Google Adds Features to Featured Snippets

Well, I’m shocked, shocked I say.

After making us all think Featured Snippets had been knocked on the head and replaced by Knowledge Panels, Google only go and add more features into the Featured Snippets!

Where will it all end?

Read more in this extract from TWIS SEO News & Updates 8th December 2017.

#SEO #SEONews #FeaturedSnippets #KnowledgePanels #SERP

Key Issues Summary:

• Just after the death of Featured Snippets were prematurely announced, and Knowledge Panels rose to take their place, Google has thrown a curve-ball by announcing a slew of new features to add to the featured snippets.
• Undet the title Improving Search and Discovery on Google, instead of calling it Stealing Traffic from Content Creators, Google has announced more images and related searches inside the Featured Snippets box, and also added Related Content into the Knowledge Panel box.
• And lo, the webmasters they did rejoice.

Key Actions To Take:

1. Check your favourite results to see whether your Featured Snippets have disappeared to be replaced by Knowledge Panels, of if they are now “new and improved”.
2. If they are, check traffic, to see what effect these changes are having, whether it’s up, down or sideways.
3. If it’s up: hooray! Time to work out how to generate more traffic.
4. If it’s down: Boo! time to work out how to generate more traffic.
5. If it;s sideways: Hmmm. Time to work out how to generate more traffic.
6. Click here to contact me to discuss this further.

Insights & Discussion:

Ah, Featured Snippets, how the SEO community loves them, the roguishly-handsome traffic-stealing little boxes of inaccuracy.

I had hoped they were disappearing, but it seems Google was just mucking around with us, and they’ll be back hoping to answer more queries incorrectly before you know it.

Over the longer term, you can see Featured Snippets and Knowledge Panels becoming one and the same – which is where I think Google wants to go with this.

If it could surface  verified and authentic knowledge, as opposed to algorithmically-controlled, but still random, web pages then Google would be a happy bunny.

It would have to deal with fewer sources of knowledge and potential spam, its algorithms would be less negatively focused. Essentially it would return to its roots of searching an academic trove of verified information, and return results quickly.

I do think the web would be a poorer place were this to happen.

Watch this space, it could be a couple of years away..

More Information:

• Knowledge Panels Gain Where Featured Snippets Lost
• Featured Snippets Disappearing From SERPs
• Google Gives News Publishers New Knowledge Graph Panels
• Google Improving Search and Discovery

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I recently wrote about how Google’s Mobile First is Not Mobile Friendly. Read it now.

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• And lo, Google taketh away and Google giveth.
• In the form of more information jam-packed into Featured Snippets.
• Anyone would think they were heading for a merge at some point in the not so distant future.
• Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
• Read The State of SEO in mid-2017.
• Read about how Google’s Mobile First Index is not Mobile Friendly.
• Finally, get your content ranking well on Google by starting to understand Find Crawl Index.

Thanks for reading. If you would like to discuss what these changes mean for your web property, or would like to know how to implement them, please feel free to contact me.

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