Marketing 2 min read

Featured Snippets now Count as One of Ten Organic Listings

AekaPhoto / Shutterstock.com

AekaPhoto / Shutterstock.com

This week, Google rolled out a significant change to how featured snippets work.

Featured snippets refer to the block of information that appears at the top of the search result page.

The information typically includes answers to questions that Google extracted from relevant web pages. Aside from the block of text, snippets also contain the page title and the URL.

Before now, websites that have earned a featured snippet would also appear on the first SERP page. That means Google listed websites with featured snippets twice on its result page, making a total of 11 listings on the first page.

Not anymore.

On Wednesday, Google’s public search liaison, Danny Sullivan, announced that pages that earn a featured snippet would no longer be listed on the first page of Google Search. Instead, the search engine will show these sites at the top of the second page.

Danny Sullivan wrote in the announcement:

“If a web page listing is elevated into the featured snippet position, we no longer repeat the listing in the search results.”

Sullivan further stated that featured snippets now count as one of ten organic listings that appear on the first SERP.

What the Changes in Featured Snippets Mean

For featured snippets owners, it means Google will now only display your URL once on the first SERP, instead of twice.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Google’s announcement is websites on the second result page may now earn featured snippets. Before now, that privilege was reserved for the first pages listings alone.

Google has made several recent changes to its search result page.

Last week, the tech giant rolled out a new look for organic and paid search on desktop. Three days later, It announced the addition of a shopping section to the search result page to enhance user experience.

With the changes to featured snippets, Google hopes to provide more convenient access to information. “This declutters the results & helps users locate relevant information more easily,” Sullivan wrote.

As of January 22, Google had rolled out the change globally.

Read More: How to Optimize Your Content for Voice Search According to Google

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