A featured snippet is a direct-answer block at the top of Google's SERP (often called "position zero") that displays a paragraph, list, or table extracted from a single web page.
Featured snippets typically appear for informational queries with clear answers — "what is X", "how to Y", "X vs Y". Google selects the answer algorithmically from pages already ranking on page 1; you generally cannot opt in directly, only optimize the page's content structure to make it featured-snippet-friendly.
Content patterns that win featured snippets:
- Direct definitional answers in the first paragraph (≤ 60 words for paragraph snippets).
- H2-formatted questions with paragraph or list answers below.
- Tables for comparative data (Google often lifts the table directly).
- Numbered or bulleted lists for how-to content.
Featured snippets steal CTR from the underlying ranking page — the URL's organic CTR drops because users get the answer in the snippet — but total impressions and brand exposure usually increase. Many of the patterns that win featured snippets also win AI engine citations (Perplexity, ChatGPT, Claude), so the optimization is doubly valuable.