stand out and find favor from search engines, then Kraus Marketing can help. Our expert team of copywriters can help craft great content with current SEO strategies in mind. For all of your marketing needs, including branding, web design, and digital marketing, contact our team to get started today.