What is a Featured Snippet?
A featured snippet is a special search result box displayed at the top of Google's search results, designed to provide quick and relevant answers to user queries. The content for these snippets is automatically extracted from web pages and typically appears for informational search queries.
Featured snippet on Desktop
Featured snippet on Mobile
Featured snippet types
Featured snippets typically appear in four main formats:
Paragraphs
Bulleted or numbered lists
Tables
Videos
Based on the search query, Google automatically selects and displays relevant content from top-ranking web pages in one of these formats as a featured snippet.
Paragraph Snippets
Paragraph snippets are one of the most common types of featured snippets you’ll see on Google. They provide a quick, clear definition or answer to a question.
Google can also include relevant images next to paragraph snippets in some cases.
Lately, Google has started highlighting key points in blue, making it easier to spot the most important information at a glance.
List Snippets
List snippets present answers in the form of numbered or bulleted lists. They are commonly displayed for "How" or "What" questions that call for step-by-step instructions or a simple list of items.
These snippets can appear as:
Ordered lists: These are used when rank or sequence is important.
Unordered lists: These showcase items that do not need to be shown in a certain order.
Table Snippets
Table featured snippets display data extracted from a webpage and present it in a tabular format, providing a clear and organized answer (e.g., for queries like "What are shoe sizes").
These snippets typically consist of rows and columns that showcase information such as prices, rates, years, or other numerical values, making it easy for users to compare and interpret data at a glance.
Video Snippets
These snippets highlight videos that provide direct answers or detailed explanations to user queries. Google often chooses a specific segment within a video to feature, ensuring the snippet is highly relevant to the search intent.
How do you track Featured Snippets using Advanced Web Ranking?
In Advanced Web Ranking, Featured Snippets can be tracked using the Google Organic, Google Organic & Places or Google Universal search engines for both desktop and mobile results.
You can add these search engines for monitoring from the Project Settings > Search Engines section.
When monitoring a Universal search engine, the positions of Organic entries alongside the URLs from Featured Snippets, AI Overviews, Aggregator Units, Local 3-pack, People Also Ask, Images, and other types of results will be reported as ranking if found in the SERPs retrieved from Google. More information on Google's search preferences available in AWR can be found in this article here.
How are Featured Snippets reported in AWR?
When found in the SERPs retrieved from Google, a featured snippet is reported as ranking on a position.
How can you identify the keywords that trigger Featured Snippets results in AWR?
You can easily identify the keywords that have triggered a Featured Snippet result and track their performance in SERPs by using the SERP Features filter within the Ranking>Keywords report.
In the filtered results, the SERP Features column shows which features are present on the SERPs retrieved from Google for each keyword, making it easy for you to see the presence of featured snippets and other result types.
If the chosen website (main or competitor's URL) ranks for a specific SERP Feature, the associated feature symbol is highlighted in green. If the selected website doesn’t secure any of the features present in SERP, the symbol will be blue.
How can your website get featured in a Featured Snippet?
Getting featured in a Featured Snippet requires optimizing your content to answer user queries effectively and structuring it in a way that aligns with the snippet formats. Here’s how to optimize your website for each type of Featured Snippet:
Paragraph Snippets
Provide clear, concise answers: Write brief definitions or explanations directly answering a user query within 40-60 words.
Use question-based headings: Frame your headings using “What is,” “Who is,” or similar questions that users might search for.
Highlight key information: Structure your answer to make it easy for Google to extract the main point.
List Snippets
Organize content into lists: Use ordered (numbered) or unordered (bulleted) lists to present step-by-step instructions, rankings, or itemized information.
Include relevant headings: Use headings that match common “How” or “What” queries, like “How to Bake a Cake” or “Top 10 Travel Destinations.”
Break content into small steps: Ensure each step or item is concise and focused, making it easier for Google to recognize and display as a list snippet.
Table Snippets
Provide structured data: Use tables to organize information such as comparisons, prices, or statistics. Ensure the table is well-formatted with clear headers and rows.
Add descriptive context: Include an introduction or description above the table to help Google understand the content’s relevance to the query.
Use schema markup: Implement table-related schema markup to improve visibility and indexing.
Video Snippets
Optimize video content: Create videos that directly address common queries, such as tutorials or how-to guides.
Add timestamps and descriptions: Break down your video into chapters or add timestamps for key sections to help users quickly find relevant information.
Upload videos on YouTube: YouTube is Google’s preferred platform for video snippets, so posting your content there increases its visibility.
Do you have any other questions? Don’t hesitate to get in touch and we will keep building the FAQ.