Mark Your Presence on Google Answer Box – A Complete Guide

In this over-competitive era, where everyone is thriving for Digital Presence, only ranking on SERP is not enough. There is a new Horse in the race, the Google Answer Box. The best position to attain is to make it to the Answer Box.

Nowadays, ranking on SERP has become a must for the Organizations who are earning their fair share of profit digitally. And, in order to get their website in Top 10 bracket on SERP, the organizations are working hard to optimize their website as per the Google Standards.

As much important it is to get your site in Top results to gain better visibility, it is not the only place that you should be targeting on. Though it is great to get your website ranked on number one position on Google, the aces are focusing to get ranked on Position Zero.

Yes, you heard it right! Getting ranked on the Google Answer Box i.e. position zero is taking the Industry by storm and everyone is performing answer box SEO to optimize their website to mark its presence on Google Answer Box. Marking an appearance on Google Answer Box is an advantage for the Tech Geniuses as they have the dominance over the SERP and their website is appearing above the top ranking websites.

As lucrative it may sound to withhold Position Zero, it is, first, important to know the whereabouts of Google Answer Box, from what it is to how it works to the Google Answer Box Strategy to optimizing your website for Google Answer Box. We have created a step-to-step guide to provide you more clearance about Google Answer Box and help you attain the position zero.

Google Answer Box and its Importance

Many times, searching a query or a question on Google leads to generating a direct answer rather than some series of websites as search results. These types of results are referred to as Google Answer Box, which are basically a feature of SERP, either produced by the knowledge graph or derived from different websites that have fitting reply to any specific query.

There are other terms, as well, which can be used for the Answer Box like position zero, featured snippets, quick or instant answers, or direct answers. The answer boxes can illustrate the result in different forms like text, image, video, graph or maps.

Importance of Google Answer Box:

Being on Position Zero and marking your website in Google Answer Box can be a huge benefit for you as it will allow your website to appear on first SERP twice. This will prove advantageous to you, from the perspective of SEO, as ‘owning’ the answer box on your niches important keywords may help you rule your business field like a pro.

In this ambitious era, where people are focused on nothing but the best and where the ad count on the SERP is increasing, getting ranked on first position is no longer the best position. The SERP Landscape is altered and being listed in the Google Answer Box can help you generate some serious traffic on your website.

How Google Answer Box Works?

It is not necessary that the result in the Answer Box comes directly from the first result on the page. Rather the content can be from any website which Google thinks is more informative and has the best answer to the specific query.

But the question remains as in to how Google knows which answer is the best and should be listed in the instant answers!

The answer to the above question is SEO. As important SEO is to attain ranking on SERP, technical SEO is only how you will be able to rank your website on Position Zero.

It is assumed that while performing a search, one element is the entity and the other is the certain attribute of the entity. Google constitutes of a database of such entities and their potential, searched for, attributes.

The main component is to match the information with the selected search fragment to determine whether it is a fact query. Using an unknown scoring system, Google ranks the identified potential results presenting the result, with the highest score, on the answer box.

One of the techniques to attain highest scores is to use the most searched keywords in the title and description, an important Technique of SEO. This will help the GoogleBots to easily understand the usability of the content.

Optimizing Your Website for Google Answer Box
Appearing on Answer Box helps Google understand that your content is informative and is able to answer user’s queries directly.This, in turn, increases the score and credibility of your website and allows you to acquire two positions on the first search page itself, thus, increasing the traffic towards your website.

There are numerous factors that can influence your ranking on the answer box but the following steps of the Google Answer Box Strategy will definitely help to achieve a higher ranking.

1.Identify the potential Keywords which might have a dedicated Answer Box

It has been observed that the queries ranking in the direct answers category include the keywords that offer an answer to a direct question.

Answer Boxes come in different shapes and sizes, and most of them include descriptions or definitions from website extractions. Thus, it is necessary to have Content in your website, which is not only informative but is oriented around the potential keywords.

This can be easily done by identifying the most searched keywords associated with a Generic keyword depicting your business. Once extracted a list of keywords, select one which can be easily connected to a query. Creating a content which helps users has more potential to own an answer box.

2.Check the Relevancy of Current Answer Box

As it is said that nothing is perfect, Google is also not a God and creates mistake. Many times, it has been seen that Google offers incomplete or irrelevant information to the query. But is it possible to use these mistakes to benefit our Google Answer Box Strategy!

Search for the answer box related to your niche which offers inaccurate information. Provide the feedback for the answer box stating that the information is in appropriate and create the proper content using the same query as your keyword. This will help you attain position zero if your content is informative.

3.Optimized Website Content for Google Answer Box
Google prefers a neatly arranged content. The content should definitely be written keeping in mind the users but it is the content only that will help you attain the ranking. Follow SEO guidelines while writing the content. The orderly and organized the content is, more are its chances to get ranked on the top position.

4.Other Tips to ‘Own’ Google Answer Box
Apart from the above mentioned points, use the following tips to increase your chances of getting ranked on position Zero:

•Make sure to use the correct markup while writing the content for targeting the Answer Box.

•Identify the query a user will use to search on Google and use that query in either the Title or meta-description.

•Create Backlinks to your Answer Box content and while building the links, use the anchor texts which match the query which led to Google Answer Box.

Types of Answer Box

There are different types of direct answers that appear on SERP which are stated as below:

1.Website Extractions: Most of the Google answer boxes constitute of content extracted from different websites.

2.Google Dictionary Definition

3.Video Widgets

4.Direct Answers with no sources

5.Answer Boxes with Real Time Results

6.Google Web Extractions: Numerous times Google presents us with answers quoted from the website having high authority with the search query included in their website.

There are numerous other types of answers that formulate Google Answer Box depending upon the queries generated by users.
How to Check Ranking on Google Answer Box?
While there is a manual way of checking the ranking of your website on Google Answer Box, it is a time-taking and clumsy process as you will have search for every keyword and check for which keyword you have attained the ranking.
There is an easy way out as well using the Search Console. Filter the data on you search console on the basis of Average Position and Average CTR. Find the keywords with click through rate of more than 60 and ranking position which is smaller than 3. Then search those keywords on Google and you will get the keyword on which you have gained Google Answer Box Ranking.
Though being ranked on SERP is definitely one of the most important milestones while working on one’s website, getting featured in Google Answer Box is considered of significant importance as it helps your website appearing multiple times on Search Page. We have tried covering all the major aspects of Google Answer Box which will help you get your website featured in direct answers.