What are Featured Snippets?

Featured snippets are important aspects of SEO. They are special boxes of content that Google displays on top of its search engine results pages (SERPs) of your browser.

What good is your content if it’s not being seen on Google search results? Users nowadays want immediate answers to their questions, and they don’t want to have to click through to a website to find them. This is where the featured snippet comes in.

To help you get started, you need first to fully understand what they are, which we'll discuss in this article.

Definition: What is a Featured Snippet

A featured snippet shows a summary of answers to user questions, which is displayed on Google's SERP, from various web pages. It is intended to give the user a quick, easy, and potential answer to their question, usually in the form of long-tail keywords, without having to click through to a website and browse through a whole content.

A featured snippet commonly has a position above the regular organic results on Google and is marked with a special icon after search queries are made. They can be either a paragraph, list, or table and usually appear on a snippet box to represent a certain content and page from a link.

Why are Featured Snippets Important?

The featured snippet is important for five reasons:

1. They improve websites' SEO by helping them rank higher in Google's search results.
2. They improve your website's click-through rate (CTR) because users are more likely to click on a Google result that has a featured snippet.
3. They improve the user experience by giving users the information they are looking for after making a Google search query and without having to click through to a website.
4. They give you an opportunity to show off your brand on the Google page and build trust with users.
5. They can help you generate leads and sales by directing traffic to your website.

Types of Featured Snippets

There are three forms of featured snippets:

Paragraph

A paragraph text snippet is a short answer to a user's question, typically ranging from 40 to 60 words from full-length content on the website. It is displayed in a box on top of the SERP.

Here's an example of a paragraph snippet for the query “steps in making a cup of tea”:

“To make a cup of tea, start by boiling water and then add a tea bag or loose tea leaves. Next, pour the hot water into a cup and let it steep for 3-5 minutes. Finally, add milk and sugar to taste and enjoy!”

List

A list snippet is a numbered or bullet-pointed list of items. This format is also displayed in a box on top of Google's SERP. They basically show lists of what the search is about.

Here's an example of a list snippet for the query “top 10 movies of all time”:

1. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
2. The Godfather (1972)
3. The Godfather, Part II (1974)
4. The Dark Knight (2008)
5. 12 Angry Men (1957)
6. Schindler's List (1993)
7. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
8. Pulp Fiction (1994)
9. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
10. Fight Club (1999)

Table

These are tables of data that are displayed in boxes at the top of Google's SERP.

Here's an example of a table snippet for the query “conversion rate by country”:

Other Types

Although feature snippets are mostly text snippets, search engines sometimes display other types of featured snippets, such as image and video snippets.

Here's an example of an image featured snippet for the query “how to make a paper airplane”:

And here's an example of a video snippet for the query “how to tie a tie”:

Final Thoughts on Featured Snippets

Featured snippets are an important part of search engine optimization and can help you rank higher in search engine results, improve your website's CTR, and generate traffic, leads, and sales. If you want to further optimize your website and page, aim for being in Google's featured snippets.