Until very recently, the ultimate goal was to appear in organic position 1, but in recent years Google has proposed a new goal: to appear above result 1 .
Google is betting on not taking us to another page when we enter a query in the search engine and answering our questions directly on the search results page in “position zero”. Currently, position 1 would mean getting a gold medal, but position zero means getting a platinum medal.
In this article we are going to talk about Google's position 0; what it is and how to get there.
What is Google position zero
Google's position 0 is occupied by the search results that appear after the ads and before the classic blue links, which would constitute Google's first organic results.
Google's goal with these results is to provide an answer to the user's query directly in the SERP , without the user needing to click on any of the results or go to any other website.
It is worth noting that position zero results are important for the Google Assistant, the main companion for voice searches , since users do not need to click on any results to get answers to their queries.
Who occupies position zero on Google
There are mainly three types of search results that occupy position zero:
Featured Snippets
Knowledge graphs
Answer boxes
If a website ranks high on the first page of Google results, it may be selected for Position Zero. Most of the time, Google Position Zero opportunities come from organic search results in the top four positions.
Featured Snippets
Featured snippets are text excerpts that appear in position zero in search results and are extracted from relevant websites that provide answers to users' queries. In addition to the text excerpt, the snippet includes the website from which the answer was extracted, including its URL.
Featured snippet in position zero of google
Featured snippet in position zero of Google
Google selects the text snippet that it believes answers the user's query. Featured snippets typically come in three forms:
Paragraph
List
Board
Google Knowledge Graphs
knowledge graph in position zero google
The Google Knowledge Graph is a database of facts and entity relationships that Google extracts from the content of websites.
Knowledge Graph results are information fragments that directly respond to specific user queries . They aim to be an encyclopedia of universal knowledge organized according to thematic and semantic criteria, reclassifying information and contextualizing it.
The answer boxes
Google answer boxes are the position zero results that brands belgium telegram phone number list are most concerned about.
There are answer boxes of all kinds : for song lyrics, definitions, hotel reservations, flight schedules, calculators, currency and time zone converters, etc.
The source of the content of these widgets is:
Google (flight schedules and calculators, among others)
Sources of information that Google considers trustworthy (definitions, song lyrics, etc.)
Multiple websites using rich data markup (job listings)
The drawbacks of position 0 on Google
Google's featured snippets, answer boxes, and knowledge graphs are incredibly useful for users because they offer immediate insights into all kinds of queries : mobile, voice, Google Assistant, and desktop. But at the same time, many websites are losing traffic , even though they managed to rank on the first page of search results!
Online businesses that have invested effort in SEO have been clearly affected by Google's zero position results. Even though their rankings are good and their impressions in Search Console are increasing, their traffic has decreased, and their CTR is decreasing in a worrying way. Through their content , these websites continue to answer their users' questions, except that Google now makes it available to their users without them needing to click on the website.
As Google improves its knowledge graphs and develops more widgets to place in position zero, more websites will see a decline in organic traffic. But there are some methods to deal with this situation.
How to get to Google position zero
Here are some tips for using these new search features:
Make the most of your content strategy
Google's answer boxes don't get all the clicks, they get the clicks from users who aren't going to spend much time on our website either.
If a user gets a basic answer in Google position zero and still clicks on a result, it means they want more information.
Our job as SEO experts is to determine what information users are going to need next and deliver it to them. Next, it's time to invest as much effort as possible in our content strategy and create in-depth, unique, and quality content . You'll see that users won't be satisfied with the basic answer from position zero and will click through to your website.
Optimizing the most profitable keywords
As we already know, keyword research and analysis is a must in any SEO strategy. Use your SEO tools to research keywords based on SERP features.
Ahrefs, for example, allows you to exclude keywords where the SERP has answer boxes.
Get to the featured snippet
To take advantage of Google's position zero, the best search feature is the featured snippet.
Featured snippet optimization is like on-page SEO on a smaller scale. Here are some tips:
Limit paragraphs to approximately 50 words.
Include your keywords in them
Answer your users' questions
Use questions in your headings
Find out the most frequently asked questions from users and answer them
