Featured snippet optimizer

Skill flakey-caster542/superseo-skills/skills/featured-snippet-optimizer

Automate SEO audits, briefs, and content strategy using eleven production-tested Claude skills that perform independent research without external data input.

Install

npx -y skills add flakey-caster542/superseo-skills --skill featured-snippet-optimizer

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Use when you want to win a featured snippet for a keyword you already rank for. The agent checks the current snippet format, analyzes your content, and rewrites the relevant section to match what Google wants.

SKILL.md

7.8 KB, ~1.9k tokens by cl100k_base, as published. Nobody here has run it

Featured Snippet Optimizer

Featured snippets get 42.9% CTR versus 39.8% for organic #1 without a snippet (First Page Sage 2026 CTR study). If you're ranking positions 1-5 and NOT holding the snippet, you're leaving clicks on the table. This skill finds the gap and fixes it.

Input

Target keyword (required)
Your page URL that already ranks for this keyword (required)

If you don't know your current position, tell the user: featured snippet optimization only works for pages ranking positions 1-5. From position 6+, fix the ranking first, then target the snippet.

Role

You are a senior SEO specialist with deep knowledge of featured snippet mechanics. You know that Google picks snippets algorithmically from the top 10, and the format you write in matters more than content quality for this one job.

Step 1: Check the Current Snippet

Google the target keyword. Observe:

Is there a featured snippet at all?
If yes: which domain holds it? Your domain or a competitor?
What format is it? Paragraph / ordered list / unordered list / table
What's the exact text of the snippet?

If there's NO featured snippet at all, that's actually good news — the slot is up for grabs.

Step 2: Classify the Query Format

Google uses format matching. The query type dictates the snippet format:

Query type	Snippet format	Example query
"What is X"	Paragraph (40-60 words)	"what is affiliate marketing"
"How to X"	Ordered list	"how to bake sourdough"
"X list" or "types of X"	Unordered list	"types of cheese"
"X vs Y"	Table or paragraph	"react vs vue"
"Best X" / "top X"	Unordered list with brief	"best running shoes"
"When did X" / "who is X"	Short paragraph (< 50 words)	"when did rome fall"
Numeric answer	Short phrase or table	"how much is tesla stock"

Apply the rule: write the answer in the exact format Google wants. If it's a "how to" query, you need ordered steps. If it's a "what is", you need a paragraph of 40-60 words.

Step 3: Fetch and Read Your Page

Read your current page. Find where you (try to) answer the target query. Check:

Does the answer appear? If yes, where? (First paragraph, under an H2, deep in the article?)
Is the format right for the query type?
Is the answer clean and self-contained, or does it require context from surrounding paragraphs?
How long is it? (40-60 words for paragraph snippets; 3-8 steps for list snippets)

Step 4: Identify the Gap

The most common failures:

Wrong format — you wrote a paragraph when Google wants a list
Answer too long — Google truncates at ~60 words for paragraph; 8-10 items for list
Answer too short — Google wants a complete thought
Answer is buried — it's in the middle of the article, not directly under an H2 that matches the query
No self-contained answer — the answer depends on the surrounding context to make sense
Not in a heading-answer structure — Google looks for H2/H3 followed immediately by the answer

Step 5: Rewrite

Write a new version of the answer section, optimized for the snippet. The rewrite should:

Start with an H2 or H3 that restates the query — literally "What is affiliate marketing?" as an H2
Answer directly and completely in the first 40-60 words — no preamble, no "it depends," no "as we'll explain below"
Use the correct format — paragraph / ordered list / unordered list / table
Be self-contained — a reader should understand the answer without reading anything else on the page
Include the target keyword naturally in the first 20 words

Provide two versions:

The featured snippet answer block — 40-60 words or 3-8 list items, exactly what you want Google to pull
A longer follow-up paragraph — for the reader who wants more depth after the snippet block

Step 6: Supporting Structure

In addition to the answer block, add:

An H2 with the exact query phrasing immediately above the answer
A short intro of 1-2 sentences between the H2 and the answer (optional, helps scannability)
The 40-60 word answer OR the 3-8 step list
A deeper explanation AFTER the answer block

Google's snippet extractor looks at this structure specifically. The answer block should be the FIRST substantial thing under the matching H2.

Step 7: Format-Specific Rules

For paragraph snippets (40-60 words):

Complete sentence structure — subject, verb, object
Direct definition or answer
No "in this guide we'll cover..." fluff
Include the target term in the first 20 words

For ordered list snippets (how-to):

3-8 steps maximum
Each step = one action verb + one sentence
Steps must be self-contained (don't reference previous steps implicitly)
Use "1. 2. 3." numbering that Google can parse

For table snippets (comparisons):

Clear column headers
3-6 rows usually
Keep each cell short (1-10 words)

Step 8: Output

Current State

Keyword | Current snippet holder | Snippet format present | Snippet text

Your Page Analysis

URL | Current position (if known) | Where the answer appears | Format gap

Rewrite

New H2: [exact heading] New answer block: [the 40-60 word paragraph OR the 3-8 step list] Supporting follow-up: [the longer paragraph that comes after]

Implementation Notes

Place the new answer block here: [specific location in the existing content]
Keep the rest of the page intact — don't rewrite surrounding sections
The FIRST instance of this answer format on the page is what Google extracts

Realistic Timeline

Google typically picks up snippet changes within 1-4 weeks
If no change in 4 weeks, check whether your H2 matches the query phrasing closely enough
Don't make further changes for at least 2 weeks after the rewrite — let Google reprocess

What to Ignore

Targeting snippets from position 6+ — optimize the ranking first
Chasing snippets for AI-Overview-heavy queries — AIO has mostly replaced snippets for informational intent. Check first whether a snippet actually shows.
Markup tricks — schema doesn't help with featured snippets (only rich results)
Keyword stuffing the answer — Google picks clean, natural answers. One instance of the keyword in the first 20 words is enough.

Next Step

For a full content rewrite where the snippet is just one goal: use improve-content with your URL.

Bundled references

Load from references/ only when the step calls for them.

query-format-matching-expanded.md — expanded query → snippet format mapping beyond the Step 2 table, with edge cases (hybrid queries, "how much" vs "how many", qualifier queries) (Step 2, when the query type is ambiguous)
snippet-format-templates.md — copy-paste answer block templates for paragraph, ordered list, unordered list, and table snippets with word counts and structure (Step 5, when writing the rewrite)
aio-vs-snippet-decision.md — when to chase the AI Overview instead of (or alongside) the featured snippet, and how the calculus changes for informational queries (Step 1, when the SERP has both)
structured-data-snippets.md — schema markup that helps rich results even though it doesn't help featured snippets directly (optional, when the user wants both)

Snippet-friendly content type templates (references/content-types/) — load the matching one when the rewrite scope expands from answer block to full section:

how-to.md — for ordered list snippets
faq-page.md — for paragraph snippet stacks from PAA
comparison.md — for table snippets

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Said here and by no other author read

Format content to match the snippet type
require target keyword and page url
warn user if page ranks below position five
search keyword to check current snippet
fetch and read current page
identify formatting gap

Grouped from the skills themselves: near-identical wordings counted once, and counted by distinct author, so one author publishing three of these counts once. Length counted with cl100k_base; the agent that loads this file may tokenize it differently.