Featured snippets are still a large, first place presence on the SERPs, providing significant opportunities to heighten site visibility, drive major traffic, and help digital assistants do their thing. Armed with fresh data and analysis, Rob Bucci will walk you through the evolution of featured snippets, how you can win them with searcher intent, why you’re likely to hang onto them for the long haul, and what they mean to voice search.

2. FEATURED SNIPPETS: FROM
THEN TO NOW, VOLATILITY,
& VOICE SEARCH

3. You’ve probably seen one of these before.

5. @STATrob/@getSTAT
#SearchLove
getSTAT.com/searchlove

6. THE EVOLUTION OF
FEATURED SNIPPETS
@STATrob

7. RESEARCH STATS
KEYWORDS 1,000,000
CPC High
DEVICE Desktop & mobile
MARKET United States, English (Google.com)

8. WE’RE STILL SEEING MORE
SNIPPETS THAN EVER
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
January '16 July '16 April '17 November '17
31%
23%
15%
9%
(Desktop)

9. FEATURED SNIPPET RANK
@STATrob

10. 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
January '16 July '16 April '17 November '17
4%4%
0%0%
96%96%
100%100%
Rank 1 Rank 2
SNIPPETS ARE APPEARING IN RANK 2

11. SHOPPING BOXES CAN PUSH
A SNIPPET DOWN THE SERP.
@STATrob

12. FEATURED SNIPPET
SOURCE POSITION
@STATrob

13. ORGANIC RANK OF SNIPPET
URLS HAS DROPPED
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11-20
January ‘16 November ‘17

14. A “PEOPLE ALSO ASK” BOX TAKES
SECOND PLACE 60% OF THE TIME.
@STATrob

15. @STATrob
RANK ON THE FIRST PAGE TO
HELP SECURE A SNIPPET.
99% of snippets are sourced from ranks 2–10.
TWEETABLE TIP

16. SERP FEATURES
VS. SNIPPETS
@STATrob

17. HOW OFTEN SERP FEATURES
APPEAR WITH SNIPPETS
38%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
Places Videos Images News Shopping PAA
64%
4%
1%
7%
2%1%
71%
4%3%
9%
19%
0%
43%
2%
10%
3%
19%
0%
22%
1%
5%
11%
14%
0%
Jan '16 Jul '16 Apr '17 Nov '17

18. VIDEO RESULTS ARE
GROWING & CHANGING
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
Jan '16 Jul '16 Apr '17 Nov '17
14%
19% 19%
38%
2%
Videos

19. @STATrob
CONSIDER VIDEO AS ANOTHER
WAY TO ANSWER QUESTIONS.
Google is making a more video-prominent SERP,
especially where snippets are concerned.
TWEETABLE TIP

21. 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
PAA
64%
71%
43%
22%
Jan '16 Jul '16 Apr '17 Nov '17
FEATURED SNIPPETS & PAAS ARE BFFS

22. A double–snippet SERP.

23. @STATrob
LET PAAS INSPIRE YOUR
SNIPPET CONTENT.
Use the relationship between the two features to
your advantage.
TWEETABLE TIP

24. 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
71
1%0%0%0%
Jan '16 Jul '16 Apr '17 Nov '17
SNIPPETS ARE SHOWING
UP ON LOCAL SERPS
Places

25. @STATrob
FIND THE LINK BETWEEN
LOCAL QUERIES AND
FEATURED SNIPPETS.
And build out the appropriate content.
TWEETABLE TIP

26. FEATURED SNIPPET
FORMATTING
@STATrob

27. This is a “paragraph” snippet.

28. This is a “list” snippet.

29. This is a “table” snippet.

30. 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Paragraph List Table
8%
32%
60%
11%
29%
60%
16%
19%
63%
7%
11%
82%
Jan '16 Jul '16 Apr '17 Nov '17
HOW OFTEN WE SEE EACH TYPE OF SNIPPET

31. Just look at this hideous thing.

32. FEATURED SNIPPET
VOLATILITY
@STATrob

33. THE RESEARCH
• In April 2017 we ran our one million keywords.
• 232,451 returned featured snippets, which
we tracked for 19 more days.
• We measured the rate of appearance and
level of volatility.
@STATrob

34. VOLATILITY = DISAPPEARANCES,
REAPPEARANCES, OR URL
CHANGES.
@STATrob

35. BOOLEAN LOGIC IN ACTION
SNIPPET APPEARANCE VOLATILITY
DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
DAY 4
DAY 5
cats.com
—
cats.com
—
—
0
1
1
1
0

36. 68% OF SNIPPETS SHOWED
ZERO VOLATILITY.
They appeared every day for 20 days with
the same URL.
@STATrob

37. @STATrob
Appearance
Volatility
Number of keywords by volatility and appearance.
Score

38. THE NATURE OF
VOLATILITY
@STATrob

39. HOW VOLATILITY BEHAVES
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
10%
16%
8%
67%
Only URL changes Only disappearances Disappearances &
reappearances
Disappearances & URL
changes + Disappearances,
reappearances & URL changes

40. @STATrob
Appearance
UniqueURLs
Number of unique URLs by appearance.

41. @STATrob
99% OF KEYWORDS RETURNED
UP TO THREE DIFFERENT
SNIPPET URLS.
76% returned only one.

42. @STATrob
TRACK DAILY TO SURFACE
YOUR COMPETITOR URLS.
Head to their pages to see how Google
interacts with their content.
TWEETABLE TIP

43. SPOTTING VOLATILITY
ON THE SERP
@STATrob

44. SNIPPET FORMATS RETURNED BY EACH KEYWORD
FORMATS NO VOLATILITY LOW VOLATILITY HIGH VOLATILITY
Only paragraphs 61.25%
26.92%
10.50%
0.80%
0.28%
0.26%
0.00%
49.48%
22.30%
6.99%
10.83%
4.74%
5.28%
0.28%
44.51%
20.03%
5.41%
15.39%
5.66%
7.63%
1.38%
Only lists
Paragraphs & lists
Paragraphs & tables
Lists & tables
Paragraphs, lists & tables
Only tables

45. @STATrob
KEEP TABS ON FORMAT TO
HELP IDENTIFY VOLATILE
SNIPPETS.
TWEETABLE TIP

46. 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11-20
ORGANIC RANK OF SNIPPET URLS
No volatility Low volatility High volatility
Rank

47. @STATrob
UP YOUR ORGANIC RANK FOR A
BETTER SHOT AT SNIPPET
STABILITY.
TWEETABLE TIP

48. FEATURED SNIPPETS &
VOICE SEARCH
@STATrob

50. VOICE SEARCH IS HAVING
AN IMPACT ON FEATURED
SNIPPETS.
@STATrob

51. Search engines have evolved to understand natural language queries.

52. GOOGLE IS SURFACING
FEATURED SNIPPETS FOR
NATURAL LANGUAGE QUERIES.
@STATrob

53. The ratio of featured snippet keyword length to non-featured
snippet keyword length continues to grow.

54. DIGITAL ASSISTANTS TRANSLATE
SPOKEN COMMANDS INTO
WRITTEN QUERIES.
@STATrob

55. MACHINE LEARNING: THE GOOD
“What are the best
headphones for $100”
“What about wireless”
“I meant $100 Canadian”
[best wireless headphones for
$100 Canadian]
[best wireless headphones for $100]
[best headphones for $100]
COMMAND QUERY

56. COMMAND & QUERY 1 COMMAND & QUERY 2
“How do I bake a
bundt cake”
“How long will
it take”
“How long does
that take”
[how long does a
bundt cake take to
bake]
[how long does it
take to take a
bundt cake]
[how do I bake a
bundt cake]
MACHINE LEARNING: THE GETTING THERE

57. MACHINE LEARNING: THE GETTING THERE
COMMAND QUERY
“How do I bake a bundt cake”
“What kind of pan does it take”
“How much do those cost” [how much does bundt cake cost]
[what kind of pan for bundt cake]
[how do I bake a bundt cake]

58. MACHINE LEARNING: THE… WAIT WHAT?
“How do I bake a bundt cake”
“Does it take butter” [how do I bake a butter]
[how do I bake a bundt cake]
COMMAND QUERY

60. OPTIMIZE FOR VOICE SEARCH
BY CREATING SNIPPET CONTENT
FOR LONG-TAIL, NATURAL
LANGUAGE QUERIES.
@STATrob
TWEETABLE TIP

61. SEARCH INTENT ISN’T GOING
ANYWHERE.
@STATrob

62. IT’S NOW TIME TO LAYER IN
SEMANTIC INTENT.
@STATrob

63. RESEARCH THE TYPES OF
SNIPPETS APPEARING FOR
YOUR QUERIES THEN FORMAT
YOUR CONTENT TO MATCH.
@STATrob
TWEETABLE TIP

64. 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Does Cost
10%
1% 3%0.4%
88%
98%
Paragraph List Table
WORDS THAT PRODUCE MOSTLY
PARAGRAPH SNIPPETS

65. [how much do hoverboards cost]

66. WORDS THAT PRODUCE MOSTLY
LIST SNIPPETS
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Best How to
0%
11%
68%
79%
32%
10%
Paragraph List Table

67. [best kitty names]

68. 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Rates Abbreviations
96%
54%
4%
15%
0%
31%
Paragraph List Table
WORDS THAT PRODUCE MOSTLY
TABLE SNIPPETS

69. [abbreviations for Canadian provinces]

70. WRAPPING IT UP
@STATrob

71. SNIPPETS SHOW UP A LOT
AND ARE MOSTLY STABLE.
@STATrob

72. The number of snippets continues to trend upwards.

73. A double–snippet SERP.

74. SNIPPETS ARE A CORNERSTONE
FOR VOICE SEARCH.
@STATrob

75. @STATrob
TRACK THE FEATURED SNIPPETS
IN YOUR QUERY SPACE.
TWEETABLE TIP

76. Download the updated findings, volatility whitepaper, and
presentation slides at getSTAT.com/searchlove.