Will Your Content Make It Into Google’s Rich Answer Box?
With digital devices come digital distractions. Studies are showing that our attention spans are decreasing, and some, like this study from Microsoft indicate that humans only have an 8 second attention span to focus. That means your online content needs to be more concise and useful than ever before!
Google has responded with their Rich Answer Box. It has been around for a while now, but it has become increasingly prominent for getting quick answers or a basic understanding. Recipes, event schedules, definitions and maps are appearing more and more in this useful informational box.
Ever wonder how Google selects the answer? Want to have your content appear as an answer?
Get the right attention from Google and become a resource for many web users by optimizing your content. Here are 5 tips from Search Engine Journal to tailor your content for Google’s Rich Answer Box:
- Identify Queries: Try to target more complex search queries related to your product or service. Check out suggested searches on Google and your own website traffic data to learn what users are searching for and how you can help them find the right answers—faster, better and more conveniently.
- Directly Answer the Question: Title your content based on the query and clearly answer it, whether it is a ‘how to’ question or definition, early on in your content. You can then offer more details or variations of this answer with related or similar keywords.
- Consider User Experience: Your digital marketing plan should be cohesive and comprehensive, offering users a great experience no matter how they access your content. Use consistent structure across content that will let visitors navigate easily and help Google identify the form of your content. Use subheadings, paragraphs, visuals, bullet points, lists and tables to organize information.
- Use Entities in Your Content: Keywords are useful, but entities are what Google’s Hummingbird update are really looking for. Using clear nouns, verbs and names will help Google determine the meaning behind your content and identify if your page provides a useful answer.
- Include SEO Best Practices/Schema Markup: Use cross-linking and include the key phrase or query in headings, meta data and alt tags. If you need better SEO copy, consider hiring a copywriting agency to help. Schema markup will also help Google extract data and identify the relevance of your content.
Being featured in Google’s Rich Answer Box is a great way to make those crucial 8 seconds count. Taking a few simple steps to optimize your content can help you land on the search results page. It can help drive traffic to your website, grow your online audience, and increase the trust and expertise associated with your brand.
Want help creating quality content that will make you an authority on Google? If you need help meeting your content marketing goals, MintCopy can help. We provide clean copywriting and compelling website content that converts. Give us a call today at 888-646-8003 or send us an email.