If you use Google's search engine on a daily basis, you've probably noticed that the information that is presented on its search engine results pages (SERPs) is always changing. This is because Google's aim is to "organize the world's information and make it widely accessible and valuable." The face of SEO strategy has been transformed as a result of the introduction of features such as knowledge graphs, People Also Ask boxes, and highlighted snippets.
Featured snippets
Featured snippets are hand-picked results from a search engine that are shown above the organic results and directly below paid advertisements. They include illustrative language that, according to Google, will assist users in "more quickly discovering what they are looking for." Most of the time featured snippets will answer the user's search query right on the search engine results page (SERP), eliminating the need for the user to go through to the website.
Because they come before the first organic position, highlighted snippets are often referred to as "position zero." If you hear this term, keep in mind that they appear above the first organic position. Due to the fact that the information is presented in the shape of a box, they are also occasionally referred to by the name "answer boxes."
The structure of highlighted snippets is inverted, so rather than showing the page name and then a description, featured snippets display the description first. This makes featured snippets easy to spot and distinguish. The content of featured snippets may be presented in the form of a paragraph, a list, or even a video.
The rise in popularity of mobile and voice searches was one of the motivating factors behind the introduction of featured snippets. The volume of searches performed on mobile devices has overtaken those performed on desktop computers, and an increasing number of clients are now using voice inquiries when searching on their mobile devices. Google came to the conclusion that its highlighted snippets would be more beneficial to these people than its usual strategy, which consists of 10 blue links.