Featured snippets are considered the Boardwalk and Park Place of a search engine results page. They’re located right at the top of the page and are delineated by a box so they’re clearly separated from the rest of the results. Featured snippets are considered position 0 in the rankings and are coveted by companies for their SEO benefits.
But Google is constantly making tweaks and upgrades to its algorithm in order to provide better results for users. The featured snippet is no exception. This year has seen a change to the featured snippet. What does this change mean for SEO and is it still worth it to try to get?
No More Duplicate Results
In the past, the webpage that occupied the featured snippet would also appear in the search results below in its earned location. Being the top result on the SERP didn’t automatically mean that that page would also be the featured snippet, but it did help. Sometimes, the featured snippet would come from lower down on the page.
However, as of 2020, the webpage in the featured snippet will appear only in the featured snippet and not in the results below. This change only applies to page 1 of the SERP. If a webpage appearing on page 2 or later of the search results is chosen for the featured snippet, it will still appear in its normal location. From this year onward, the featured snippet will count as its own position in the search results rather than simply featuring one of the ranked positions below.
Why the Change?
As with most of Google’s changes to its search algorithm or AI, this change was for the users. Having the same result appear twice, once in the featured snippet and once again on the first page of the results cluttered the SERP and could be confusing for users who didn’t realize that it was a duplicate entry. Removing the webpage in the featured snippet from the first page of the SERP does clean up the page and will guarantee that users are viewing only unique entries at once.
Is the Featured Snippet Still Worth It?
At the moment, it’s too early to tell. Many SEO experts believe that only time will tell. They will have to monitor analytics in order to determine whether a page receives more clicks as the top result or as the featured snippet. The best thing to do is to keep an eye on any pages that currently rank as the featured snippet. They may experience a drop in traffic, especially if the snippet is located in the right sidebar. Some may want to use a nosnippet tag to prevent Google from using their webpage as the featured snippet.
One change that is still coming is that any featured snippets that show up in the SERP’s right sidebar will be merging with the rest of the results. This should cause a decrease in clicks to subside as the featured snippet will be at the top of the page. That change should occur before the end of January. If you’re able to re-write some webpages that currently rank as the featured snippet, it might be a good idea to do so in order to see the difference in clicks for that page between the featured snippet and its normal ranking.
Recent Comments