How a Featured Snippet SEO Strategy Grew NASA’s Organic Traffic 38% Without Rewriting Content
Focusing on winning Featured Snippets helped the NASA increase the visibility of its content while working within rigorous standards for scientific review.
THE CLIENT – The national aeronautics and space Administration
NASA is the United States government agency responsible for the nation’s civilian space program and aeronautics and aerospace research.
Our Results
38%
Increase in organic traffic
138%
Increase in Featured Snippets
600+
New Featured Snippets owned
Challenge
Optimize content for SEO without triggering extensive scientific reviews.
Despite being the global authority on space and space travel, NASA’s content was not taking off as hoped on five websites including NASA Mars and NASA Solar System. Optimizing content following SEO best practices would help, but there was a hitch: much of this content had been carefully edited and vetted by the scientific community, and so any revisions would require extensive review from NASA and its scientists.
Approach
Target Featured Snippets and People Also Ask placements to improve SEO without editing existing content.
Our team found an approach that would get SEO wins without a lengthy review process: targeting Featured Snippets and People Also Ask placements. Content featured in these sections did not have to come from top search results, so NASA could leapfrog to the top of Google results pages and drive significantly more traffic to its sites. And by creating and adding quick answer boxes to NASA’s existing content, we wouldn’t need to go through the same level of vetting.
Outcomes
NASA doubled their owned snippets and increased traffic 38% through optimized content targeting Featured Snippets.
NASA’s traffic and placements skyrocketed after taking this approach. The Solar System site’s owned snippets more than doubled, bringing 38% more traffic to the site. Organic clicks increased 352% for an article explaining which astronauts have been to the moon. Our team continues to engage with NASA to optimize their sites and content, including consolidating their science content into one unified site by developing and implementing a new content structure, information architecture, and UX.
