Competition over position within organic search results is mostly associated with website search engine optimisation.
You can rank high if you decide to pay for it (Google AdWords campaigns.) Yet, sponsored links have nothing to do with organic search results. What appears at the top of search results are called featured snippets. Google simply detects pages that answer users’ queries and display the most interesting fragments of text. Featured snippets or the so called ”0” positions are designed to catch users’ attention.
What are featured snippets?
Featured snippets basically answer users’ questions.
Users type their queries in search box and expect to find answers. Search engine detects pages which answer user’s queries in the best possible way and shows the most suitable answer at the very top. Features snippets texts appear in a separate box together with graphics, if available, and link to the source.
Graphic appears if it’s on the website. Featured snippets don’t have to come with graphics. Yet, sometimes text comes from one website and graphics from another. In this case just below image there’s a link to the website it comes from.
Featured snippets rank for position ”0” which means they appear higher than both organic and paid search results. Yet, it sometimes happens that AdWords links appear first. It happens when a given query is paid for in AdWords campaigns.
How to rank for position ”0”?
Google decides which website appears as featured snippet. Still, you can look carefully and draw certain conclusions regarding characteristics of popular snippets ranking for position “0.”
They certainly need to answer users’ queries. The answer must be clear, short and simple since Google displays featured snippets with about 300 characters. Hence, if we want to distinguish our website we need to have proper content providing simple answer to the most frequently asked questions.
Website search engine optimisation is another important factor. It’s obvious that displayed fragment needs to include a keyword. It’s even better if we publish on our website complete question which can appear in search box and right below a short answer. We can’t also forget about graphics optimisation.
Current website listing is also important. Google doesn’t really look for answers on poor quality websites. Website’s presence within featured snippets means that this website is valuable and trustworthy. Rank ”0” affects not only number of sessions but also positive website reception online.
