Surfacing Featured Snippets From Around The SEO And SEM Industry, And What I Learned Along The Way

Glenn Gabe

google, seo, tools

Google Featured Snippets in the SEO and SEM Industry

Featured Snippets are fascinating to me. The reason is simple. Any time Google surfaces a specific url, treats it differently in the SERPs, and provides a significant amount real estate for that url, I tend to pay attention. And based on the SERP treatment I just explained, I’ve found that featured snippets can drive massive amounts of traffic. You can read my case study about a client losing a featured snippet for a high-volume keyword to learn more about that.

Over the past two years, I’ve been neck deep in featured snippet research. During that time, it’s been incredibly interesting to try and learn why Google surfaces certain urls and content as featured snippets, while others don’t gain traction. Google’s algorithmic approach to surfacing featured snippets means the process is extremely scalable, but that also means the results can change on a dime. Therefore, Google can reward a website one second, and then take back that reward a few days later. And that change can impact massive amounts of traffic.

SEMrush SERP Features Beta – A Kid in a Candy Store
Last year I wrote a post about how to find featured snippets for a given domain using SEMrush. The approach focused on using SEMrush to surface queries that can yield featured snippets (like “how to” queries).

After writing that post, I reached out to the amazing people at SEMrush and asked if they could add a feature that surfaced featured snippets for any domain. I was hoping they could flag featured snippets and surface them in a report, based on the SERP analysis they were already completing. I explained that the feature would be incredibly powerful and would save SEOs a ton of time. They agreed and said they would look into it.

I didn’t hear anything back for a while…until this past December. And I couldn’t have received a better holiday gift. SEMrush actually built a SERP Features widget that enables you to filter queries for a specific domain by specific SERP features (including featured snippets). Based on using the new SERP Features Widget since December, I think SEOs are going to freaking love it. I know I do. Here’s a quick screenshot of what the widget looks like.

SERP Features Functionality in SEMrush

And this is what it looked like to me. :)

Featured Snippets Candy Store


Featured Snippets From Top SEO Blogs and Websites
So I’m part of the beta now and I’ve been digging into many domains to surface which queries yield featured snippets. I don’t know when SEMrush will officially launch the new SERP Features widget, but I’ll post an update once they do (in this post, on Twitter, etc.)

As part of my testing, I started researching sites in the SEO and SEM industry to see if they had any featured snippets. I thought it would be interesting to see how different SEO sites and blogs compared when surfacing the almighty featured snippet. So down the SEO rabbit hole I went. It was fascinating to see which sites yielded the most featured snippets, which queries triggered those snippets, and of course all of the variables that go along with a featured snippet. For example, SERP treatment, rankings for the urls yielding the snippet, images and graphics that were displayed, and other interesting things.

And after heavily digging in, I decided to write this post to cover what I found during my travels. So join me as we take a trip around the SEO and SEM SERPs. In order to jump to a specific site, you can use the links below.


Quick Links To Specific Sites:


Search Engine Land
Let’s start with Search Engine Land (SEL), where I’m also a columnist. To be honest, I was a little surprised the site doesn’t receive more featured snippets. SEMrush only found 72 queries that yielded featured snippets for SEL. Sure, SEMrush isn’t going to capture all queries yielding featured snippets, but 72 wasn’t a lot compared to some other sites. I’ll list some interesting findings below.

Dinosaurs – SEO Inception
The query, “what happened to dinosaurs” yields a featured snippet from Search Engine Land! Yes, your children will probably be visiting SEL when researching what happened to dinosaurs. :)

Featured Snippet - What Happened To Dinosaurs

But it gets better. The featured snippet is actually about Google’s direct answers. So it’s like SEO inception, where one featured snippet leads to a post about direct answers (both Google topics and not really about dinosaurs). Not as confusing as Inception the movie, but not exactly the clearest path for those looking for an answer.

Not Ranking #1 – More Common Than You Think
When you dig into featured snippets, you often come across urls that receive the featured snippet, yet don’t rank #1 (or even highly on page one). You’ll see more of this later in the post, but here’s one example. The query, “nofollow tag” yields a featured snippet from Search Engine Land, but SEL ranks below two other urls. Google is pulling the featured snippet from the url ranking #3, along with an image from the post. It just shows that you don’t need to rank #1 to obtain a featured snippet. Again, more about this soon.

Featured Snippet - Nofollow Tag

How To Use Google, Not Written By Google
This was another funny example. If you search for “how to use Google”, Search Engine Land receives the featured snippet, and Google does not. Which is crazy, since Google is the actual search engine. :) Google actually ranks #3. Wow.

Featured Snippet - How To Use Google

But it gets even stranger. If I’m logged into my account, I see the featured snippet from SEL, but when using incognito mode, I see a featured snippet from CNET. Google’s Gary Illyes actually provided some interesting information about featured snippets when I was researching a previous post. He said that Google uses a number of signals when determining what to surface. So Google clearly knows that SEL would be a better fit for me versus CNET (given my search history and other things it knows about me). I’m assuming that’s why Google provided a different featured snippet. See below (incognito mode).

Featured Snippet From CNET - How To Use Google
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Search Engine Watch
While Search Engine Land came in at 72 queries yielding featured snippets, Search Engine Watch (SEW) was slightly less with just 60. Again, this was surprising to me given the sheer amount of content on SEW. Upon digging into the queries, there were some interesting findings.

Google is Humble…
The query, “what search engines are there” yielded a featured snippet from Search Engine Watch containing a bulleted list of search engines. And you guessed it, Google is not listed. The post is about alternative search engines to Google. I know featured snippets are algorithmically selected, but I find it hilarious that Google surfaces this post, which doesn’t contain Google itself. There’s also a nice thumbnail graphic of the privacy-focused DuckDuckGo.

Featured Snippet - What Search Engines Are There?

Watch How You Phrase Your Query
I noticed that SEW receives a featured snippet for the query, “seo title”. But I also noticed that SEW ranks #2 below Moz. So I quickly checked the query, “what is an seo title” and Moz actually receives the featured snippet. And the two urls swapped rankings as well (from #1 to #2 and vice versa). This was not the first time I saw featured snippets change based on slight changes in the query. Very interesting.

Featured Snippet for SEO Title

But slightly changing the query yields a featured snippet from Moz instead! And the rank order changed too.

Featured Snippet Changed to Moz for What Is An SEO Title?

Digging Deep in the SERPs
I also noticed that SEW has a featured snippet for, “max facebook photo size”, which is funny since you would think Facebook’s own documentation would receive the featured snippet. But it doesn’t. Also, the Search Engine Watch post that’s being surfaced in the featured snippet ranks #10 on page one. Yes, #10. So again, you do not need to rank #1 to receive a featured snippet. I have seen many posts rank lower on page one and still receive the featured snippet.

Featured Snippet for Max Facebook Photo Size

Advertising Is Important To Google, But…
…Search Engine Watch actually receives the featured snippet for the query, “how to advertise on YouTube”. Again, you would think Google would surface the official documentation from YouTube for this query, but it surfaces a post from SEW instead. I think this shows that the algorithm handling featured snippets is looking for much more than simply official documentation. It’s looking for the best answer based on a number of factors beyond simply being the official website.

Also, although this featured snippet has a beautiful bulleted list and thumbnail, you can see how ads can diminish the effectiveness of a featured snippet. Two ads pushed the snippet down the page, which takes away from its power and punch (at least a little).

Featured Snippet for How To Advertise On YouTube
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Search Engine Journal
While Search Engine Land had 72 queries yielding featured snippets, and Search Engine Watch had 60, Search Engine Journal (SEJ) came in with 133. And just like with SEL and SEW, there were some interesting findings. Let’s jump in.

More Official Documentation From Unofficial Sites
For the query, “firefox change default search”, Mozilla ranks #1, #2, and #3 but does not receive a featured snippet. Search Engine Journal gets it, yet ranks #5. It’s another example of a url not ranking highly on page one that received a featured snippet. This is also another great example of a third party site receiving a featured snippet over the official documentation. It’s important to know this happens a lot.

Featured Snippet for Firefox Change Default Search

Say Cheese
So, if you are writing about a subject that you highly focus on, wouldn’t it be cool to have your photo surfaced for a query related to that topic? I’ve seen that occasionally during my travels as well. For example, notice the featured snippet for the query, “seo lsi”. Search Engine Journal receives the featured snippet, but the author’s photo (Roko Nastic) is the actual thumbnail image.

Wow, think about how powerful that could be for you or your clients. It’s also worth noting that the post is from 2010, yet still receives the featured snippet. Clearly your content doesn’t have to be ultra-fresh (depending on the query, of course.)

Featured Snippet for SEO LSI

Side Note: Queries Not Questions
You may have noticed that many of the queries I’m listing aren’t actually questions. Instead, some are standard informational queries not structured as questions. I believe this is one reason that we’ve seen a spike in the number of featured snippets over the past year or so. So, if you are trying to gain featured snippet, just be aware that they are also being triggered for non-question queries.
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Moz
Knowing how much content and knowledge is on Moz, I fully expected to see a boatload of featured snippets. But checking SEMrush revealed only 85 keywords yielding featured snippets. This is more than Search Engine Land and Search Engine Watch, but less than Search Engine Journal, which had 133. And just like the others, there were some very interesting findings.

Question Versus Topic
Moz receives a featured snippet for the query, “what is a meta description”, along with a thumbnail image. The url ranks #1 in the SERPs. But check this out… if you change the question to more of a topical query, then Moz doesn’t receive the featured snippet. Wordstream does instead, even though Moz still ranks #1. By the way, more about Wordstream’s featured snippet situation soon. You’ll want to stick around to learn about that.

Featured Snippet for What Is A Meta Description

But change the query from a question to a topic, and Wordstream receives the featured snippet! And Moz still retains the #1 ranking.

Featured Snippet for Meta Description, Not a Question

Google’s Money
Moz also receives a featured snippet for the query, “how much money does Google make?” It’s an interesting snippet with a large thumbnail of a repeated Taj Majal graphic, and the snippet also looks botched with a “110.” at the beginning. Again, another sign of what can happen when a process is algorithmic. It’s also not the most up-to-date numbers and it ranks higher than some financial-focused websites. I’m pretty sure Pete from Moz tries to update it every now and then, but the latest numbers are from Q1 2014.

Featured Snippet for How Much Money Does Google Make A Year

Facebook Infomercial
I noticed a funny featured snippet related to Facebook. If you enter “average cost of a Facebook ad”, you see a featured snippet from Moz. The snippet starts with, “The minimum spend is $1 per day”, and Google bolds the $1. First, it’s interesting to see Google choose a non-Facebook url for this snippet, and second, I’m sure Facebook loves the low-cost pitch!

Featured Snippet for Average Facebook Ad Cost

Website SEO – Wow
If you simply enter, “website SEO”, you see a featured snippet from Moz from their beginner’s guide to SEO. That’s pretty darn powerful. But it’s another example of how ads can water down the impact. There are three AdWords ads above the snippet, which obviously push it down, but also lessen the impact visually. The key takeaway is that if you are competing with a site for important queries, and that site has a featured snippet, you might want to fire up AdWords and run some ads. After doing a lot of research in this area, I can tell you that ads do diminish the effectiveness of featured snippets.

Featured Snippet for Website SEO
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Search Engine Roundtable
Ah, Search Engine Roundtable (SER), the daily powerhouse of SEO news written by Barry Schwartz. I actually pinged Barry on Twitter a few weeks ago while digging into featured snippets from SER using SEMrush’s new widget. Barry does an incredible job of keeping the industry up-to-speed on the latest in SEO, so I was interested in seeing how many featured snippets the site was yielding.

SEMrush was only showing eight for SER, which is much lower than the other sites listed above. That said, many of Barry’s posts are extremely to-the-point, covering a specific piece of news (so it wasn’t entirely surprising to see a lower number of featured snippets). Let’s check out a few of the featured snippets I surfaced.

Unique Visitors Google Analytics
The featured snippet from SER takes up significant real estate at the top of the SERP and contains a thumbnail image from Google Analytics (GA). It’s hard to overlook the featured snippet, especially since there aren’t ads running (at least during the times I checked). The snippet itself does not really give the answer, so you must click through, which obviously can help drive more traffic to SER for the answer. It’s also another example of an unofficial site receiving a featured snippet, when the documentation from GA would yield the official definition. You’ll notice that Google’s support documentation ranks #2 under Barry’s post.

Featured Snippet for Unique Visitors Google Analytics

A Vanishing Act – How To Print Google Street View
As of a few weeks ago, SER ranked for the query, “how to print google street view”. I tweeted that screenshot so Barry could see it, and Barry included it in his post about featured snippets. Well, the featured snippet is gone now. That’s definitely a query that Google itself should rank for, and NOW IT DOES. Actually, multiple posts from the Google forums rank, and Barry’s post is gone.

It’s very interesting to see that happen. I have no idea if sharing that original photo caught the eye of a Googler, but it very well could have. And by the way, Google does receive a featured snippet if you remove the word “Google” from the query. Again, interesting to note.

As of 1/6/16, SER had the featured snippet:

Featured Snippet for How To Print Google Street View

And then poof, SER is gone. Very interesting:

Featured Snippet for How To Print Google Street View, Without SER

Apple is MIA
For the query, “how to find latitude and longitude on iphone”, SER receives the featured snippet. I was shocked to not see Apple listed (or its forums) on page one. Also, Barry’s post is from 2009, which just goes to show you don’t need the most recent information in order to receive a featured snippet. And the url from SER ranks #5 in the SERPs, which again backs the notion that you don’t need to rank #1 to receive a featured snippet.

Featured Snippet for How To Find Latitude and Longitude on iPhone
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Paid Search Blogs and Websites
OK, let’s switch to a few of the top PPC blogs to see how they fare with featured snippets. I couldn’t think of a better website to start with than Larry Kim’s Wordstream. And to be honest, I had no idea what I was in for.


Wordstream – The King of Featured Snippets
So, we know that Search Engine Land, Search Engine Watch, Search Engine Journal, and Moz are very powerful websites with great content overall. And we know they rank for between 60 and 133 queries that yield featured snippets. But what if told you that Wordstream blows them out of the water?

According to SEMrush’s new SERP Features widget, Wordstream ranks for a whopping 9,505 different keywords that yield featured snippets from the site. That’s some serious featured snippet power. Let’s dig into some of the queries so you can see what I’m referring to.

{Update: I guess that’s why it’s called a beta. :) I dug further into the data and noticed that I was only able to surface 580 queries that yielded featured snippets from Wordstream. That’s still far more than the other sites I analyzed, but well below the 9,505 number that the SERP Features tool is reporting in the interface. So Larry Kim is still the king of featured snippets, but the actual number is closer to 600 versus 9,500.}

Boost Website Traffic
Wordstream receives a killer featured snippet for the query, “boost website traffic”, which contains a large bulleted list, a thumbnail image, and the image even contains Larry Kim’s face. Wow. The only downside here is that the number of AdWords ads diminishes the power of the featured snippet (as mentioned earlier). And that’s ironic, given that Wordstream focuses on paid search. :)

Featured Snippet for Boost Website Traffic

The Cost of AdWords
Google must be dying over this one. For the query, “how much does AdWords cost”, Wordstream receives the featured snippet over official Google documentation. That’s awesome for Larry and his crew as new advertisers are looking for information about that topic. But once again, the ads diminish the power slightly. Actually, Wordstream is running one of the ads! That’s an interesting example of ads working with a featured snippet to dominate the SERP.

Featured Snippet for How Much Does AdWords Cost

Outbound Marketing
Sure, inbound marketing is hot, but that doesn’t mean outbound is not effective. When you enter the query, “outbound marketing”, Wordstream receives another great featured snippet. It has a nice thumbnail image, and a clear question and answer. And it seems there are less ads running for outbound, which enhances the effectiveness of the featured snippet.

Featured Snippet for Outbound Marketing
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PPCHero
From a paid search standpoint, PPCHero is another great blog with insightful and high quality content. Yet it only receives featured snippets for seven queries (based on SEMrush data). I was surprised to see this, but again, featured snippet selection is algorithmic so anything is possible. There were some interesting findings, though.

Improve Quality Score, But Not From Google
Once again, I found an example of a third party site receiving a featured snippet for a topic tied closely to a specific platform. Also, the url receiving the featured snippet is the second highest ranking from PPCHero in the SERP! The query, “improve quality score” yields a featured snippet from PPCHero, but that url is not the highest ranking PPCHero url in the SERP! Their “quick trick” post actually ranks one spot higher than the “guide to Google quality score” post.

In addition, Wordstream actually ranks #1, yet doesn’t receive the featured snippet. And Google actually ranks below them all at #5! And you’ve got to love this… Google is actually running an AdWords ad that ranks #1 in the sponsored section (above the featured snippet). So they are practicing what they preach I guess. If you can’t rank #1 organically, then provide air cover via paid search until you can. Of course, there’s no ad spend for Google, so it’s not like they are really paying for it. :)

Featured Snippet for Improve Quality Score

Find Negative Keywords – A Battleground
The query, “find negative keywords” turns out to be a battleground for paid search blogs, tools, and more. PPCHero receives the featured snippet, but Wordstream once again ranks #1. PPCHero actually ranks #4, below two Wordstream posts and a support document from Google itself. It’s yet another example of a url ranking #1 that doesn’t receive the featured snippet. Also, the AdWords ads diminish the power of the featured snippet visually, which I’ve mentioned several times before.

Featured Snippet for Find Negative Keywords
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Bonus One – Google Blogs
As you can guess, it’s very easy to go overboard when checking for featured snippets via SEMrush. One domain leads to another, and another, and another. So I decided to see how Google’s own blogs perform with regard to featured snippets. The answer: Not very well. I checked both the Webmaster Central blog and the Inside AdWords blog, and both do not yield any featured snippets according to SEMrush data!

Google Webmaster Central Blog Yields No Featured Snippets
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Bonus Two – YouTube is a Two-Headed Beast
I’ve tweeted before about featured snippets showing from YouTube and how powerful some of those could be. So I was very interested in seeing how many featured snippets SEMrush picked up for the video goliath. It ends up that SEMrush reported 136K queries that yielded featured snippets from YouTube.com. That’s a healthy number for sure, but what I saw next blew me away.

Although much of the focus in the SEO industry has been on featured snippets, most people have not focused on featured videos. And featured videos from YouTube take SERP real estate to the next level. I was blown away to see that SEMrush reported 22 million queries that yielded featured videos. Yes, 22 million. Wow. Think about the massive amounts of traffic both the featured snippets and featured videos drive to YouTube on a regular basis. Sure, many of those videos are music-related or video clip-related, but there are other queries mixed in as well. That’s powerful, to say the least.

Surfacing Featured Videos in SEMrush’s SERP Features Widget:

SERP Features in SEMrush - Featured Video

And here’s how a featured video looks in case you aren’t familiar with the format:

YouTube Featured Video - Relaxing Music
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Summary and Key Takeaways
There you have it. Findings from my search for featured snippets from across the top blogs and sites in the SEO and SEM industry. If you are interested in landing featured snippets for your site, I recommend reading through this post again, while also checking out my other posts about featured snippets. Here are some closing bullets that distill some of the core findings from this post.

Quick Featured Snippet Takeaways, Based On My Research:

  • You don’t need to rank #1 to receive a featured snippet. Actually, I saw urls ranking as low as #10 still receive a featured snippet. Crazy, but true.
  • Ad can diminish the impact of a featured snippet. That’s especially the case when three ads rank above the featured snippet in the SERP.
  • Featured snippets are showing for topics, as well as questions. They are not just for queries structured as questions.
  • To add to the previous bullet, sometimes minor variations in the query yield different featured snippets (from different urls and/or sites).
  • You can definitely receive a featured snippet for official services, platforms, or products without having the official site. I noticed that many times during my research.
  • Google can surface different featured snippets based on your search history. I sometimes noticed different featured snippets when I was logged in versus using incognito mode.
  • Thumbnails can greatly enhance a featured snippet. Google algorithmically selects a thumbnail and it can really attract attention to the featured snippet (even more than usual). And I saw some thumbnails that used a person’s photo, essentially tying that person to the topic at hand. Powerful.
  • You don’t need the most up-to-date information to receive a featured snippet (which is a little crazy to be honest). But if you are targeting a query that yields an older post as the featured snippet, you might be able to gain the featured snippet by writing an up-to-date post about that topic. Hey, it’s an idea. :)

I plan to dig further into featured snippets as time goes on, and as the SERPs continue to change. Needless to say, featured snippets can take up huge SERP real estate, can build credibility, and can drive massive amounts of traffic. The tricky part is that Google algorithmically selects each featured snippet based on a number of factors. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try and get them. And don’t forget about featured videos. They can be even more powerful than their featured snippet counterpart.

Again, I don’t know when SEMrush will officially launch the SERP Features widget, but I will post an update here when it does. I’ll also share the news via Twitter. Again, it’s a killer feature. :)

GG