Featured Snippets Will No Longer Be Repeated In Search Results

Google continues to experiment with the placement of featured snippets in the search results. Instead of displaying the infoboxes at position 0 above the organic search results, they now appear at position two at least for some search terms below the first natural hit. This was noticed by the US online marketing expert Stephen Watts, who shared the observation on Twitter. Other SEO professionals later confirmed the observation and we were also able to verify the changed display for some keyword combinations. It does not appear to be an error in the display.

Google did not revise the featured snippets until the end of January 2020. Up to this point, the sources for the box were also shown in the top organic results. However, with the January change, sources were removed from the first page of search results. Danny Sullivan of Google’s search team explained the move by saying that the search results should appear tidier.

What Is The Consequences The Site Operators Face?

Exact tests will have to show how the shift in the google featured snippet will impact. On the one hand, the search hit above the featured snippet should benefit from it. After all, in many cases, it is the only organic hit that is visible without scrolling at all. On the other hand, since so far, only ads were above the snippet, inattentive users could mistake the organic hit for advertising.

The SEO expert Nik Ranger also raises the question on Twitter how the featured snippet itself changes in the perception of the searchers due to the changed placement. Your argument: The format could now be misunderstood by users less often than advertising. Here, too, only tests will ultimately be able to show whether the searchers perceive the featured snippet at position two differently than above the search results.