GOOGLE RICH ANSWERSWhy They Can No Longer Be Ignored

SEO and Content Manager

@seanbutcher

ABOUT MESean Butcher

WHAT ARE RICH ANSWERS?

“A ‘rich answer’ is any attempt by Google to answer the searcher’s query in search results in a way not requiring a click through to a website.” - Eric Enge

Read this at: https://www.stonetemple.com/the-growth-of-rich-answers-in-googles-search-results/

EVENTS

KEY DATES

TABLES

PEOPLE

MAPS

CAROUSELS

These use ‘s own data or trusted sources

WE’RE GOING TO FOCUS ON...

FEATURED SNIPPETS (3rd PARTY)

WE KNOW THEY ARE GROWING

CHECK OUT THIS awesome study

https://www.stonetemple.com/the-growth-of-rich-answers-in-googles-search-results/

Dec 2014 vs Jul 2015: 855,243 queries

July 2015December 2014

Source: stonetemple.com

Overall Growth in Rich Answers

22.6%

31.2%35%

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%

PREDICTED TO BE 40% BY END OF 2015

75% OF RICH ANSWERS ARE FEATURED SNIPPETS

WHY ARE THEY GROWING?

KNOWLEDGE GRAPH

CONVERSATIONAL SEARCH HABITS

VOICE SEARCH

WHY WE NEED TO BE TAKING NOTE

NOT EVERYONE IS HAPPY ABOUT THEM

Read this at: http://googlepolicyeurope.blogspot.com.br/2014/09/we-built-google-for-users-not-websites.html

We built Google for users, not websites - Eric Schmidt

See patent at - https://www.google.com/patents/US8819006

GOOGLE PATENT

VISUALLY APPEALING

Source: http://blog.optimaltargeting.com/2013/08/infographics-the-future-of-marketing/

BRAIN PROCESSES VISUALS 60,000x FASTER THAN TEXT

CONTENT WITH RELEVANT VISUALS RECEIVES 94% MORE VIEWS

Source: https://blog.bufferapp.com/a-complete-guide-to-creating-awesome-visual-content

Confluent Forms case study - ‘What is a RFP’ - http://searchengineland.com/get-featured-snippets-site-224959

BIG BOOST IN CTR

Study by Ben Goodsell, read at - http://searchengineland.com/seo-featured-snippets-leads-big-gains-236212

FURTHER EVIDENCE

PERIOD GOOGLE ORGANIC SESSIONS TO LANDING PAGE

4 months before Quick Answer visibility 139,758

4 months after Quick Answer visibility 861,385

CHANGE 516.34%

DON’T NEED TO BE ORGANIC #1

SO HOW DO YOU ACHIEVE A FEATURED SNIPPET?

Review in full at: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6229325?hl=en

GOOGLE’S ADVICE

ERIC ENGE’S ADVICE

Identify a simple question1

Provide a direct answer2

Offer valued added info3

Make it easy for users (and Google) to find4

I CARRIED OUT A SMALL STUDY - 200

‘HOW’, ‘WHAT’, ‘WHERE’, ‘WHY’ QUERIES

METRICS I LOOKED AT

The page with the highest DA in search result

The page with the most links in the search

result

DA, PA and links to

snippet page

Organic ranking of snippet page

(2)

ORGANIC POSITIONAL SPREAD OF SNIPPET PAGE

DOMAIN AUTHORITY OF SNIPPET

WITH PAGE AUTHORITY...

% OF RESULTS WHERE SNIPPET HAS HIGHEST DA

Snippets DA: 74

Search result with highest DA

DA: 97

AVERAGE DA - SNIPPET vs HIGHEST IN RESULT

EXTERNAL LINKS TO SNIPPET

MOST LINKED TO ORGANIC RESULT

% OF RESULTS WHERE SNIPPET HAS HIGHEST NUMBER OF LINKS

WHAT ABOUT THE CONTENT?

WHEN DO THE TRAINS STOP RUNNING IN LONDON

VISIT LONDON: ANSWER TO QUESTION AT TOP OF PAGE

VISIT LONDON: LOTS OF FURTHER INFO PROVIDED

TFL: NO ANSWER PROVIDED ON RESULT PAGE

TFL: INFO ON DOWNLOAD THOUGH NOT USER-FRIENDLY

HOW TO APPLY SUNSCREEN

AAD: NICE BIG VIDEO & CLEAR, BULLETED TEXT TRANSCRIPT

NHS: VIDEO SMALLER, TRANSCRIPT HIDDEN & LESS CLEAR

THE FUTURE

SNIPPET TRACKING IN SEARCH CONSOLE

Source: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-featured-snippets-real-time-21375.html

EVEN FASTER UPDATES

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-schema-featured-snippets-21133.html

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6229325?hl=en

SCHEMA?

NOT ALL PERFECT YET!

http://searchengineland.com/swapped-losing-google-featured-snippet-case-study-228899

https://www.semrush.com/blog/how-to-discover-and-track-featured-snippets/

http://www.hmtweb.com/marketing-blog/featured-snippets-from-seo-sem-industry/

ENJOY THIS FURTHER READING...

@seanbutcher

THANKS FOR LISTENING!