Featured Snippet
A featured snippet is a highlighted answer that Google shows at the top of the search results, quoted from a web page with a link to it.
What is a featured snippet?
A featured snippet is a highlighted box at the top of Google’s organic results that answers the query directly with an excerpt from a web page – as a paragraph, a list or a table – and links to the source. Because it sits above the regular results, it is sometimes called “position zero”.
Google selects the snippet automatically from pages that already rank on the first page for the query. You can’t apply for it or mark it up, but you can make your content a better candidate:
- Answer the question clearly and early, ideally in 40 to 60 words directly below a heading that contains the question.
- Use real HTML lists and tables for steps, rankings and comparisons.
- Match the search intent and keep the page up to date.
Featured snippets can increase visibility and clicks, but for simple questions they also contribute to zero-click searches, because the answer is already visible on the SERP. Since the rollout of AI Overviews, featured snippets appear less often for some queries – but the same principles of clear, quotable content also improve your chances of earning AI citations.
Snippets are chosen per language and country, so a page that wins the snippet in the US doesn’t automatically win it in Germany or Mexico.