Much of what we do as marketers is focused on getting noticed by customers online, which means placing our content in the top section of the search engine results pages (SERPs). However, a lot has changed in search engines over the past five years.
Today, we surf the web on phones, computers, and voice assistants like Alexa. As a result, the way search engines deliver outcomes has also changed.
Position zero (PO) on the other hand is the golden spot in SERP. It describes Google rich or recommended snippets. Positioning above the organic results is a way for Google to provide quick answers to a question and expand the general search experience. The purpose of Position Zero is to provide the most appropriate answer to the candidate’s questions. PO is widely coveted among SEOs around the world. If you use SEO to boost rankings, you would know how significant PO is for a marketing strategy.
However, to ensure that your content achieves the optimal SEO rankings and is fulfilling customer search requirements it is integral to continuously monitor and update your online presence. This can be done by ensuring that you, first and foremost, have a good Internet Service Provider (ISP), such as Cox. It is a widely used and popular ISP, and Cox plans and packages are intended for a wide customer base. This means that you can easily find an internet package that suits your business need in an economical manner. A strong internet connection ensures that you post your content in a timely manner and get to the customer before your competitor. Read on to find out why that is critical!
What is Position Zero in Marketing?
Position zero (P0) denotes the initial Google search result that is present above regular SEO listings. P0, also known as a highlighted snippet, is intended to answer the questions directly without having to click on a search results link. Google first introduced position zero in 2014 to provide answers to users’ questions directly in the SERPs.
The information in position zero contains a synopsis of the response received from the web page and the link to the page, the page title, and the URL.
Google chooses material for position zero by analyzing its applicability to the search inquiry and other search engine optimization (SEO) issues for the host dominion.
The highlighted snippet is referred to as position zero because it appears at the top of the SERPs right after the ad, making it the highest organic result.
As Google tries to give the best response to a query, it’s important to note that it doesn’t always subtract the featured snippet from the top organic outcome. Google extracts content for it from one of the top ten organic results based on current demand.
Thus, selected snippets usually appear in response to searches containing questions such as who, where, what, when, and how. Depending on the nature of the question, three diverse types of snippet formats can be displayed at position zero:
- Paragraph: This means an answer in the form of a paragraph
- List: these answers are numbered or bulleted lists
- Table: the answer is displayed in the form of a table
Importance in Marketing
We tend to often overlook the fact that search engines such as Google are businesses at the end of the day.
Like any company, they need to remain competitive by providing their consumers with their best service or product, which means that users get the data they are looking for as speedily and proficiently as possible. For marketers, this means that as we continue to work on our existing plan, the site’s organic traffic is likely to decline as search engines respond better directly to SERP.
Either our target audience finds the answers they are looking for directly on search engines, or the content shown in position zero comes from a site other than ours.
On the other hand, if we enhance our content to position zero, we will greatly benefit from being able to provide the initial outcome that users see in the SERPs, or the only result they see if they use search assistants. So here is the crux of what it does:
-
Captures territory
First, getting a P0 rank allows your business to gain ground in the SERPs. With more information than customary search results, P0 takes up more space on the results pages, pushing competitors lower. Results from PO provide valuable visibility for your business in the SERPs and help users learn more about your services, products, and overall business.
-
Boosts click-through rate
With an attractive PO, you can skip to the first position to avail more, clicks and traffic to your site. While website owners fear that direct responses will reduce clicks, research indicates the opposite: P0 owners are reporting an increase in click-through rate (CTR).
These clicks are an integral step towards generating new leads, revenue, and conversions and are highly valuable to companies across all industries.
Where does content for PO come from
When people search the web, algorithms established by Google identify pages that answer the questions asked by the searcher and present the best results as starred snippets or reset the results. Along with responding directly to the query, P0 results include the URL and page title of the site where the information can be found.
When someone is looking for information about your company, products, or services, you want to be in the zero position and you can if you do things right. Keep reading to find out how.
How to get PO for your business
There are some easy steps you can take as a marketer to improve your content for position zero and this comes under the term On-SERP SEO.
Firstly, you need to create content that is effective enough to rank #1 on Google (usually spots one through ten).
Chances are if your content is not on the first page of Google yet, you are not dropping too much traffic to position zero just because you did not get that traffic to begin with. Assuming you generate productive content to naturally rank in the top ten, then improve it for the specific question you want to answer.
Keep in mind that Google will look for the most relevant answer, which means your content’s relevancy will overshadow the position (if in the top 10) once it attains position zero. Additionally, you can think of improving the content of your snippet by adding a hook that will increase click-through and attract people to your website for more information.
Conclusion
As PO continues to remain prevalent, it has become vital to improve your site to get PO rankings. At the end of the day, it is not about playing the game with the search engines, but instead providing optimal answers to the searchers.