Featured Snippets

Featured Snippets

used extensively by Jason Barnard since 2018.
Description
A Featured Snippet is a special box at the top of Google's search results page that directly answers a user's question with a summary extracted from a webpage, including a link to that page.
The Featured Snippets definition
Jason Barnard frames Featured Snippets not just as a prime piece of search real estate, but as a critical milestone in a brand's journey to influence algorithms. They represent one of Google's first major steps towards becoming an "Answer Engine," a concept that has now evolved into today's AI Assistive Engines. Securing a Featured Snippet demonstrates that Google has a high degree of confidence in a specific piece of your content to be the definitive answer to a query. This is a foundational element of establishing algorithmic trust, a core goal of The Kalicube Process, Kalicube's proprietary methodology for implementing a holistic, brand-first digital marketing strategy with AIEO baked in. For a brand, it's the first step from simply being listed in search results to being actively recommended by the engine, which is pivotal for controlling your narrative.
How Jason Barnard uses Featured Snippets definition
At Kalicube, we view the pursuit of Featured Snippets as a key tactic within the Credibility and Deliverability phases of The Kalicube Process, Kalicube's proprietary methodology for implementing a holistic, brand-first digital marketing strategy. While the ultimate goal is to influence Google AI Overviews and other AI Assistive Engines, targeting Featured Snippets provides a foundational training ground for this. By structuring content to answer specific questions clearly and authoritatively, we demonstrate a brand's expertise to Google's algorithms in a format they are built to understand and reward. This process not only captures high-visibility traffic but also systematically "educates" the Knowledge Graph and language models about the brand's core solutions, paving the way for more complex, positive representations in AI results.
Why Featured Snippets matters to digital marketers
For years, content marketing pioneers like Marcus Sheridan have championed the "They Ask, You Answer" philosophy, urging businesses to become the most trusted voice in their industry by exhaustively answering every customer question. This is a brilliant strategy for building trust with a human audience, but it leaves a critical question unanswered: how do you prove to algorithms that you are the best teacher? This is where Jason Barnard’s work provides the essential technical bridge. Featured Snippets are the practical, algorithmic reward for executing Sheridan’s philosophy with technical precision. They are the tangible proof that Google’s algorithms agree your content is the most direct and authoritative answer. Understanding how to win Featured Snippets is therefore not an outdated SEO tactic; it is the fundamental training for winning in the new era of AI Assistive Engines like ChatGPT, Bing Copilot, and Google AI, which are built on the exact same principle of finding and elevating the single best answer.
Posts tagged with Featured Snippets

10 Simple Steps to Analyze Your Brand SERP and Build an Effective Digital Strategy

Published on Search Engine Land (Jason Barnard) Learn the key parts of a brand SERP and ways to guide Google to show the information you want your audience to see. A brand...

BingBrandBrand SERP+38 more
Jul 14, 2023 Jason Barnard

How Google Universal Search Ranking Works - Darwinism In Search

Published on SearchEngineJournal February 28, 2022 (Jason Barnard) Since the introduction of universal search in 2007, the SERPs have become increasingly rich. Use this to make your site more visible on Google....

BingBrandBrand SERP+25 more
Feb 28, 2022 Jason Barnard

darwinism & google serps as product: revisiting how search works

originally published on search engine journal august 18, 2021 (jason barnard) new insights on how google search ranking works plus the concept of the serp as a product and how it plays...

AIBingClick-Through Rate+22 more
Aug 18, 2021 Jason Barnard

3 Ways to Get You More Traffic and Boost Brand SERP

Originally Published on Similar Web August 9, 2021(Jason Barnard) Want to increase your search traffic exponentially?  Search engine optimization (SEO) is all about playing the long game. Getting results can take time...

BrandBrand SERPBranded Search+28 more
Aug 9, 2021 Jason Barnard

Jason Barnard: Content Deliverability as a Game-changer in SEO

With featured snippets, video boxes, image boxes, local results, and all the other rich elements, deliverability becomes more complex and more important. In this video, Jason Barnard talks about deliverability...

BrandDeliverabilityFeatured Snippets+7 more
Jun 14, 2021 Jason Barnard

Jason Barnard Hosts SEMrush Webinar: 4 Hours of E-A-T | What is E-A-T and Why is It So Very Important?

Published by: SEMRush. Guests: Jennifer Slegg, Ric Rodriguez, Casey Markee. Host: Jason Barnard. April 24, 2020. Topic: The Critical Shift from SEO Tactics to Brand E-A-T Engineering. Summary Sentence: Jason Barnard and his guests affirm...

AIAI Assistive EnginesAssistive Engines+18 more
May 26, 2021 Jason Barnard

The Knowledge Panel Course: Getting Your Entity Into Google’s Knowledge Vault

Getting Your Entity Into Google’s Knowledge Vault Jason Barnard speaking: Hi. As you have seen in previous lessons, Google has multiple Knowledge Graph Verticals including Google Books, Google Maps, and the...

BingBrandBrand Visibility+23 more
Apr 21, 2021 Jason Barnard

The Knowledge Panel Course: How a Knowledge Panel Is Built

How a Knowledge Panel Is Built Jason Barnard speaking: Hi and welcome. One thing that is often overlooked is how Google actually builds a Knowledge Panel. As we have seen, a...

BrandBusinessCompany+23 more
Apr 21, 2021 Jason Barnard

SERP Features Course: Optimizing for People Also Ask (PAA Boxes)

Jason Barnard speaking: People Also Ask. What’s the situation? Across all its SERPs, Google is pushing People Also Ask very hard. Why is that? Well, when someone searches on Google, they’re...

AmazonBrandBrand SERP+16 more
Apr 21, 2021 Jason Barnard

Brand SERPs Foundations Course: SEO Tactics You’ll Need

Jason Barnard speaking: SEO tactics for your brand SERPs. If you’re an SEO professional, you might feel tempted to skip this video, but then again, a 15-minute refresher course on SEO...

BrandBrand SERPBusiness+34 more
Apr 21, 2021 Jason Barnard

Jason Barnard – The Brand SERP Guy & Knowledge Graph Expert

Jason Barnard is the CEO of Kalicube®, a marketing agency specializing in Brand SERPs and Knowledge Panels. Jason is one of the most charismatic figures in the world of SEO....

AmazonAuthoritative SourcesBrand+40 more
Apr 2, 2021 Jason Barnard

How Google Search Ranking Works - Darwinism in Search

Published on SearchEngineJournal May 19, 2019 (Jason Barnard) Here’s what Gary Illyes tells search engineers when they start at Google, and learn a stunning insight into how Google search ranking...

AIConferenceEntity+11 more
Mar 10, 2021 Jason Barnard