How I Won a Google Featured Snippet (3-Month WordPress Case Study)
Hello, I’m YARD, a WordPress blogger for three months. Despite my short blogging journey, I’m grateful that some of my posts have secured top positions in Google search results, particularly Google Snippets. I wanted to share my experience with you.
Google’s Choice: The Google Snippet
Before diving in, let’s first define Google Snippets. Take a look at the image below.
Hello, I’m YARD, a WordPress blogger for three months. Despite my short blogging journey, I’m grateful that some of my posts have secured top positions in Google search results, particularly Google Snippets. I wanted to share my experience with you.
When a post is chosen by the author and takes over Google’s recommended search results, it is called a Google snippet (or more accurately, a featured snippet). If we were to rewrite the above to make it look more interesting, it would be as follows:
What is a Google Snippet?
A Google Snippet is a summary of the most relevant webpage that appears on Google search result pages. This snippet typically includes the webpage title, URL, and a short excerpt from the content.
By viewing a snippet, users can quickly assess the relevance of a search result and determine whether it contains the information they are looking for.
In particular, a Featured Snippet provides direct answers to user queries and is displayed at the top of the search results, making it highly visible and engaging.
How I Secured a Google Snippet?
Like many bloggers aiming to generate revenue, I initially started with Tistory, a free and accessible platform, before transitioning to WordPress. At first, I ran a general blog without a specific niche.
The Shift to a Specialized Blog
I assumed that running a general blog would allow me to write more frequently, but that wasn’t the case. Without a defined topic, I had to search for keywords daily, and writing about subjects I wasn’t interested in—just for profitability—made it difficult to sustain the blog.
Even after getting AdSense approval, my earnings never exceeded $1 per day. Eventually, I came across WPlaybook’s video on blog topics, which helped me set clear goals and a focused niche for my WordPress blog.
Since then, although I still have much to improve, I’ve seen my blog posts secure Google Snippets, and I wanted to share my journey with the WPlaybook community.
Securing a Google Snippet and Achieving Top Search Rankings
Among the various alcohol-related topics I saw before this article, my article on recommending highball snacks took up a Google snippet for the keyword ‘highball‘, which is loved by everyone these days. I was also very surprised. What was even more surprising was that when one article took up a snippet, other related articles also started to take up snippets.
How did a WordPress blog, which is said to be difficult to expose, manage to get to the top of Google in just two months after starting? My thoughts may not be the right answer, but here are my tips for getting Google snippet exposure through SEO.
1. Select a topic
When starting my WordPress blog, I aimed for a specialized blog rather than a general one like my previous Tistory blog. I chose alcohol-related content, specifically whiskey, which has a deep enthusiast community and gained popularity during the pandemic.
I believed that once my blog gained traction, it would continue to be consistently exposed, and due to the dedicated fanbase, it wouldn’t easily lose visibility.
2. Create a post
Ultimately, a blog’s success depends on how well the content is written. Since the goal is to rank high on search engines (Google, Naver, Daum, etc.), I focused on optimizing my content for Google, the most widely used search platform globally.
As I kept writing, I became aware of Google Snippets (top search results) and started crafting my posts with the goal of securing a Featured Snippet.
followed WPlaybook’s Rank Math plugin guide, set focus keywords targeting Google Snippets, and ensured my SEO score was in the mid-80s range.
3. Delivering Information with a Unique Touch
From my experience, Google prioritizes content that delivers clear, concise, and accurate information. Articles that strongly emphasize information-sharing tend to rank higher in search results.
After securing a Google Snippet for alcohol-related keywords, I carefully analyzed other top-ranking blogs in the same niche. I thoroughly read their content and benchmarked their strategies to refine my own approach.
The most important part here is that if you copy the format or content of a Google snippet article as is, it will lose its meaning. You should write the article with enough of your own thoughts and your own color.
When writing articles like this, if you use H2 (Best 5) as the upper tag for the title tag and H3 (1st, 2nd, …) as the lower tag and add them sequentially, Google will often recognize it and copy it and put it in the snippet.
4. Use title tags well
Personally, I think there are keywords that make good snippets. For example, here are five representative ones:
- ~Articles that convey information, such as What is? and Definition (e.g., What is social distancing?)
- Recommendations, Top 5 (e.g., Top 5 WordPress plugins)
- Comparisons, articles that compare like A vs B (e.g., Tesla vs Livian)
- ~ list (e.g., a list of Jajangmyeon restaurants in Jongno-gu, Seoul)
- ~ Topics that require step-by-step execution to achieve a specific goal, such as how to
When writing these articles, it seems that if you use H2 (Best 5) for the title tag and H3 (1st, 2nd, …) for the sub-tags in sequential order, Google seems to recognize it instantly(?) and put it in the snippet.
Changes and Plans After Google Snippet Exposure
Positive SEO Cycle Through Topical Authority (TA)
In one of WPlaybook’s videos, there’s an explanation of Topical Authority (TA). In my case, having all my blog posts focused on alcohol-related topics seems to have had a positive impact.
In other words, a virtuous cycle of Google snippet takeover → internal link inflow → search ranking increase of the inflow article was naturally formed.
As a result, t he internal links of articles that won Google snippets for the keyword ‘highball’ naturally increased the inflow and ranking of other articles.
Coincidentally, it was exactly mid-February, the day I moved my server from the previous Cafe24 hosting to ChemiCloud, and the day I started writing mainstream articles and the day I started seeing significant traffic on the Search Console. Haha. Fortunately(?), things are still going smoothly.
Expanding Blog Topics to Cover More Alcohol-Related Content
Initially, my blog focused primarily on whiskey-related content, including whiskey recommendations and whiskey pairings, which have successfully ranked within Google’s top 5 search results and significantly contributed to blog traffic.
However, I soon realized that limiting my content to only whiskey posed challenges in terms of search volume and keyword diversity. Additionally, I questioned, “Why am I only writing about whiskey when I enjoy so many other types of alcohol?” This led me to expand my blog’s scope.
Recognizing that different topics gain exposure at different times, I decided to broaden my spectrum within the alcohol niche. I researched high-search-volume keywords related to wine, traditional liquors, and cocktails, analyzing which posts secured Google Snippets and tailoring my content accordingly.
Final Thoughts
I’m still relatively new to blogging and not an SEO expert, but setting clear goals and staying consistent has started yielding small but meaningful results.
For those interested in monetizing their blogs, the WPlaybook community is an excellent place to connect with like-minded individuals. I encourage you to join and work toward your blogging goals together!
