Scott Services: Google Now Drops A Site’s Normal Snippet When Featured Snippet Is Displayed

In November 2019 we saw Google testing removing the normal snippet from the Google search results when Google shows a featured snippet for that site/URL. Well after numerous tests, Google has launched this yesterday and is no longer showing a featured snippet and at the same time the same URL in the main web search results.

Danny Sullivan from Google confirmed this on Twitter saying “If a web page listing is elevated into the featured snippet position, we no longer repeat the listing in the search results. This declutters the results & helps users locate relevant information more easily. Featured snippets count as one of the ten web page listings we show.”

If a web page listing is elevated into the featured snippet position, we no longer repeat the listing in the search results. This declutters the results & helps users locate relevant information more easily. Featured snippets count as one of the ten web page listings we show.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 22, 2020

This was a response to this tweet:

Not sure if you’ve been tipped off yet @rustybrick but big changes recently to featured snippets. If you own the featured snippet, you only get that one listing and your ‘normal organic’ ranking is pushed to be the number one result on page 2. So instead of 2 listings, just one.

— Mark Barrera (@mark_barrera) January 22, 2020

This rolled out fully on Wednesday, January 22, 2020:

Today, 100% globally.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 22, 2020

Like I said when Google was testing this in November, “I don’t think the SEO community would be happy if Google did this. However, it might feel redundant to the searcher, so I can see why Google would do this.”

Here is almost everything said about this change from Google:

If your image is displayed in the featured snippet, then this does not count. It is only if your content is displayed in the featured snippet. And no, this doesn’t include people also ask or or related features:

1) Image didn’t have a web search listing, so there’s nothing to deduplicate.
2) No.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 22, 2020

When featured snippets show images from another site, those sites weren’t in the web search results to begin with. So no change. That works independently of each other.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 22, 2020

Google now shows 10 results, well, Google always showed 10 results (sometimes they don’t but you know). The featured snippet was position zero, not position one, so it is not part of the 10 results:

If there’s a featured snippet, it was 11 net listings, 10 unique. Now it is 10 net and unique. If there wasn’t a featured snippet, it was 10 net and unique listings. That’s unchanged.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 22, 2020

This is a deduplication effort – which is what I felt Google was testing months ago:

I would expect so. To be a featured snippet, you had to rank in the top results. Then we elevated. And now we deduplicate. If you don’t get featured, deduplication ends.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 22, 2020

Nothing I’ve shared says you can’t have duplication happen beyond the first page of results. Deduplication is only about what happens on the first page. As things evolve, the whole “it’s showing up on page two” might not happen. So I wouldn’t say that’s how it works.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 22, 2020

No, it is not. We are simply deduplicating on the first page of results. There’s no guarantee that the listing will then show up on the second page in position “11” or any spot like that. We haven’t said that. It might happen. Might not.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 23, 2020

I still don’t understand, sorry. The odds of being a featured snippet are entirely unchanged because of this. If you are a featured snippet, you won’t be duplicated again further down in the first page of results. But that’s not impacting the ability to be a featured snippet.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 23, 2020

Mobile and desktop changes:

We appreciate that concern. Hopefully this will ease it. This format is likely to appear in the main column as regular features snippets do within a month. And we’re likely to stop deduplication within it until that happens, maybe later this week.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 23, 2020

Related to the knowledge panel:

That’s not a Knowledge Panel. It’s featured snippet-like variant. We are deduplicating there. On mobile, where most people search and these are inline, it especially makes sense.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 22, 2020

There should have been a bit of warning about this (but hey, we saw Google testing it):

That’s good feedback.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 23, 2020

Things may change again in the future:

Suffice to say, I’m not a fan of the mix format when it happens nor that implementation. I’ve also shared those concerns other have raised with the search team. They also heard directly at our recent summit. So I wouldn’t assume it’s always going to be that way.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 23, 2020

Scott Services

Thursday, 23 January 2020

Google Now Drops A Site’s Normal Snippet When Featured Snippet Is Displayed

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