Featured Snippet Statistics 2023 – 13 Mind-Blowing Statistics

Looking for featured snippet statistics 2022? I have an inkling why. Internet users’ attention spans have declined to a mere eight seconds as of July this year! So much so that internet users do not even take the effort to click the top 10 search results in Google. They just rely on the quick answers their questions have from “position zero” results—called featured snippets—that Google provides.

This new reality has, in fact, pushed marketing professionals to heighten their SEO tactics by leveraging on featured snippets for their companies’ websites. Why featured snippets? Well, these 13 mind-blowing statistics will surely tell you why.

1. Featured snippets dominated total search queries by 12.29%

A 2020 SEMRush study involving 160 million desktop keywords and 46.1 million mobile keywords showed that featured snippets would appear 99% of the time for top organic search results. While featured snippets dominated 12.29% or 14 million out of 112 million total search queries in 2021.

With online experiences prompted by more than half—68%–of search engine results, search engine optimization has become more relevant than before. All the more driving businesses to create strategies to increase their search engine ranking including incorporating featured snippets tactics.

Accordingly, 91.94% of searches online come from Google and Google image referrals or results. This has created 61% more market leads for B2B marketers online.

2. 19% of keywords used in Google come with a featured snippet on top of the 7.3% of Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) using double featured snippets

Featured Snippets was launched by Google in 2014 and so many changes have taken place since then. A modification included a featured snippet URL that eventually was removed in 2020. So far, double-featured snippets are still in circulation.

Notwithstanding, featured snippets remain important for search engine optimization for almost a quarter (19%) of keywords often used by internet users in Google Search are equipped with a featured snippet. Across search engine platforms, 7.3% allow double-featured snippets in the listing of their results for certain keywords.

3. 11% of 5.5 million search engine results pages (SERPs) have featured snippets

GetStat highlights that this translates to 605,000 SERPS using featured snippets. That’s a big volume of queries, normally fueled by featured snippets that answer the “six Ws” or Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.

4. 19% of SERPs for US mobile data have featured snippets

Speaking of SERPS, US mobile data search results show that featured snippets appear in 19% of SERPS. While double-featured snippets appear in 7.3% of US mobile data SERPs. More than half of mobile screens in the US are accordingly occupied by a featured snippet.

5. Featured snippets appear in 12.3% of search queries with 99.58% appearing on Google’s first-page search results.

Meanwhile, an Ahrefs study reveals that almost all first page Google search results have featured snippets on them. While a relative percentage of search queries (12.3%) reveal to have featured snippets in them. The organization says that this data highlights the importance of featured snippets in guaranteeing companies that their websites will be clicked.

Featured snippets are accordingly a secure way to bridge the gap in SEO efforts for click-through rates. Zero Limit Web explains that normally, only top searches in a search results page assure companies that their websites will be visited by internet users. Dasa actually show that 67.5% of clickthroughs came from the first five results of a search query.

Those who ranked lower than five would only enjoy the possibility of being clicked by 6.48%. While those on the second page of the search results (and further) would lessen any chances of being visited at all by internet users based on a search query they made.

Moz.Com adds that the aforementioned chances have a lesser probability of happening since a study showed 18% of internet users conduct another search query even before they click the results from their initial research.

By now, you are getting the drift of how important featured snippets are. But here are more statistics to get you going.

6. Featured snippets appear in 40.7% of voice search results

These statistics are critical in planning your website’s content update and SEO tactics for 2023. Studies show that voice searches are the next big thing—with 72% of internet users using the technology in the last six months. As such, featured snippets have been present in almost half, or 40.7% of voice searches as of date.

Implementing such formats of featured snippets in your website would be a great advantage to your business. There are approximately 119 languages equipped into Google Search for this function. Just imagine the possibilities!

7. Google’s top 1 to 10 search results are 99.58% of the time equipped with a featured snippet

Ahrefs highlighted that featured snippets rank in Google’s top 1 to 10 position of search results for queries. This means that websites that already rank in Google’s top 10 have a higher possibility of appearing in position zero or as a featured snippet for queries. But this nonetheless creates a possibility for those in the list to jump from 10 to 1 in the ranking if they would improve their website’s content for a featured snippet.

8. 66% of “structured” articles appear in Google as featured snippets

Speaking of improving website content, articles with structured data appear more often (66%) as featured snippets in Google searches. Structured articles pertain to articles that use heading tags—the more the better such as an average of 14.5 headings or subheadings (H1 to H14)–and have a minimum length of 1,100 words. Accompanying the article with a minimum of eight images properly labeled with ALT tags is highly suggested by experts. Creating such content for your website would increase the chance for it to appear as a featured snippet in Google Search.

9. Featured snippets performed 42% better than regular search listings for clickthroughs

According to EngineScout, knowledge panels and featured snippets collected 42% of total click share in search engine results over regular search listings. Featured snippets registered 35.1% average total click share while regular listings recorded 44% of all search clicks in Google. The informative text that often makes a featured snippet is the reason why almost a third or 30% of internet users clicked the link it came with.

10. 24% of internet users perceive featured snippets as advertisements

EngineScout added that their study showed contrasting data on internet users’ behavior concerning featured snippets. Almost a quarter of internet users oddly perceived featured snippets. Another reason people avoided clicking the featured snippet was their lack of trust in it. This particular set of people said they preferred regular search listings. This survey also showed that 6% of all clicks were received by the “People Also Ask” portion or box on the Google Search results page.

11. Travel and Computer & Electronic industries rank first for featured snippets

A study conducted by Brado and Semrush randomly involving 1 million mobile data SERPs that covered 62% of search queries were for the Computer & Electronics and Travel industries. This was followed by the Art & Entertainment industry at 59% of search queries and by the Science industry at 54% of cases.

12. “Why” questions generated the most featured snippets

Brado and Semrush add that the results they gathered for industry ranking were mostly generated (77.6%) by questions that started with “why” as a featured snippet. An interesting aspect of the results showed that featured snippets covered 70% of articles published within the last three years for 80.4% of websites with 1-3 subfolders.

13. Optimizing “low-hanging” featured snippets boosts SEO ranking

Ahrefs suggests that companies who prioritize low-hanging keywords—those that have notable search volumes where a company ranks within Google’s top 10 results as a featured snippet—have greater chances of getting to point zero in no time.

To find out how to do this, simply identify the top keyword referrers of your website. Then figure out which of these keywords come out as a featured snippet in Google. Those keywords with the lowest ranking featured snippets are then areas you need to work on for your website. These might be keywords that you didn’t put much content on, so work on those areas.

According to Ahrefs, writing your own definition for the keyword and adding it to your website would most likely be your winning featured snippet in the long run. Make sure that the definition should be at least 50 words long, which you could elaborate separately on afterward. Adding six related keywords to it relevant in covering the topic is highly recommended.

Conclusion

Featured snippets may not be something you pay for with Google to get the lead. But since it is based partly on algorithms and more on your website’s relevant content to a keyword or search query, it is best to take the time to maximize its benefits for your business. Tinkering your website on keywords you already use for your business that are answered in a straight-forward and short fashion might lead you to that so-desired position zero spot.

Sources Used

• Ahrefs
• StartUpBonsai
• Inter-Growth
• OnTheMap
• Respona
• EngineScout
• SemRush
• Moz
• DevRix
• GetStat

FAQs

Can you pay Google to have your website appear as featured snippets?

No, you can’t. Google decides which websites appear as featured snippets based on relevant information on a search query. It is not an advertisement but an organic search result based on a website’s content that quickly answers a user’s question typed on Google Search.

Can a featured snippet of Google be replaced or removed?

Yes, it can be replaced or removed. Google can remove a featured snippet if the website it belongs to does not follow its policies. Google’s system is designed in such a way that it can identify which featured snippets are non-compliant with their policies despite the large volume of search results. However, this may take time because they remove it manually from their system since they also need to check on user-provided reports or feedback on the featured snippets.