Playbook: capture a featured snippet you're ranking near but not winning

Playbook: capture a featured snippet you're ranking near but not winning
I ran this on real pages using Semrush + manual SERP inspection. Snippets aren't luck — they're a format match.

The capture steps:
— Filter your rank tracker to keywords where you rank 2-8 AND a snippet exists that you don't own.
— Open the live SERP. Identify the snippet TYPE: paragraph, numbered list, bulleted list, or table.
— Match the format exactly on your page — if it's a table, give them a table near the top.
— For paragraph snippets, answer the query in 40-55 words, directly under a question-format H2.
— Put the answer high on the page (Google rarely pulls snippets from below the fold).
— Re-check in 1-2 weeks; snippets reshuffle fast, so iterate the format.

Semrush:
➕ 'Featured snippet opportunities' filter finds these in bulk
➖ Doesn't tell you the format — you still check manually
Manual SERP:
➕ Free, and the format read is the real work
➖ Tedious one by one

Best for: finding targets → Semrush. Winning them → manual format-matching.
Pick this if you rank near snippets you don't hold. Skip if you're not yet top 8 — fix ranking first.