Glossary
Featured Snippet
A featured snippet is the block at the top of Google's results that quotes an extract from a page in order to answer the query directly, with a link to the source. Google says these are selected programmatically from pages that appear in the results, not submitted by site owners.
In plain terms
Google lifts a paragraph, list or table straight off your page and shows it as the answer.
Why it matters
Snippets are the oldest extraction surface, and the formatting habits that win them — a tight answer, a clean list, a real table — are the same habits that make content easy for AI engines to quote.
How to apply it
- Answer in one paragraph of roughly 40-60 words directly beneath the question heading.
- Use real HTML lists and tables rather than images of them.
- Keep one question per section so the extract is unambiguous.
Example
Searching "how to calculate customer acquisition cost" on Google returns a boxed answer at the top of the results quoting a numbered formula and short explanation lifted directly from a marketing analytics vendor's blog post, with a link back to that page.
Sources
Related terms
Back to the full glossary (75 terms).
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