Search surfaces
Featured Snippet
Google's boxed answer at the top of results, lifted verbatim from one ranking page.
A featured snippet is the boxed answer Google shows at the top of some results pages, lifted word-for-word from a single ranking page and credited with a link. Unlike an AI Overview, which synthesises multiple sources, a snippet quotes one page directly, which makes it the clearest proof that a passage is extractable.
Featured snippets predate AI search but are deeply relevant to it: the same passage qualities that win a snippet — a clear question match, an immediate self-contained answer, clean formatting — are what get a passage lifted into an AI answer. Teams that already win snippets usually have a head start on AEO.
You earn snippets by structuring a direct answer to a specific question high on a ranking page, often as a definition, a short paragraph, a list or a table that maps to the query's shape.
Related terms
Position Zero
The informal name for the featured snippet that sits above the #1 organic result.
AI Overviews
Google's AI-generated answer box at the top of search results.
Structured Answer Block
A self-contained passage formatted so an engine can lift it whole as a direct answer.
Answer-First Writing
Leading a section with the direct answer, then justifying it, so machines can lift it.
People Also Ask
Google's expandable cluster of related questions, each answered by a quoted page.
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