Featured Snippet

Why It Matters

Featured snippets capture significant traffic by appearing in the most prominent SERP position. Pages with featured snippets can see 20-30% CTR, even stealing clicks from the #1 organic position. They're crucial for voice search optimization and establishing topical authority.

How It Works

Google extracts concise answers from pages that directly answer common questions. Snippets come in formats: paragraph (text answer), list (numbered or bulleted steps), table (data comparison), or video (YouTube clip). Google selects snippets from pages ranking in top 10 that best match query intent with clear, structured answers.

Use Cases

• A recipe site captures the featured snippet for 'how to make sourdough bread' with a numbered list of steps
• A finance blog owns the snippet for 'what is compound interest' with a clear paragraph definition
• An e-commerce site wins the table snippet for 'iPhone 15 vs Samsung S24 comparison' with a spec comparison table

Best Practices

• Target question-based keywords (who, what, where, when, why, how) with clear answers
• Structure content with questions as H2 headings followed by concise 40-60 word answers
• Use lists, tables, and structured formats that Google can easily extract
• Include definitions in the first paragraph after H1 for 'what is' queries
• Monitor Search Console for queries where you rank #1-5 but don't have the snippet
• Create comparison tables for 'vs' queries and step-by-step lists for 'how to' queries