Featured snippet guide: How to highlight your Google search results

The featured snippet is probably the most prominent and controversial feature displayed in Google’s search results. In this article, I explain what the snippet is all about, how it affects the click-through rate and how you can prevent your content from being displayed there if necessary.

What is the featured snippet?

The so-called “featured snippet” is a highlighted search result that is displayed very prominently in position 1 on Google:

As a rule, the snippet contains a text excerpt from the respective website. However, lists and even tables can also be displayed:

In some places, additional images are also displayed. On the desktop, there are usually one or two images; on the smartphone, an “image carousel” with six images is sometimes displayed above the snippet.

However, the images displayed do not necessarily come from the website from which the text excerpt originates. In case of doubt, Google collects the appropriate material from several websites.

When are featured snippets displayed?

With the help of featured snippets, Google primarily wants to answer (simple) questions from users in the search results. These are usually closed questions to which there is an unambiguous or clear answer. As the space in the snippet is limited, it should also be possible to answer the question in just a few sentences.

The featured snippet is primarily displayed when a specific question is entered into Google, which is introduced with a corresponding question word (why, what, how, etc.). Here are a few examples:

• Why is the sky blue?
• What are the seven wonders of the world?
• How much vitamin C per day?

Highlighting on the website

When users click on the website from which the featured snippet originates, Google automatically scrolls to the corresponding text passage and even highlights the excerpt:

However, this only applies to text extracts, not to lists and tables. This is very practical for searchers, especially with extensive content, as they are automatically forwarded to the appropriate text passage and do not have to search for it themselves.

However, this procedure can of course also be viewed critically, as Google – outside of its own search results – has a direct influence on the presentation of the respective website.

Integration in the search results

In the Google universe, the featured snippet is very closely linked to the “People also ask” feature, which is also displayed as a feature in the search results:

Every question that is displayed here is based on a featured snippet. So if you enter the question 1:1 in Google, a featured snippet appears with the same text that is also displayed in the dropdown view for similar questions.

It is important to understand this context in order to be able to force or provoke featured snippets when creating SEO texts. More on this in a moment. In addition, featured snippets are sometimes also integrated into the knowledge graph:

Google generally uses Wikipedia for the description text in the Knowledge Graph. The featured snippets therefore also give smaller websites the chance to be displayed in the prominently placed Knowledge Graph.

The featured snippet attracts attention

The featured snippet takes up much more space on the search results page (“SERP” = Search Engine Result Page) than a normal search result. While a regular search result is only just under 100 pixels high, a featured snippet can reach a height of more than 450 pixels.

Depending on the screen size, it takes up almost the entire visible area on the desktop (“above the fold”). On smartphones, the featured snippet sometimes even extends beyond the visible area. Recently, the snippet has also been stretched across the full screen width in individual cases:

Links within the featured snippet

In the English-language search results, links to Wikipedia have recently been included within the text excerpt in the featured snippet. Especially when it comes to definitions of terms.

The links are marked with a dashed line. Clicking on the link opens a pop-up, which in turn displays an extract from Wikipedia. This is a featured snippet within a featured snippet, so to speak:

The evolution of featured snippets

When Google introduced featured snippets in January 2014, the snippets were still displayed in a clearly demarcated or clearly highlighted box with shadows. This has changed recently: Currently, the snippets are de facto displayed without any real demarcation. At first glance, it looks as if the content comes directly from Google.

Only the blue link to the corresponding website reveals that it is an extract from a third-party site. In addition to the visual appearance, the way in which the snippets are integrated into the top 10 search results has also changed. Initially, the featured snippet was actually a real “position 0”, meaning that 10 regular results were still displayed alongside the snippet.

In addition, the website that was included in the snippet could also rank again further down with a regular search result – the website was then represented twice in the top 10. This is no longer possible today. Currently, the featured snippet simply replaces position 1.

What influence does the featured snippet have on the click-through rate?

Shortly after the introduction of featured snippets, criticism was voiced. They criticised the fact that users would no longer have a reason to click on the website if the content was already displayed in the search results.

The story of the website celebritynetworth.com, for example, which specialises in researching the fortunes of celebrities, is particularly dramatic. According to its own statement, Google’s monthly traffic collapsed by 65 per cent due to the introduction of featured snippets. As a result, the operator had to lay off half of its team. The fact is that featured snippets can have both a positive and negative impact on the click rate on the search result.

The direction in which the pendulum ultimately swings depends primarily on the type of content. The simpler or more banal the content is, the more likely the click-through rate is to fall. This is particularly true for search queries that can be answered with a single sentence. An example:

“How do I take a screenshot on the Mac?”

The question is answered clearly and unambiguously in a featured snippet. As a user, I then no longer have any reason to open the website. The click rate here is therefore rather low.

The situation is different for more complex questions. Either no featured snippets are displayed at all. And if they are, the motivation to click on the website to obtain further information or to delve deeper into the topic is still high. One example:

“How can I improve my Google ranking?”

This question is also answered in a featured snippet. However, the answer is of course very superficial. It is simply impossible to answer this question in one sentence. The click rate is therefore unlikely to be negatively affected.

Own data confirm the pattern

Out of interest, I used Google Search Console to look at some of the rankings of my own pages that I knew were being displayed as featured snippets.

To do this, I looked at the performance data over a period of two months. I made sure that the average position over the period was plus/minus 1.

The click rate varied enormously depending on the search term. For very specific questions, it was sometimes between 7 and 10 per cent:

For more open or unspecific search queries, however, the click-through rate was 23.4 per cent. For comparison: According to an analysis by Sistrix, the click-through rate for the result in position 1 is 28.5 per cent on average.

Although I have of course only analysed a tiny data set, the pattern described above has basically been confirmed:

• The more specific (closed) the question, the lower the click rate. And:
• The less specific (more open) the question, the higher the click rate.

How do I get into the featured snippet?

In principle, it can definitely be worth optimising your own content for display in a featured snippet. Because: A click rate of 10 per cent in the featured snippet is better than a click rate of 5 per cent on position 6.

As mentioned above, you can base your optimisation on the “similar questions” that are displayed for a keyword in the search results. To “provoke” the advert in a featured snippet, you need to make it as easy as possible for the Googlebot. Google is a machine and machines love clear structures.

First and foremost, it is about the correct arrangement of the “trigger” (the question) and the content (the answer). The “trigger” should be placed immediately before the content. Either in the form of a subheading or a sentence highlighted in bold:

The design of the content is also important. So: what type of content is needed? A written definition, a list with bullet points or a table? There is not necessarily a right or wrong answer here. Just think about what is most likely to help the user.

Google is now really good at recognising relevant content that matches a specific user question. It is important that you formulate the content as specifically as possible. So don’t start with Adam and Eve and avoid introductory sentences and empty phrases. Get straight to the point.

It’s a direct question-and-answer game. If someone asks: “How do I take a screenshot on the Mac?”, you don’t (!) have to explain what a screenshot is first. Focus on answering the question as specifically as possible:

For testing purposes, I focussed entirely on getting as many featured snippets as possible in one article. The result: 23 featured snippets with just one article! However, how many featured snippets you can achieve also depends on the scope and type of topic.

Can I block the featured snippet?

Yes, you can use a meta tag in the source code of your website to instruct Google not to show your content within featured snippets. There are three different ways to do this – but unfortunately none of them is quite so simple and watertight…

Meta tag max-snippet

The first option is to experiment with the “max-snippet” meta tag. With the max-snippet tag, you can specify how many characters of your content should be displayed in Google’s search results.

If the value is lower than the possible text excerpt, Google will refrain from displaying the content in the search results (without guarantee, of course). The tag is integrated into the familiar meta tag

<meta name="robots">

embedded. It could look like this, for example:

<meta name="robots" content="max-snippet:180">

With this setting, you limit the content output in the search results to 180 characters. But be careful: this also affects the number of characters for the normal meta description!

If you set the value too low, this can lead to problems. The normal meta description usually has around 160-170 characters. This is therefore not really a solution, but rather a workaround.

Tag nosnippet

If you want to make sure that your content is not displayed in snippets, you can also use the “nosnippet” tag. This tag is also integrated into the robots meta tag:

<meta name="robots" content="nosnippet">

In my opinion, however, the use of nosnippet is largely pointless, as this tag also prevents Google from displaying the normal meta description!

Inline tag data-nosnippet

Last but not least, you also have the option to exclude individual text sections from any snippets (meta description and featured snippet). To do this, use the inline tag “data-nosnippet” as follows:

This tag can be integrated into span, div and section elements.

My conclusion on the featured snippet

The featured snippet was introduced by Google to further improve the user experience and answer simple questions in the search results. As a rule, this is actually very helpful for users. However, if you run a website, the whole thing is a double-edged sword. This is because featured snippets can have both a positive and negative impact on the click-through rate on the search result.

Depending on your business model, this can have drastic consequences for your website, particularly in the form of a drop in traffic. The fact that Google doesn’t offer you a really effective way to exclude your own content from featured snippets shows how important the snippet is for Google.