At the end of January, Google decided to drop duplicate featured snippets.
Before January 22, if you managed to get your content into the featured snippet, the link to your website with a meta description would still appear on page one of Google Search. Now, however, the link and the 222-character meta description are no longer available to websites that appear in the featured snippet.
Google's Public Liaison of Search, Danny Sullivan, tweeted:
If a web page listing is elevated into the featured snippet position, we no longer repeat it in the first page of results. This declutters the results & helps users locate relevant information more easily. Featured snippets count as one of the ten web page listings we show....
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) January 23, 2020
Initially, SEO experts hoped that it would give other websites a chance to appear on the first page of Google Search. However, all it did is remove the second link and a meta description without replacing them with another website. The featured snippet is not counted as one of the 10 webpage listings shown on the first page of search results. Hopefully, Google will work on that to give other websites a chance. After all, 75% of Internet users never go past the first page of search results.
Meanwhile, owners of websites with featured snippets aren't too happy with the update either. Many are experiencing a traffic reduction due to the second link to their website disappearing from the top search results. Yet, some of them report that other URLs from their websites got a brand new chance at showing up on the first page.
Example of a Featured Snippet on Google search engine results page (SERP).
Website owners that have the good fortune of ranking as a featured snippet should compare performance results from before and after the update. If results have gotten worse, you may want to consider opting out of the featured snippet. Google offers such an option by using a nosnippet tag.
It has been just over a month since Google implemented the snippet update. So it may be too early to draw conclusions about its impact on SEO efforts. And as we’re all well aware, Google is continually making changes to the SERP layout and their ranking algorithm, so the best advice might be the same we say about the weather here in Colorado: “If you don’t like it, just wait five minutes.”
For more information about adjusting your SEO campaign to Google updates, please contact us today.