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What’s New in Analytics & Intro to Featured Snippets

State of Iowa Quarterly Training

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January 16, 2019

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What’s New In Google Analytics

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Google Analytics Mobile App

Need to look at Google Analytics data on the go?

There’s a new, more user-friendly app that you can download to get your website metrics wherever you are.

Available for both iPhone and Android devices.

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https://socialbeesmedia.com/google-analytics-mobile-app-update-automated-insights-stream/learn-more-about-the-new-automated-insights-stream-in-google-analytics-mobile-app-use/

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Google Analytics Insights

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Analytics Intelligence

Go to any page in Google Analytics...Notice the little “Insights” button they snuck in on the right hand side?

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Analytics Meets AI

Focusing on Google’s new prioritization of AI, Insights make it easier than ever before to ask questions and find the data you are looking for (without doing a deep dive into your account).

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What Can You Do With Insights?

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Get Insights on Demand

Link directly to reports

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Ask Questions to search the archives

Ask follow up questions

Save important metrics for later

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Insights on Demand

Search your data by specific topics and questions

Easily see what information you’ll get in each section

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Ask Questions

Start from the search bar to get ideas or dial down into the In Demand section

Pulls data right from your account to get a quick, accurate answer

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Link to Reports

Once you’ve asked your question and see the quick answer, you can choose to link to the report where that data shows up in your analytics account.

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Ask follow up questions

Not sure you got the answer you needed? Ask follow up questions until you find what you’re looking for.

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Save Insights for later

If you liked the information, you can save the insight for later and come back to it when you need it.

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*may not be available for all account levels

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Intro to �Featured Snippets

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What’s a snippet?

And how do you get it featured?

  • Began to show up in search in 2013
  • Initially called “answer boxes” and were specifically created to quickly answer common questions
  • Think of it as a new way to rank on top in search results

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How They Work

You ask Google a question

Google spits out a quick answer

It’s a “snippet” that shows the best answer to your question that it could find on the internet

Can be text, list, table or images

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12.5%

Currently the amount of search query results that have featured snippets.

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Panda and Pigeon only affected 3% of websites when they rolled out (for reference).

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99%

99% of featured snippets already rank in the top 10 organic results

30% of featured snippets rank #1 (but you don’t necessarily have to)

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Why is this helpful?

  • You have the opportunity to rank above organic search results without paying for an ad
  • A page that ranks #10 can still show up at the top with a featured snippet or rank zero result
  • SEO is now about more than just your organic results
  • Higher traffic - potential for two or more listings in SERPs
  • Higher conversions - people are more likely to click on that result since it’s typically from a high trust source

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State agency sites have the potential to show up more than they currently do

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Are they hurting organic results?

A lot of people argue that featured snippets might:

  • Steal clicks from organic search results
  • Cause people to no longer click on actual organic results if they can get their question answered with a featured snippet
  • Provide information that might not always be accurate

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It’s either you or your competitor’s website that’s being featured.

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How can you get featured?

Research long or medium tail keywords/queries where you rank in top ten

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See if there’s a featured snippet there already

Work on optimizing for those queries with structured data or within content structure

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Breakdown of Featured Snippets

Featured Snippet - pulls the answer to a query from a website to provide a quick answer in search results

People Also Ask - a type of featured snippet, these are helpful to see what else people search for here. You can be featured in these results as well.

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Tools for Featured Snippets

Search Console: Use the Performance feature (formerly known as Search Analytics)

This will give you a good look into what questions people are asking to get to your site

Custom Search Engine: Pull queries that include what, how, when, why, who in them

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The Death of the Keyword

  • Optimizing for featured snippets leads for overall better SEO
    • These are the answers that get read in voice search
    • 41% of results come from FS in voice search or digital assistants
  • Answering questions has been proven to lead to traffic
    • Look at the People Also Ask - this is a FS that shows related searches
    • Keep an eye out for multiple related FS in the future

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TOPIC

KW

KW

KW

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Build Your List

Pull your keywords and build questions surrounding those questions

For example, if your keyword was “unemployment in Iowa”

  • What is the unemployment rate in Iowa?
  • How can I file for unemployment?
  • Unemployment benefits in Iowa

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Top Featured Snippet Trigger Queries

  • Best
  • VS
  • Definition
  • Can
  • Cost
  • Meaning
  • Price
  • Top

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How do you choose what to go after in your content?

If Google can provide easy answers on their own, skip that one

Review the SERPs and examine results - what has a FS now and what doesn’t?

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How do you win at Featured Snippets?

Provide the most complete, concise answer

  • Format in a manner Google understands - make it interesting and compelling
  • See positive user engagement metrics from that result and gain more traction
  • Start with a heading with your target search query and an answer immediately following that in your content
  • Write pages or articles about that search query

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There is no secret: �Google rotates through these spots frequently

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How do you make your pages FS friendly?

Do you have your question explicitly on the page? Title and header tag?

  • Answer the query question in a clear concise manner and place it near the question in a <p> tag
  • Optimize images, file name, alt text, captions, etc. - images can be pulled from another page

Can you add content to make your page more complete?

  • Review Google Instant OR people also ask OR related searches
  • Search Console
  • Google Custom Search Engine

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Other FS Facts

Create bulleted or numbered lists to target List Featured Snippets �Make the list long enough so the searcher has to click through to your website to see full list

Take a longer look at SERPs - are they showing images, ads or videos more? �Take note of how they are testing results

Table Featured Snippets �Research shows that HTML <table> tags get pulled out more

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How to monitor featured snippets

Keep in mind, featured snippets are new, so their tracking hasn’t quite caught up yet.

Search for your own site in many different locations, see how it appears in search results

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Use Google Analytics to monitor pages that are optimized for these

Keep an eye on new tracking features in Google Analytics or Marketing Platform

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Questions?

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