[NOTICE] Google Announces a Change to Featured Snippets

On January 22, Google announced a global change to the way it handles featured snippets: URLs that win a featured snippet will no longer appear a second time on the SERP as an organic result.

Before, these snippets were most commonly “sourced” from the second or third-ranking organic URL. Now, that second instance of the URL will no longer be present on the SERP — it will only appear as the featured snippet. In short, these snippets are no longer being treated as an add-on to the SERP that’s sourced from a more permanent location — they’re simply the top-ranking result. The impacts of this will vary based on whether you’ve owned a featured snippet or not previously.

We’ll break this down as owned vs. unowned. We expect to see the following impacts:

Previously Owned Featured Snippet:

  1. Google rank is not expected to change.
  2. Base rank will change. Since the second instance of the URL will no longer appear on the SERP, you will no longer rank — this will cause an initial increase in non-ranking keywords and a drop in any ranking averages that are calculated with base rank.
  3. Share of Voice is calculated using the top 20 ranking URLs, which typically encapsulates both the snippet URL and its organic rank. With your one URL no longer counting twice, you should see a slight one-time dip in SoV.

Previously Unowned Featured Snippet:

  1. Google rank and base rank are both subject to change — for the better. If you appeared below the organic URL that sourced the snippet before this change, you should see an initial bump up in rankings.
  2. Share of Voice will see a one-time increase for those ranking in the top 20 positions. Again, because the winning URL will no longer be counted twice and your rank will increase by one, this can positively impact your SoV.

We’ll be watching this Google change closely. All signs point to this being a permanent change. It’s unlikely we’ll continue to see fluctuations beyond the next couple of days as metrics will refresh in STAT to reflect this new normal. We’ll monitor rankings closely to ensure everything continues to work as expected and share any updates along the way.

If you have any questions, concerns, need help understanding metrics or how this impacts in-app reporting, reach out to support@getstat.com!

Cheers,
Your Moz Team