Have you recently observed that Google is answering all your search queries by itself? It’s answering the question you are typing directly above the results?

Google is becoming intelligent day by day. It can understand the content you are writing, and can directly answer users’ search queries. Thanks to the Rankbrain algorithm.

In 2015, SEJ that Google Is showing knowledge graph results for 25% of its search queries. But wait, the fact is that if you rank top and get featured in Google knowledge graph it will increase your traffic by 300% if you were ranking in 1st or 2nd position.

With the introduction of Google knowledge graph, ranking in top 5 results is more important than ever. The results that are ranking in position 6 to 10 are facing hard times. This shows you the stress that Google puts on building authority sites.

Have you ever wondered how to get featured in Google knowledge graph?  Well, you are here for a reason right?

In this post, I will share with you some unique strategies, that help you in getting your blog posts featured in Google knowledge graph.

There are different types of Google knowledge graphs. Google displays local business differently or it may display the recent movies in a slider way. It also displays the popular videos right away at the top of search page.

All I’m talking today is about getting your pure content featured in knowledge graph – in the form of list or paragraph.

Featured on knowledge graph

You can see the same in the below screenshot, where my blog is listed in it.

  • Increased traffic. You get 300% more traffic than the case if you are ranking one.
  • Increased reputation. People who click to your blog via knowledge graph tends to offer more engagement in your blog post.
  • A strong signal that you are Google Panda and Penguin proof.
  • More people likely link to you.
  • Your ranking may even rise more due to these benefits.

I got to know about how many bloggers are interested in knowing the tips behind being featured once I shared the same on Facebook.

So I decided to write a blog post on it to share with my community.

Include table of content to your post

This is very important for your readers and as well as the search engines to understand what are all the content that you have covered in your blog post.

You may have noticed that the content which has a table of content will have site links or ‘jump to’ snippets in the SERPs.

If your  content crosses 2000 words,  then it is a very good habit to include a table of content. For  shorter blog posts consider including the bullet points of what you gonna cover in your post.

It is very helpful for search engines to analyse the structure of content in your blog posts. It increase your chances of getting featured on Knowledge graph.

Keep headings relevant

The basic on page SEO suggest you use your keywords in your blog posts, especially the title and the headings. It is because in order to help search engines to determine the content in your post.

Your content has several sections. Before the beginning of each section, you include a heading. Those headings should clearly tell what the section is about. It helps Google in understanding your content fully, and chances of you featuring in Google knowledge graph will be more.

Your job is to let Google know the relationship between the entities in your content.

Build your authority online

Are you carefully examining the websites that are featured on Google knowledge graph? They are of high-authority. The majority of the search queries, Google present are from public domains or the sources like Wikipedia.

Before building enough authority you could not expect Google to feature you on knowledge graph.

If you are being featured in Google knowledge graph, it means that Google is taking the risk of presenting the content on your site right away to the search users.

If your content has no enough authority then Google would less likely take the risk of including you in its knowledge graph.

You need to focus on increasing your domain authority, citation flow and trust flow.

Once you get enough high-quality natural backlinks to your content, your domain authority and trust flow will increase. Which in turn, correlates with the increase in the authority of your site in Google’s eye.

Include schema markup

Schema markup or otherwise called as microdata helps you to tag the elements on your web page with appropriate entities. It helps search engines in determining the relationship between different elements of your web page.

Schema markup enables search engines to better understand the meaning or motive behind your content. Once search engines understand your content completely the chances of you featuring in Google knowledge graph will be high.

When compared to pure blogging, schema markups are more important to business sites to get listed in Google listing and maps. You may have noticed the listing of a business in knowledge graph along with the working hours and location map of the business.

This is due to schema markup.

Build your brand

Read this section carefully, as it covers most of the tips.

Once you start giving importance to building your brand, Google values you.

Earn high-quality backlinks that have your brand as your anchor text. This makes it clear to Google that people consider your blog as a brand.

Brand backlinks

In order to build that kind of brand links, you need to get featured on other websites, participate in roundups or should get interviewed.

Create a Google Plus page i.e tightly tied to your brand. The cause of the fact, that Google Plus is the social media site of Google, it highly stresses on your brand activities on Google Plus.

Domain registration length

Renew your domain for 2-3 years in advance. Thus signalling Google that you are considering for long-term blogging. Spam sites normally would register their domain for a year and fly away.

This tip will be useful to you if you are already ranking for a popular search term, in top 1- 7 results.

First take a note of the keyword you are ranking for. Come up with an answer to your search query in a paragraph with 2-3 sentences.

Before writing anything that answers a question in your post, practice writing the question before the paragraph containing the answer. (read it once again…)

including phrases in the post

Phrases are like:

  • Definition/meaning of {keyword}.
  • what are {keyword}
  • Places to find {keyword}
  • Procedure to {keyword}
  • List of {keyword}
  • Tips for {keyword}

These type of queries are returned with Knowledge graph in Google search.

These questions that you include in your post should be in plain simple English so that search engines can understand fully. Try to answer all the possible questions about the topic you blog about. Make your content in-depth. Practice including FAQ to your blog posts on certain topics.

Target long tails

Webmasters love long tail keywords. There is a reason for it.

People search for long tail keywords when they need an accurate answer to their search query. They offer you highly targeted traffic. Most of the content that is featured in Google knowledge graph is for long tail keywords.

Long tail knowledge graph

Google finds it easy to display the complete answer for a long tail query in a short paragraph, as the query is particular.

Targeting to rank for long tail keywords is the best way to increase the chances of you getting featured on Google knowledge graph.

It Depends on Google knowledge graph feedback

Your blog may have featured on Google knowledge graph for some time. Considering the feedback and CTR, if there are negative feedbacks, Google may ditch your site on knowledge graph.

negative feedback

Try to add more bullet points in your content

including bullet points

Include more and more lists in your blog posts. Google knowledge graph loves lists. Because lists are an effective way to present the information that is easier to digest and quick to read.

When you dug into the post deeper, I noticed the following.

importance of including lists in the post

Yeah it’s for real! 😉

There is a clear message about what the list is about. The message is wrapped inside heading 3.

Use LSI keywords

LSI keywords are keywords related to the main keyword. Including the keywords related to the main keyword in your content, makes your content semantically-rich. Google understands semantically-rich content very well.

Once Google understands your content, it can feature you in its knowledge graph confidently.

Finally

These are some of the techniques you need to consider adopting in your blogging strategy, in order to increase your chances of getting featured on Google knowledge graph.

The first most thing you want to focus on is to build authority blogs. In the near future, small blogs have a tough time. Focus should be on ranking in top 1-5 results, not the first page of Google.

Google knowledge graph will certainly expand more as it will be helpful for Google to make it’s voice assistant Google Now, more efficient.

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