A featured snippet is an extended search result at the top of Google’s search engine results page (SERP).
Detailed explanation
Featured snippets are brief blocks of text or content excerpts intended to answer a searcher’s query before they click on a link. However, Google doesn’t create original material to answer this query. Instead, it automatically retrieves information from websites and pages in Google’s index.
Types of featured snippets include definitions, lists, tables, carousels, charts and videos. Google pulls these excerpts directly from long-form content like blogs and YouTube videos to present them in an easy-to-understand format.
A featured snippet occupies Google’s first search result, called “Position #0.” When a user types in a search query, Google evaluates the query, attempts to link results to the user’s intent and extracts the best piece of content it can find from existing information in its index.
As a result, hundreds of thousands of brands compete for Position #0. Featured snippets often give users the answers they want and include a link to the excerpt’s original web page, improving traffic and visibility.