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Featured snippets
Featured snippets are short summaries or definitions that appear in a box above organic search results. They aim to directly answer the user's query without requiring a click. Landing featured snippets provides a boost to visibility and traffic. Having naturally optimized content capable of triggering these snippets depends more on relevancy than keywords. Pages must comprehensively answer the query using a scannable summary style with minimal clicks to view full content.
Quality content focused on answering common "how to" or "what is" types of questions performs best. Topical authority, trust signals and CTR help determine featured snippet eligibility. Researching common related queries identifies prime candidates for further optimization like expanding abbreviated responses and linking internally.
Regular updates keep eligible pages timely and ensuring answers remain accurate. However, focused optimization for the purpose of featured snippets often backfires as Google detects forced relevance. It works best as a side benefit of naturally helpful information architecture.
Monitoring tools can reveal which pages rank for featured snippets to recognize gaps. But reliance on organic triggers alone ensures relevance remains king over questionable optimizations for search engine real estate.