Moon And Owl Marketing Publishes Article On Google’s Featured Snippet Update

Fort Worth, Texas -

Fort Worth, TX based Moon and Owl Marketing recently published an article on Google’s brand new snippet update. Google no longer repeats featured snippet links in search results, and this news has set the SEO community ablaze, with a lot of speculation attached to it. Many SEO experts are excited about the change as it could transform the SEO industry by quite a large degree.

Featured snippets are often the first thing one sees in Google search results, often appearing just below the ads. They are meant to present the user with the result that Google feels answers their question directly, and a lot of the time people find exactly the response they are looking for through these snippets. Previously, Google would have the website that the snippet was sourced from also appear directly below the snippet as a regular number one search result. The snippet would be considered position zero and the first listing was considered organic search position 1. Google's featured snippet update, which rolled out on January 23, removes position zero—the snippet is now considered position 1 with the first organic result now being position two. The site that is listed in the snippet will no longer appear in both the snippet and as the first organic result.

“This change means that if you have the featured snippet for a listing, your organic listing will not be repeated immediately below it,” says Moon and Owl’s marketing. “In fact, it will not be repeated on page 1. For some reason, this is causing some brands and SEOs to get unnecessarily upset. They fear that the snippet will not get clicked. However, we do not have enough time to accrue real data as to whether this is true or not. Remember, this is new to the person searching as well. Don’t make a major decision too soon. Allow the users’ true behavior to settle down as they adjust to this new presentation of search results.”

Moon and Owl’s SEO Team is aware of the change and has taken note of every client’s keywords. If the client holds the snippet, they are still organically placed, just not twice. The link is still clickable in the snippet as well, which means the site is still at the top of Google’s search results. The only difference is that it does not appear twice.

The marketing company has decided to follow a set course of action, saying, “We want to work off of science, not hunches.” Their current strategy is to track the client’s click-through rate on snippet ranking keywords both before and after the date when Google changed the way snippets and listings are shown to analyze whether there has been an increase or decrease in clicks. The SEO agency will then make changes as the data suggests. Adjustments might include tweaking the schema or marking a page with “no snippet” coding for clients who see a significant drop in traffic.

The change does present a unique opportunity to improve visibility, however. “By focusing on gaining map pack rankings and getting your knowledge graph displayed for important keyword queries, you can become more bulletproof against this change,” says Moon and Owl in their article. “Your knowledge graph isn’t limited to appearing only when your company or brand name is searched. If Google strongly associates a keyword with your brand, your Knowledge Graph can actually show on a high-value keyword query. This is a great position to occupy. We call it “Position King KG” when a knowledge graph pops for a non-branded term.”

Moon and Owl Marketing is a full-service marketing agency with a strong emphasis on providing clients with benefits they would not usually find elsewhere. The company, instead of following the big office model most marketing agencies seem to prefer, chooses to work as a distributed agency focused on hiring the very best people in their skill set regardless of their location. The company describes themselves as, “a consortium of partners and participants who have come together to do something different,” adding that, “We connect virtually as often as needed. This virtual model allows us to be very agile and streamlined. Given that we fight to keep our overhead as low as possible, you get big agency results and know-how at a fraction of the price.”

Find out more about the national marketing agency through their website and other online resources. Moon and Owl Marketing can also be reached through their various social media platforms.