Featured Snippet

A featured snippet is a prominent search result format where Google extracts and displays a concise answer from a web page directly in the search results. Often called "position zero," featured snippets appear above the standard organic listings and can significantly increase a page's visibility and click-through rate, though they also contribute to zero-click searches for simple queries.

Featured snippets come in several formats: paragraph snippets (a short text answer), list snippets (numbered or bulleted lists), table snippets (data presented in a table format), and video snippets. The format Google selects depends on the nature of the query and the structure of the content on the page. For example, "how to" queries often trigger list snippets, while definition queries tend to produce paragraph snippets.

Optimizing for featured snippets involves identifying queries where they already appear, creating content that directly and concisely answers the query, and structuring that content in a format Google can easily extract. Best practices include using question-based headings, providing clear and complete answers in 40-60 words for paragraph snippets, using properly formatted HTML lists and tables, and ensuring the page already ranks on page one for the target query.