It was January 22 when Google announced changes to the world of search engine optimization. The so-called “spot zero” in the featured snippets of search engine results pages (SERPs) stopped.
In other words, the URL of the featured snippet appears a single time in the SERP instead of serving with the snippet and its base position lower in the result.
The change is already having a significant impact on the number of clicks that featured snippets receive.
Digital marketing agency, 97th Floor conducted a study looking at almost 3000 high-volume SERPs[1] that were affected by the spot-zero termination.
They’ve written a whitepaper to share practical tips on how to prioritize your SEO needs after Google’s update, and have also provided a free STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Results) reporting template to help you strategize[2].
Here is how to get started.
Content produced in collaboration with 97th Floor[3].
1. Highlight the date of the change in your analytics platform
The first step is to make sure that you mark the date of January 22 in your analytics platform. It’s the easiest way to keep track of all the changes that happen after Google’s update.
You can also mark the date in other SEO tools that you’re using to track your success with keywords[4] and traffic to your site.
2. Exclude featured snippets from your new keyword research
According to 97th Floor’s research, there was a significant drop in the number of clicks on featured snippets after the spot-zero termination. Thus, make sure you run new keyword research to explore new opportunities. This time, filter out featured snippets and “people also ask” boxes to find keywords that will earn more clicks.
3. Re-optimize your URLs to become featured snippets
97th Floor noticed that