Featured Snippets: What Are They and How to Monitor Them?

What are Featured Snippets?

If we run the experiment of searching for "Featured Snippet" on Google, we can find the answer to what this type of functionality Google provides us for faster searches is. It gives us texts created directly by Google (scanned from other websites) and also offers us questions asked by other users that can help us make our searches more precise.

The thing is that the famous snippet appears above the organic results, and below the ads, if any. Google, for its part, extracts the fragment it considers most relevant to the query.

These specific formats, which we will discuss in all their types later, are based on a very specific and brief informational search. For example, if you ask Google when Lady Gaga was born, Google answers like this:

Featured Snippet with Lady Gaga's date of birth.

It tells us, with a brief answer, her date of birth, her full name and even her place of birth, with more information than we had asked for. It's a brief and very direct answer. If we search for the death of someone famous, it gives us the date directly and also offers complementary information.

Featured Snippet with the date of death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Because of this, the user no longer has to click on any website or waste time searching for this answer.

Let's now see what types of Featured Snippets exist, because there are quite a few:

Types of featured snippets

There are several different types of Featured Snippets that Google offers us in different categories, which will give us one piece of information or another depending on what we are searching for. Google will always try to fine-tune the search to provide the most precise answer possible.

Text Snippets

Text snippets are the small texts that appear answering the specific question we have asked Google. It can be a sentence, a word, some numbers or a few paragraphs. It can also, as we observed in the previous screenshot, include images useful for our search.

Google answers our question with a text fragment from a Wikipedia article (Text Snippet).

As you'll see, one of the websites that is dominating text snippets is Wikipedia, not only because of the immense amount of content it has, but because of the good structure and data markup of its pages.

Video Snippets

Apart from the small texts, on some occasions, Google also shows us many video results for the queries we make.

Google interprets that when typing "unboxing" what we want to see is a video and not an article, which is why it shows the video snippet.

Of course, most of the search results will be YouTube links, owned by Google.

Tables and lists

Google is much smarter than it may seem and, in some searches, considers that neither a text nor a video can answer your question, so it shows a table/list.

Collection of the first editions of the Olympic Games in table format.

For example, as we can see in the previous image, we typed 'olympic games all years' and it showed us the first years of the Olympic Games in list form with all the information we need, and invites us to click a link to complete this answer.

The thing, and the novelty, is that Google has made the list for you, since the site where the information is hosted does not strictly follow that format. In addition, lists and tables can be supplemented with images depending on what we are searching for. Something very useful for research work.

Featured Snippet in list format from one of the articles on Chess.com

In many searches, as we have described before, it may show an advertising block because it is relevant or very similar to what you are looking for. It is also worth mentioning that the featured snippet, in table or list form, may be the result that is in third, fourth or fifth place, it doesn't have to be from the first result, which is usually the most important.

Local Pack

The Local Pack is the box that appears when we search for a specific business and provides us with the specific address on Google Maps with different locations and their results.

Local results pack for the search "SEO agency" in Tarragona.

Want to know how to appear on Google Maps? We have a complete post that explains it. Don't miss it!

Site Links Snippet

Site Links are links to some of the most important pages of the business that Google shows next to the main result. These pages cannot be edited and Google shows and alternates them at its own discretion.

SEO Alive has a featured result at the top with the Site Links to some of its most prominent pages.

Other snippets

There are also other snippets such as the graphic snippet, which occurs when we search for a business or a brand, and the logo and its biography appear in the search, in the same way as it happens with public figures.

We also find the images snippet, which is usually in all searches, and the list of questions snippet, which can take the form of a table.

Featured Snippet with questions about the keyword "SEO agency".

I suppose that after reading all this you will have wondered something...

How can I create one of these Snippets for my domain or business?

It's normal to ask this because appearing in these featured snippets is a unique opportunity for our domain or business and is an almost guaranteed visit.

It's true that Google, unfortunately, independently decides which featured snippet to show and which domain is suitable for it and to give the best answer, but in the 'Search Evaluator Guidelines', guidelines produced by Google that help us with ranking, it provides us with precise references to meet the requirements and get a fragment of our website to appear as featured when a user performs a search.

Google indicates that it's best to write texts that contain 1 or 2 sentences correctly and completely, a short list, and that can appear on a mobile phone screen. Remember that mobile phone browsing is increasing more and more. Google also offers us the opposite option: preventing search engines from using our website as a featured snippet, which would be done via an HTML code. <meta name="googlebot" content="nosnippet"> On the contrary, there is no possibility of creating a snippet ourselves. Google must be the one to do it.

But beware, we do not recommend this inclusion and this prevention because we would be censoring our own content and featured snippets are a type of result very useful for gaining the visibility we seek.

Monitoring Featured Snippets

Getting a featured snippet can sustainably increase traffic. Now, how do we know which pages are appearing and for which keywords? In the following example, we'll show you how to do it with Ahrefs and Sistrix.

Analyzing Featured Snippets in Ahrefs

To monitor the evolution of our featured snippets in search results through Ahrefs, we just have to go to the main Keywords tool, select "SERP Features" and there check only the "Featured Snippets" option.

Through the filter in the Keywords Explorer, we can see all the Featured Snippets on our website.

Overview of the amount of Featured Snippets that Chess.com (one of our clients) has in Ahrefs

Analyzing Featured Snippets in Sistrix

If we want to do the same in Sistrix, the process will be even simpler.

Analysis of keywords with a featured snippet in search results using Sistrix.

Here we have two options:

• ›Go to the keywords explorer and select "SERPs contains Featured Snippets", which will show us all the keywords that are fighting for a SERP with a featured snippet.
• ›Select SERP-snippets in the sidebar, which will show us all the keywords for which Google has chosen to show our result in the featured snippet.

What about voice searches?

Voice searches are experiencing unprecedented growth and we need to explain this very important aspect here since the proliferation of Google Home, for example, is evident. When performing a voice search, the answer is given by voice and this time the first results are not shown... the user receives an answer if the question asked allows this form.

The thing is that the answers, for the most part, come from featured snippets and voice-controlled devices show a single result.

Conclusions

As we have repeated throughout the text, featured snippets are an incredible opportunity to increase visits to our domain and can place us in a very privileged position on Google, which is the largest search portal in the world.

In addition, featured snippets offer us quite a few categories such as images, videos, lists, tables... which take up more space and are much more visible in search results. On the other hand, the "classic" result is much less attractive and, consequently, may provide lower traffic.

Google, as always, never stops working and innovating, so featured snippets also change over time. The results Google can highlight at the top, with the search results, may vary over time and also if another domain better meets the factors we have mentioned before.

In a search for a specific topic, it will not always show us the same answer, since Google may have found a much more useful and valuable result for the user and has preferred to change the featured one.

In short, and to conclude, featured snippets are a very good feature that Google offers us to fine-tune searches and an opportunity to get more visits to our domain.

To finish, we would like to pose a question/debate. Do you think that the fact that a user can solve their doubt directly in the search results without entering a page is beneficial for the business, even though Google recognizes that the company is the one providing the information?

For example, if Weather.com shows the weather directly in the search results when typing "weather in CITY-NAME", do you think that for them this is better than, for example, a visit to their website?

We would really appreciate your opinion in the comments section please. Thank you very much!

References:

• ›Google article on Featured Snippets