To hold the position ‘Zero’ in SERPs is more important than holding great ranks in SERPs and it is the dream of most SEO Sydney experts, for which they strive for. The Featured snippets offer position zero to the contents, and they appear after the PPC ads and just before the first result of the search query. It offers precise answers to user queries.
When you search a query, Google will usually answer your question with a snippet, comprising of information, above every other links in the search results. Google usually takes this information from the contents that are already ranking on page one, but there are possibilities that it will also pull from the lower ranking SERPs.
Here are the types of content that Google keeps away from the Featured Snippets –
Since the Featured Snippets are a special feature of Google that receives a unique positioning, Google makes sure that the text, images and the pages they come from should not violate the policies of Google.
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Sexually explicit content
The featured snippets should not contain sexually explicit, porn or vulgar language, which is out of perspective with the search topic. Google only allows featured snippets that contain medical or scientific terms from human anatomy, where the wordings associate with sex education.
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Hateful Content
Google makes sure that the Featured Snippets should not defame, insult or promote violence against an individual or group based on their ethnicity, religion, nationality, disability, veteran status, age, gender identity or anything that would sideline them.
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Violent Content
Google does not encourage contents that are extremely graphic or violent materials that is repulsive.
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Dangerous and harmful content
Google never allows the Featured Snippets to promote harmful goods, services or any activities that would result in harm to other, self-harm, mutilation and drug abuse.
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Lack of consensus on public interest topics
Featured snippets on public interest content — civic, medical, scientific and historical issues should not lack the expert consensus support. So, most SEO agency Sydney, work hard to give the best public interest topics with expert consensus.
These guidelines on content, apply only to the Featured snippets. They do not apply to the web search listings!
Since Google processes billions of searches every day, it has specifically designed systems to prevent the disrupting contents from showing up as featured snippets. Yet, there are certain policy violating contents that still appear.
Why should you Care?
Featured snippets help in generating a great source of traffic to the website through Google searches. And when it comes to Google Assistant and the Google Home device voice queries, featured snippets are the only option. Typically, any expert in SEO Sydney would want their content to be shown in the featured snippet box for a search query, but if the content falls under any of the categories listed above, then the chances of the content getting featured is uncertain.
Hopefully, this article helps you to understand the requisites of Google, so that you can carefully plan your search engine optimisation Sydney strategy effectively.