Featured Snippet

A featured snippet is a search result Google shows at the top of a results page with the passage first and the link beneath it, taken from a page its systems decided answers the query on its own. It is chosen by the engine, not requested by the site.

How a passage is chosen

There is no markup that asks for one. Google’s documentation on featured snippets says its systems decide automatically whether a page would serve a query well in that position, and that a site can only decline. Three controls do the declining: the nosnippet rule removes every snippet for the page, data-nosnippet fences off a span of text, and max-snippet caps the length, which lowers the chance of a featured snippet without any stated threshold. When someone clicks the snippet, browsers that support it scroll to the passage rather than the top of the page. So what gets featured is a span, located on the page, that reads as the answer by itself.

That is the same property this glossary calls citability. The heading states the question, the sentences under it answer it, and the answer does not depend on the paragraph before it.

Featured snippet and AI Overview

A featured snippet is one passage from one page, shown as written. An AI Overview is a paragraph Google generates from several pages, with links to the ones it drew on. The two sit in the same place on the results page and respond to the same preview controls, but the snippet is quoted and the overview is composed. A page can appear in both, in one, or in neither for the same query.

A common question

Is there any markup that asks Google to feature a passage from a page?

No tag requests one. The engine decides on its own whether a page would serve a query well in that position, and the controls a site has all run the other way. The nosnippet rule drops every snippet for the page, data-nosnippet walls off a span of text, and max-snippet caps the length, which lowers the odds without any published threshold. What ends up featured is a span that reads as the answer without the paragraph before it, so the writing settles it rather than the markup.

Sources

Selection and the opt-out controls: Google Search Central, featured snippets. Generated results and preview controls: Google Search Central, AI features.