In October 2022, while doing some competitive research I encountered something a bit different in position 0 of Google’s search engine results page (SERP):
A single featured snippet with content from 3 sources and domains, and more!
So, the game may be changing again for this coveted spot on the SERPs.
If this has you SEO sense tingling, then you’ll want to see what I found.
A New Google Featured Snippet Spotted
Recently, I spotted Google Featured snippet with a different layout from the norm. It had one text snippet and two thumbnail images combined:
The visible URL displayed one domain, matching the title, which led directly to the related article. Which is the norm.
However, after visiting the content (which was rather thin by my standards) the 2 infographics alongside the featured text snippet (also known as the “paragraph snippet”) were not present.
Could the images have been a cached copy from an old crawl?
I never visited this site before, so I doubted dynamic content would hide valuable infographics.
Perhaps there was cloaking involved?
So back to the featured snippet to investigate.
1 Featured Snippet With 3 Unique Links
After returning to the featured snippet result, I discovered that each featured image had a unique link, each from a different domain than the one that held the text result for the featured snippet. So, 3 sources were sharing one featured snippet!
To compare, here is an example of a standard featured snippet with an article I wrote about SEO due diligence that has owned both the text and thumbnail snippets for over 3 years – each with the same link and domain:
So, this new featured snippet format contained 3 pieces of unique content, with 3 unique links, from 3 different domains. Typically, one link claims the entire featured snippet, and, in some instances, two at most (more on that later).
But wait, there’s more.
The Click Through Mini-Browser
One might expect that clicking on a featured image would take you to the content’s source page. But, instead, a click on an image in this featured snippet launched a popup window.
And inside this window was a mini-browser that contained a separate “Google Images” search results page!
While this mini-browser also occurs in some single result featured snippets, it adds a fourth element to this snippet and yet another option for the user. Here’s a video demonstration of this new featured snippet and the mini-browser popup in action:
So, having the image snippet may yield impressions, but users are sent to a second search results page – which is likely to negatively impact click-through rates. After all, Google is taking the initial click that was intended for the publisher
To recap, we have a new Google featured snippet that includes a text snippet and two image snippets, each from different sources and domains. And clicks on its featured images launch a mini-browser with a “Google Images” search results page, rather than linking directly to the source content.
Let’s call it a “4-in-1 shared featured snippet.”
This is a snippet that could make you rethink your content and SEO strategy.
Multiple links in a featured snippet could be good or bad – it all depends on where you currently stand in search rankings and the opportunities it presents.
Sharing featured snippets could be great for websites that struggle with breaking their content into top spots – with 3 available spots, position 0 becomes more attainable.
And, instead of aiming to dethrone a competitor from a featured snippet, you could pivot your content strategy to sharing the spot. Just identify your competitor’s content gaps and create supplemental content with images (e.g. infographics) to take the thumbnail position.
You would still reap the traffic boost, even if it is diminished when compared to owning the entire snippet.
4-in-1 shared featured snippets could spell trouble for sites that regularly own featured snippets. They now have to earn and safeguard both the text and image components. Otherwise, top positions in search could end up sending users directly to competitors.
The image snippets leading to other sources are likely to take a fair amount of valuable clicks from the text snippet. After all, image thumbnails are known to attract higher click-through rates (CTR) in search.
And any marketing executive who leads inbound strategies across channels for a large company knows that lost clicks mean lost revenue – your ROI on SEO comes into play.
Finally, the introduction of a mini-browser, leading to more image results, places another step with alternate paths between users and your content. Which is typically undesirable when optimizing clicks and user journeys.
How To Tell If You Sharing A Featured Snippet
With a shared featured snippet, you could anticipate the clicks to be split among multiple domains. And the images are likely to be on the winning side, resulting in a diminishing click-through rate (CTR).
So, a potential (and free way way) indication that you have a shared featured snippet is by checking Google Search Console data for URLs with top ranking average positions and high impressions, but declining CTRs during specific periods.
You can also use paid SEO tools like Semrush, MOZ, Ahrefs, or Rank Ranger to identify URLs and keywords with featured snippets, then cross-reference them with Search Console data.
This should help narrow down instances where you could be losing clicks to other websites introduced in a featured snippet. Or, inversely, where you could be benefiting from it.
This variation was not among Google’s other recent featured snippet tests, and it was news to my technical SEO friends. The only layout that came close to it was a “two-for-one featured snippet.”
So, whether it is here to stay around or not, it’s worth keeping an eye out for in your traffic analytics.
Cheers!
