What’s better than being on the first page of Google’s search results? Every business owner and blogger wants it. It gives more impressions, clicks, traffic, leads and revenue.
Many people who run websites don’t know that, for some search queries, Google shows a single box above all the standard organic listings. There is a great way to get traffic from this search space called “Position Zero.” To use it, you’ll need to change your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy to aim for it.
Learn all you need to know about in this guide to increase your website search ranking and SERP results.
What is Position Zero (P0) rank?
Position zero is a single box with an answer to a user’s search query that appears beyond traditional organic listings and below the top paid ads. Each box, which is called a “featured snippet” or “answer box,” is set up the same way as a standard “organic listing.” They show the title, URL, and a short web page description. But a zero position listing is not the same as a regular organic listing in a few crucial ways. It comes first of the search results.
The best part of zero position is that it gives an accurate answer of the search query. So, the user don’t need to go ahead for more browsing and search further. This position is the best thing to achieve via organic and white hat SEO strategies.
The meta description of a page is usually included in standard organic listings. If you don’t give a web page a meta description or give it one that isn’t relevant, search engines may take text from the page and use it as the description. On the other hand, zero position listings have a report that is a relevant answer to the user’s search query.
You won’t see a listing of it for every search you do on Google. Instead, they only materialize when a user searches for an answer to a question. Many listings also have a thumbnail image. Even so, the thumbnail doesn’t have to come from the page shown in the url. By such time, Google often uses pictures from other websites or pages as thumbnails. No matter what, the purpose is to stand out from other organic listings, usually just text.
How to boost ranking of your website for Position Zero (P0) for SEO?
First of all, make a checklist of all the keywords for which you want your site or blog to appear in the SERP. It will act you as a guide.
Remember the 5W and 1H formula? Most featured snippets are shown in response to searches that start with “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” “why,” or “how.” So, you should focus on search queries that start with one of these six words if they are relevant. Think about what questions people who visit your website ask, and then use your position zero ranking strategy to target those search queries. It will also help to get indexed in PAA (People Also Ask) algorithm. Leverage all these knowledge to make a detailed and knowledge sharing blog article.
You may already understand some relevant inquiries, but playing with Google’s autocomplete tool can give you more ideas. If you do not understand them, you should attend one of the SEO conferences in the USA. On Google, type in one of the six words above, followed by the keyword you want to rank for. You will get various long tail keywords for the organic SEO purpose. Just don’t click the “search” button. Google will now display a list of expected search queries that start with the part of your query that you didn’t finish.
Another trick to uncover the most frequently asked question is to use ‘How to’ phrases. These are best to write long and descriptive articles and engage more users. You must write quality and plagiarism free content to make it count for Google’s AI. The step by step explanation or process will help to engage users on your blog page. It will help to reduce the bounce rate of your website. Same way, you can also write comparison articles.
It would help to decide which search queries you want to target. Because position zero results only show up when a user asks a very specific question. So, you shouldn’t go after short-tail keywords that are too general. Instead, it would help if you answered your website visitors’ questions.
The key here is to answer the query in a small paragraph. It must contain all relevant keywords in a simple language. In upcoming paragraphs, make it elaborate with various facts, figures and detailed case study. Such practice will give great results in a long run.
Another great SEO technique is to use GMB to increase web traffic and revenue in accordance with your practice to achieve the zero position on Google’s first search page. They both will complement each other, as the Google My Business listing always shows your most recent update. It may take time to build all these things simultaneously, but it must be in the checklist of your SEO planning and strategies.
The bottom line is that being in the zero position is one of the best techniques of white hat SEO. It can lead to more traffic, a higher profile, and authority. It may not be easy to optimize for it, so you need to focus on the basics:
- Improving your website
- Giving better answers
- Proper use of H1, H2, H3 tags
- Using bullet points, numbers for easy reading
- Covering questions on detailed manner
- Optimizing well-performing pages
- Writing content that covers everything
- Working for only relevant content
Make blog articles for every question
Now, you fully understand what is Position Zero, now it’s time to make the perfect marketing strategy to achieve it.
Behind choosing which search queries you want to target, make a blog post that answers each question in detail. It’s not enough to create a single FAQ page. Google might put your FAQ page in position zero for one more search query, but you’ll have a better chance of getting more than one ranking if you make more than one web page.
Presenting you some of the best tips and guide pointers for making sure your web pages are optimized for position zero:
- Make the title the exact search query or question for which you want the page to rank number one
- Put the question in the first paragraph of the web page’s content
- Write long-form content that thoroughly answers the question
- Don’t put filler content on your website. Instead, make sure each page is focused on answering a specific question.
- Each web page should have at least one unique and valuable image
- Ensure all images have relevant alt text
- Make sure the content has both internal and external links
Social media sharing, paid and free digital marketing
You must promote your web pages via SEO Company in India if you want Google to put them in position zero. Building backlinks is the primary way to promote a website, and backlinks are a sign of popularity for Google and other search engines. When you add backlinks to one of your web pages, Google will think that it is popular with users and may put it in the zero position.
If you’ve set up a Facebook Page for your website, you can use it to spread the word about any new pages you’ve added. Please make a new post with the URL and a short page description, and share it with your followers. Even though Facebook links have the unfollow attribute, many SEO services in India agree that they can affect how a website can be boosted in search results. They may also bring in connections that don’t have the unfollow attribute.
Engaging with users on Q&A sites like Quora is another way to promote your web pages and improve their chances of ranking. If a user’s inquiry is answered on one of your web pages, respond with the URL.
Keep an eye on your position Zero (P0) rankings
Google won’t tell you if it decides to put one or more of your web pages in position zero, so you’ll have to keep an eye on your website’s SERP. If you search Google for the target question, you can quickly determine for it. Doing dozens of searches every few days is a pain, but luckily some tools can track position zero for SEO rankings.
Google is getting more and more listings in zero position, and reports say one of these listings comes up in about 15% of all Google searches. This percentage will shoot up in coming years. You can get your website listed here by making and optimizing web pages around relevant questions.
One more thing. Even if your blog article gets ranked in P0, you just can’t be relaxed. Billions of pages are getting indexed regularly. So, if you want to maintain your position in top SERP, you need to keep evaluating your digital marketing strategies and techniques.
Benefits of Zero Position for SEO
- It gives you the #1 organic position
- It comes before the organic and paid ads.
- It helps to increase DA (Domain Authority) and PA (Page Authority)
- It gives the highest user engagement ratio and CTR (Clickthrough Rate)
- It generates more traffic, conversion and revenue, depending the nature of your business
- It supports voice search, which will be an essential thing in the coming years of search engine algorithm updates
- Use of tables, videos, infographics, bullet points increase readability and user experience
- It gives direct answers of user query
And many more.
We hope that our detailed blog article of what is Position Zero for SEO, how to achieve it and benefits of it would help you to meet your business goals. It is a continuous process, not a one time setup. So, follow above mentioned guidelines and strategies and rank your website at top in Google searches.
Author bio:
Kathryn Martin is a Digital Marketing Manager at SEO Company Experts. She is passionate about her job and always love to share content on SEO Content Marketing, PPC Services, Digital Marketing, and Branding Online Marketing for All kind of Industry.