What Is a Featured Snippet?
Featured snippet is a search result format that places a selected passage from a webpage above many standard organic listings. The passage may answer a question through a paragraph, list, table, or video. Search engines generate the display from page content and choose the result they consider most useful for the query.
Quick Facts About Featured snippet
Category
Search result feature
Used for
Answering question-based searches
Common confusion
Not a paid advertisement
Also called
Position zero
Often discussed with
On-Page SEO For Law Firms, Legal Keyword Research
Key Takeaways About Featured snippet
- It appears within the search results page, not only on the linked webpage.
- Clear answers and structured content can help search engines interpret a page.
- A featured snippet is not the same as a paid search advertisement.
How Featured snippet Works
A Featured snippet is selected when a search engine identifies a passage that directly addresses a search query. The displayed passage can come from a page that ranks organically, and the search result usually includes a link to the source page. The search engine decides which wording to show.
Related glossary terms: Search intent, Click-through rate, Organic search.
Page structure helps search engines identify suitable answers. A clear question heading followed by a concise answer gives the page a logical format. Lists, tables, definitions, and step-based explanations can also help search engines match content with specific searches. On-Page SEO improves the page elements that support this interpretation, while search intent describes the answer the searcher expects. A featured snippet may change when search results or page content change.
Expert Note
When we work on-Page SEO For Law Firms, we map question headings to concise answers and check whether each passage addresses the searcher’s intent. We also review page structure, supporting explanations, and internal links so the answer remains useful beyond the search result.
Featured snippet in Practice: A Real-World Example
A family law firm’s service page may answer, “What is a parenting order?” with a short definition beneath a clear heading. That passage gives search engines a well-structured answer to assess for a featured snippet.
Related Services
Related Terms
Search intent
Search intent is the purpose behind a person’s query in a search engine. It describes what…
Click-through rate
Click-through rate is a performance metric that shows how often people select a search result, advertisement…
Organic search
Organic search is the unpaid process of finding webpages through a search engine's natural results. Search…
Schema markup
Schema markup is structured data added to a webpage to describe its content in a format…
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