Featured Snippet
A featured snippet is a boxed direct answer Google displays above the standard results, pulled verbatim from a single ranking page, that responds to a query in a sentence, list, or table before the searcher clicks anything.
Featured snippets reward pages that answer the exact question early and cleanly. Google selects them algorithmically from pages already ranking on the first page, then lifts the most direct passage into the box. You cannot tag a page to request one; you earn it by front-loading a concise, self-contained answer near the top, using clear headings that match how people phrase the question, and structuring supporting detail as lists or tables when the query implies steps or comparisons.
The payoff is contested. A snippet can capture the click for an informational query, but it can also satisfy the searcher in place and reduce visits, which is the zero-click trade-off. Snippets are also volatile: Google rewrites which page fills the box often, and a competitor with a tighter answer can take it without outranking you overall.
The same front-loaded, plainly worded passage that wins a featured snippet is what answer engines extract when they assemble a generated reply. Writing one clean, self-contained answer per question serves both, which is why this format matters more now than when snippets were only a search-results feature.