What is a featured snippet?
A featured snippet is the answer box. For queries that read like questions, Google lifts a passage, a list, a table or a video from one page and shows it above the ordinary results, with the page title and link beneath. It is sometimes called position zero, because it sits above the first blue link. The passage is chosen automatically from a page that already ranks well for the query; there is no markup that requests it.
Since 2020 the page shown in the featured snippet is not repeated lower on the first page, so winning the box means giving up the standard listing. Since 2024, AI Overviews take the same space for many queries, and the two now compete for the top of the page.
Why it matters
Why a featured snippet matters
It is the most visible real estate in search, and for question queries it collects a large share of whatever clicks happen. It also carries a halo: the page in the box reads as the answer, and for voice assistants it often is the answer, read aloud as the only result. For a brand explaining a product, a process or a term, the snippet is the difference between being the reference and being on a list.
There is a cost. For some queries the snippet answers so completely that nobody clicks, and the page earns visibility without traffic. Whether that trade is worth it depends on whether you want the click or the credit; for definitional content the credit is usually worth having.
In practice
How a featured snippet works in practice
- 01
Find the queries where a snippet already appears and where you rank on the first page; those are the ones you can take. Then shape the page to be lifted: put the question in a heading, answer it directly in the first forty to sixty words beneath, and keep the answer self-contained so it makes sense out of context. For how-to queries, use a numbered list, one step per item; for comparisons, a table with real headers. Google extracts structure, so give it structure.
- 02
Then measure and adjust. Search Console shows impressions and position for the query, and position one with a sharply higher click-through rate usually means the snippet is yours. If you would rather not be lifted, the nosnippet and max-snippet directives opt a page out. Keep the content current: snippets are re-evaluated constantly and go to the page that answers best today, not the one that answered first.
At RIOT
Featured snippets at RIOT
This glossary is built for the box. Every entry opens with a one-sentence definition, follows it with a heading that asks the question people type, and ends with the questions people actually search, answered in two or three sentences and carried in FAQ schema. It is the shape a snippet wants, and it is also the clearest way to explain a term to someone with fifteen seconds. The two goals are the same goal.
Watch out
What people get wrong about featured snippets
Trying to force it with markup. There is no featured snippet schema; FAQ and how-to structured data feed other result types, and the snippet is chosen from the page's content. The second mistake is answering vaguely to protect the click. A page that withholds the answer loses the snippet to one that gives it, and then loses the click too. The third is forgetting that the snippet is borrowed: it is re-awarded with every crawl, and a page that stops being the best answer stops being featured.
