Featured snippet

It is an organic result chosen by Google, not something a site can buy or switch on with markup. That separates it from rich results, which depend on structured data, and from AI Overviews, which are generated summaries drawing on several sources. A featured snippet quotes one page more or less word for word.

Snippets often answer the question so completely that the searcher has no reason to click, so winning one does not always mean more visits.

How it works

When Google judges that a query asks for a specific answer, it looks for a passage on a well-ranking page that answers it concisely and shows that passage in a box, formatted as a paragraph, a list or a table. The page usually already ranks on the first page; the snippet changes how it is displayed.

Pages that win snippets tend to state the answer plainly right after a heading phrased like the question, then go into detail. Owners who do not want their text shown can limit it with the nosnippet or max-snippet robots rules, at the cost of how the page appears elsewhere in results.

Snippets change often. The same query can show a snippet one week and not the next, or quote a different site, and other features, including AI Overviews, can appear above or around it. To see where you stand, search your target questions from a private window and note whose text is quoted. Search Console does not label featured snippets separately, but a page that wins one for a query often shows a jump in impressions and a change in click-through rate for it in the Performance report.

Example

A garden centre writes a guide to planting fruit trees with a heading asking when to plant them, followed by a two-sentence answer naming the dormant season, then the detail. Google begins showing those two sentences in a box for that question. Some readers stop there, but those who click are the ones planning to buy, and they land on a page that links to the trees in stock.

A few months later a competitor publishes a clearer answer with a short table of planting times by type of fruit tree, and Google switches the snippet to that page. The garden centre adds a similar table with its own advice for local conditions and updates the page date only after genuinely changing the content. The snippet moves back and forth between the two pages for a while, which is normal for a contested question.

Why it matters for your business

A featured snippet puts your name at the top of the results for a question your customers ask, which builds recognition even without a click. Clicks may go up or down, depending on whether the snippet satisfies the searcher. It is worth aiming for on questions that lead to a purchase or enquiry; on simple facts, the gain in visits is often small. Even where a snippet takes clicks away, the visibility can lead to searches for your name later.

Common mistakes

• Adding schema markup in the hope of winning a snippet, when snippets do not depend on it.
• Burying the answer under a long introduction, so no single passage answers the question.
• Judging success only by clicks without checking impressions and enquiries.
• Chasing snippets for trivia questions with no connection to what the business sells.

Questions people ask

How do I get a featured snippet?

There is no setting that turns one on. Rank on the first page for the question, then answer it directly in a short paragraph under a heading that matches the question, or as a clear list or table for steps and comparisons. Google decides which page and passage to show, and the choice can change.

Is a featured snippet position zero?

Position zero is an industry nickname for a featured snippet, because it appears above the usual list of results. Google counts the snippet as one of the organic results, so the page is usually not listed a second time further down, and reporting tools treat it as a top position.

Can I stop Google showing my page as a featured snippet?

Yes. The nosnippet robots rule stops Google showing any text snippet for the page, and max-snippet limits how much text it may show. Both affect how the page appears across all results, not only in featured snippets, so use them only when you have a clear reason.