How to Get a Featured Snippet: A Client Case Study
- Rachel Meyer
- May 7
- 4 min read
Google Featured Snippets are the most coveted spot on page one. They sit at the top of search results (or they did until AI took over), providing searchers with quick answers to their questions.
Earning the snippet can get you a 42.9% click-through rate, outranking even the first place in Google, which only has a 39.8% CTR. More clicks mean more people on your website, which means more sales.
Now, getting the featured snippet isn’t easy. Google doesn't share the exact algorithm it uses to decide which post gets the spot. But you can optimize your content to give it the best chance to earn the snippet.
I've had the exciting experience of seeing several of my client Mountain City Candle Co.'s posts get the featured snippet for their keyword. In this post, I'm sharing what I did as her content writer to help get a featured snippet.
The Goal
I’ll be honest, when I set out to write this post, my goal wasn’t to earn the featured snippet. It was just:
Goal: Write an informational post about citronella candles ending with a CTA to shop my client's citronella candles.
While I did want to plug her product at the end, the point of the post was to educate readers about citronella candles. Sales and ranking are good, but being helpful came first.
The Process
Step 1: Choose a Keyword
The keyword you target makes a huge difference in how well your post ranks. If it’s a high-traffic keyword with lots of competition, your chances of making it to page one are almost nil unless you’re a big company.
I did some digging and found a good keyword to target for this post: “benefits of citronella candles”. According to Google’s Keyword Planner (my favorite keyword research tool), it has a 100-1k average monthly search volume and low competition. That’s the perfect combo for ranking well as a small business.
Step 2: Assess the Competition
While I didn’t set out to earn the featured snippet, my goal is always to write a post that's (hopefully) better than the other posts on page one of Google. So, I had to scope out what currently held that position.
At the time, many first-page posts on citronella candles weren’t very good. They were outdated, didn’t have that much information, and weren’t well written.
As a writer, this always makes me do an internal fist pump. All I needed to do was write a more well-rounded and easy-to-read post for my client’s chance of ranking high to skyrocket.
Step 3: Research
One of the things I noticed about the current ranking posts was that they were quite surface-level. I wanted my post to have more research that answered many of the common questions searchers had about these candles.
So, I dove into researching what citronella is, its benefits, and its drawbacks. I used that research to round out my post and make it more helpful than the top-ranking posts.
Step 4: Write the Post
Then, it was down to the actual writing part. I did a few things to help it be both helpful to searchers and better ranked in Google.
Gave it a personal feel. Nothing turns off a reader like an impersonal post. My tone made the post sound like a friend shared the information with you.
Included the keyword several times. I tastefully scattered the keyword throughout the post, including the title, the intro, and a heading.
Good formatting. Organizing the post with multiple headings and subheadings makes it easy for readers to skim and for Google to rank. Headings also make your post more likely to get a snippet.
Included external links. I linked to several higher authority sites with many of the stats I mentioned to give this post more authority and credibility.
Kept it short. People looking up the benefits of citronella candles aren’t interested in a 2,000-word essay. They just want to know if they're worth buying, so I answered that question quickly.
The Result
About a year later, I was reviewing the content I’d written for Mountain City Candles and noticed that the post I’d written on citronella candles was in the coveted #1 spot.
So imagine my surprise when I checked on the post this January and realized it was now the featured snippet!
Of course, I can’t claim all the credit for the post ranking as well as it did. Some of that depends on website authority and Google’s mysterious algorithm.
However, the most important part was writing a good post that answered search intent and provided helpful information. That's the first step in ranking higher and getting the featured snippet.
Are you interested in blog posts to help your website rank better in search? I'd love to help! Click the button below to learn more and set up a call today.
Comentarios