Google Offers Guidance on Featured Snippets Update

Google is pruning extra URLs from search results that contain a featured snippet. Google’s SearchLiaison took to Twitter to issue seven insights about the new policy.

Featured Snippets Search Results Update

Google used to give a URL two spots in the search engine results pages (SERPs) when that URL ranked with a featured snippet, also known as
position zero because it ranked above position one of the normal search results.

That is no longer the case. Google will no longer show duplicate URLs for pages promoted to the featured snippets.

This process of removing duplicate URLs from SERPs containing featured snippets is called deduplication

Google’s SearchLiaison published the following seven facts about deduplication:

1. Featured Snippets duplicate URL change is being called deduplication
2. Deduplication is global
3. The change does not affect video featured snippets
4. Deduplication does not affects a featured snippets variant that resembles a knowledge panel. But it will affect it later this week.
5. Deduplication does not affect:
   – Top Stories
   – Interesting Finds
6. Duplicated URL moving to page two of the SERPs appears to be a bug of deduplication and is not a feature or by design. URLs in featured
   snippets that are also ranking on page two of the search engine results pages (SERPs) may have that listing removed.
7. There will be no change in Google Search Console (GSC) performance reports.

Google Search Console Performance Reports

In answer to a question, Google SearchLiaison explained that the performance reports will not change as a consequence of deduplication.

Position zero featured snippets and organic position one were already counted as one ranked position. So if a site loses the organic number
one position but retains the featured snippet, that listing will still be counted as a number one ranked position.

For those asking, this causes no change in Search Console performance reports. We only log the topmost appearance of a URL as its position. Featured snippets were already counted, duplicate appearances were not. See also: https://t.co/7nR7CfWd2S

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) January 23, 2020