Do you know how sometimes, when you perform a Google search, you’re greeted not by a simple page of links but instead see results that show images, ratings, and other types of elements that go beyond that basic text? These are called “rich snippets,” and they’re not only a great way to better engage with your target audience, but they’re also an excellent opportunity to draw more attention to your blog than ever.
However, Google isn’t going to generate these rich snippets on its own. Therefore, if you really want to tackle how to rank for rich snippets, there are a few key tips you’ll want to keep in mind.
Step 1. Do Your Keyword Research
So much of your success in terms of marketing comes down to your ability to get the right message in front of the right person at exactly the right time. Therefore, it stands to reason that you need to be able to recognize what those “right people” actually care about—which is where keyword research comes into play.
Before you set out to create a rich snipped blog post, you need to identify relevant terms by using keyword research tools. If you haven’t done that, even the most objectively perfect blog post in the world isn’t going to be able to help you because people won’t actually be able to connect with the subject at the heart of it all. Note that you can also conduct this research by manually searching in Google and paying attention to things like search volume, too.
Step 2. Write Long-Form and Comprehensive Content
Once you’ve settled on a topic to write about, your next step is exactly that: writing. Regardless of what your subject is, make sure you cover it in the level of detail that will provide the searcher with an answer to their question.
In other words, don’t be afraid to dive deep into your topic and cover everything from all angles. You don’t want to leave someone with questions at the end of your piece—you want to have answered them all in the body of the text.
Step 3. Utilize Numbered, Bulleted Lists, and Other Elements
Once you’ve written that content, you can now begin to think about ranking for featured snippets. By far, one of the best ways to do this involves paying attention to not just the content of your blog, but your formatting.
Always utilize lists whenever you can—whether they’re numbered or bulleted doesn’t actually matter. This makes it easy for people to skim, which, as a result, makes it easier for you to pull from when it comes to creating your snippets. Headers in between larger paragraphs also accomplish a similar thing, so be sure to use as many of them as you can while still doing so naturally.
Step 4. Ask and Answer Questions Wherever Possible
Another great technique to use when creating a rich snipped blog post involves asking and answering questions within the content itself.
Answering every related question within the content is a tried, but true, way to create better rich snipped blog posts—but it’s also a structure-related decision that you need to make early. Instead of devoting each of those questions (and answers) to their own blog, create one solid article that answers all of them. Not only will this help create more opportunities for rich snippets, but it will help you reach that optimum word count, too.
Step 5. Add High-Quality Images and Video Content
Speaking of opportunities, don’t forget that most people love to learn visually rather than based on text alone—which is why adding images AND videos to your content is something you should not overlook. You could add images to each step of a “How To” article, for example, which is actually a lot easier than you think. Just use a free stock photo site like Canva or Unsplash and find relevant pictures that pair well with the words you’ve already written.
Step 6. Add Schema Markup
Finally, you’ll want to take care of the most important element of all—schema markup, which is the thing that makes rich snippets possible in the first place.
For rich snippets to appear at all, you need to add “structured data” to your pages so that Google knows exactly where to generate the rich snippets from. If you’re using WordPress, there are several plug-ins that you can use to do this automatically. If you’re not, you can always do so manually—there is a wide range of different resources that will walk you through it, step-by-step.
If you’d like to find out more information about how you can leverage a rich snipped blog post to your advantage, or if there are any other topics you’d like to discuss with an expert in a bit more detail, contact our Zero Gravity Marketing team today.
