Danny Sullivan, Google’s Public Liaison for Search, recently published an article titled "A Reintroduction to Google’s Featured Snippets." In his piece, he covered the basics of what featured snippets are, when they appear, and how they continue to evolve. However, some details were missing. This article examines what he said and fills in the gaps.
What is a Featured Snippet?
Featured snippets are named as such because they flip the usual display order of search engine results. Typically, the snippet—a relevant quote from a website—appears beneath the webpage title. In a featured snippet, the website content appears first, highlighting it prominently.
Why Does Google Show Featured Snippets?
Google opts to display featured snippets when it believes they will help users find what they’re searching for, particularly for mobile and voice searches. A case study on local searches found these insights:
- Voice searches often target food and drink categories.
- They frequently have a local business focus.
- They are less likely to involve sensitive or adult topics.
- They are less often about social media.
- They typically do not require user interaction.
How Google Determines When to Show Featured Snippets
Danny Sullivan was somewhat vague about the circumstances that trigger featured snippets:
"We display featured snippets in search when we believe this format will help people more easily discover what they’re seeking, both from the description and when they click on the link to read the page itself. It’s especially helpful for those on mobile or searching by voice."
What Kinds of Queries Trigger Featured Snippets?
Sullivan was ambiguous about the kinds of queries that trigger featured snippets, referring to them as those that “we believe” will help people. Some recent research from Yahoo sheds light on this. A study on voice queries discovered that nearly 10% of voice searches begin with "what" and "how." This suggests that these types of queries are likely to trigger featured snippets. Yes/no questions starting with "does," "did," and "can" were also commonly used in voice searches.
Do Users Click on Featured Snippets?
This is a controversial point. Danny Sullivan claims that featured snippets drive traffic, but he doesn’t specify the percentage of users who click through:
“When we introduced featured snippets in January 2014, there were some concerns that they might cause publishers to lose traffic. What if someone learns all they need to know from the snippet and doesn’t visit the source site?
It quickly became clear that featured snippets do indeed drive traffic.”
Research indicates that many users do not click through, especially those using voice search, as they often find the featured snippet sufficient. A study titled "Searching by Talking: Analysis of Voice Queries on Mobile Web Search" found significantly lower click-through rates.
In 2014, Google published a paper on measuring attention and satisfaction in mobile search. This research explored using eye tracking, known as Viewport Time, to measure satisfaction rates with featured snippets without relying on click data. The study concluded:
“…answer-like results often do not receive clicks”
Google Takes Publishers into Account
Sullivan mentioned that Google considers publishers when creating featured snippets but did not elaborate:
“We recognize that featured snippets have to work in a way that helps support the sources that ultimately make them possible. That’s why we always take publishers into account when we make updates to this feature.”
Featured Snippets Will Change
Sullivan noted that ongoing research will continue to shape the future of featured snippets:
“Because featured snippets are so useful, especially with mobile and voice-only searches, we’re working hard to smooth out bumps with them as they continue to grow and evolve.”
Displaying More than One Featured Snippet
An interesting feature is Google’s ability to display multiple featured snippets for certain queries with ambiguous information. For example, for a query like “how to set up call forwarding,” Google may show snippets for both Verizon and AT&T.
Overall, while Danny Sullivan provided a useful overview, he may have overstated the frequency with which users click through from featured snippets. Given that these claims can be fact-checked, it’s advisable for him to be more realistic, as evidence suggests most featured snippets do not result in clicks.
Featured image by Shutterstock, modified by Author
