What Does Google Passage Indexing VS Featured Snippet Mean?

What Does Google Passage Indexing VS Featured Snippet Mean?

Is there a difference between featured snippets and indexing on Google? If you have a website, you have already started producing content to feed it and let your users know more about your products and services.

You must have heard of these two terms, right?

Indexing is how Google appends a web page to its index to display it in search results. The featured snippet is the selected search result on Google (taken from the top-ranked website) that appears on top of the search engine’s organic search.

By obtaining a featured snippet, you prove that Google chose your page over others as the most useful one to users’ relevant queries. So, both terms are different, but each one has advantages. You cannot let anyone strikeout.

What have featured snippets?

Over the years, Google has added more and more information to search results. Some time ago, organically positioned entries stood out among them. Then the Ad Words ads were added. But Google is still looking to improve the user experience. So it is essential to know what featured snippets are, the latest positioning trend.

The featured snippets are defined as a format supposed to provide users with a direct and concise answer to their questions. They appear right on the search page, without people having to click to get a specific result.

The most exciting part is that featured snippets appear just above organic search results and below the Ad Words block. Featured snippets will not return an organic first-page product. It is the reason why they are said to be displayed in position 0

How does indexing work in Google?

Well, the process works in three stages.

  • Tracking or Crawling: Google has crawler software called Google-bot that continuously surfs the web searching for new pages or updates in the existing pages of its index. Google-bot discovers new web pages when it finds them linked to sites it already knows or when webmasters provide it with information through sitemaps.
  • Indexing: Once it discovers new pages or updates, Google interprets your content, classifies it, and adds it to its index. From that moment, the web page is in the gigantic Google database, available to appear when a user performs a search on its subject.
  • Publication and positioning: The final step occurs when a user performs a search. Google identifies from its index, which is the most relevant response to their concern (be it websites, images, or videos).

Steps to index a website to Google

Here you will learn what the steps you must follow are to index a web page in Google correctly.

Configure Google Search Console: Google Search Console is a free tool from Google that provides information about web pages’ indexing status.

Create the sitemap: A sitemap is a website map that displays information about the pages and contents and their relationships.

Create the robots.txt file: The function of the robots.txt file is basically to tell Google-bot which pages and content it should crawl and index and which it should not.

Add quality content frequently: When you add new content or update existing content regularly, you show Google that you are continually making changes to your site. It is beneficial for efficiently indexing new content.

Implement a backlink and link building strategy: Get websites recognized by Google to link to your page or link relevant content from these sites in your publications. Do not buy false links.

Optimize your website’s organic positioning: Indexing is the first step to positioning, and one would be meaningless without the other.

How to get featured snippets?

No magic formula can guarantee that your site gets featured snippets. However, you can start with non-specific SEO best practices. If you already have a well-optimized website, your chances of getting featured snippets will increase if you manage to create the best response.

  • Try to answer each question concisely: By looking at what featured snippets are and how they are displayed, you can see that Google prefers to present an answer within a paragraph. All you need to do is ask the question in your article, immediately follow the problem with a one-paragraph solution, and elaborate more in the report.
  • Organize content well: Google loves numbers, steps, and lists. In your paragraph, presenting the solution to the question, be sure to list and use helpful names. The graphs and comparison lists are an easier way to get featured snippets.
  • The article that answers many similar questions: It was found that once a page appears, it is likely to occur in many similar queries. It means that your content should be structured and written in the same way and addresses many related questions. Writing a full article that addresses many interlocking issues is a much smarter strategy.