Google deduplicates featured snippets
In 2020, Google rolled out a global change to featured snippets that resulted in any URL only appearing once on the first page of search results, instead of twice.
Google said there would be no change to its overall set of web search results. There would still be 10 unique listings, as before. It’s just that Google would be deduplicating and no longer show any of those listings twice.
Google Search Liaison Danny Sullivan announced the news via Twitter:
If a web page listing is elevated into the featured snippet position, we no longer repeat the listing in the search results. This declutters the results & helps users locate relevant information more easily. Featured snippets count as one of the ten web page listings we show.
@dannysullivan
In November, Google was testing removing a site’s normal snippet when a featured snippet was displayed. Google even tested this back in 2017.
Read about it in Listings that earn featured snippets will not repeat on the first page of Google search.
Also on this day
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From Search Marketing Expo (SMX)
Raising the stakes on product category pages
Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.
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2015: Stop Procrastinating: It’s Time To Address Mobile SEO by Janet Driscoll Miller
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2010: Don’t Let Your Analytics Deceive by Evan LaPointe
2010: Know Where You Are…To See Where You’re Going by Carrie Hill
2010: Bing’s Stefan Weitz: Rethinking The Search Experience by Gord Hotchkiss
2010: The Pitfalls Of Budget-Constrained Bidding by Bradd Libby
2009: Optimizing A Large-Scale Web Site? Do The Two-Step by Stephan Spencer
2009: SMBs Claim Their Online Business Profiles by Hanan Lifshitz
2009: Tube Mogul Buys Video Analytics Firm by Bob Heyman
2008: RKG Duck: A Handy Open Source Tool For Search Marketers by Alan Rimm-Kaufman
2008: Catchy Linkbait Is Worthless Without Really Good Content by Cameron Olthuis
2007: Are You In The Circle Of Link Trust? by Eric Ward
2007: Google’s OneBox Patent Application by Bill Slawski
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