In the last 24 hours, Google has announced that web page listings elevated into the featured snippet position will no longer be repeated in the search results.
Previously, a web page could be listed in the featured snippet position and also be listed in one of the ten positions on the first page of the Google listings. However, this is no longer the case and featured snippets will instead be counted amongst the ten organic listings shown.
This was confirmed via a Tweet last night from Google’s Public Search Liasion, Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) in reply to Moz Marketing Scientist, Dr. Pete Meyers (@dr_pete)
As of 22nd January, this change has been rolled out globally.
It has also been confirmed that this change only affects featured snippets and doesn’t affect other search results page features such as knowledge panels and map packs.
Whilst there may be concerns on the impact this change will have on the click-through rate of search results, there are measures which can be taken to ensure that a web page doesn’t rank in the featured snippet position, the details of these measures can be seen in the Google Search Console Help article on featured snippets in search.
We will be reviewing any featured snippets our clients are ranking for and will be advising on where further action should be taken.
