Featured Snippet

A Featured Snippet is a highlighted content fragment that Google displays at position zero, above organic search results. Google automatically extracts and formats this content for display. Tables, numbered lists, and structured data have the highest Featured Snippet probability since these formats have low Cost of Retrieval because they are easy to parse and extract.

Featured Snippets established the foundation for AI Overviews by demonstrating Google's ability to select and display content fragments directly in results; AI Search evolved this concept into extensive synthetic responses. Content optimized for Featured Snippets, including BLUF structure, lists, tables, and precise SRL predicates, is also well-prepared for AI Search citations. The same optimization principles apply.

For example, when someone searches 'how much does car leasing cost,' Google might extract a pricing table from a page and display it above the organic results. This displays the source content directly in search results.

For the Cost and Grouping question types from Frame Semantics, tables and numbered lists offer the highest Featured Snippet probability while providing structured formats that AI systems can easily process and cite.