"Position zero" is the box Google sometimes places above its results: a short extract from a page that answers the question directly, with the page title and a link back to the source. Google never uses that name. Its documentation calls it a featured snippet. The nickname came from the industry, back when the box sat above the first organic result while that same result still appeared further down the page.
Two things have changed since. In January 2020, Google removed the duplicate listing: a page that wins the featured snippet no longer appears a second time on the first page (Search Engine Land, January 2020). And AI Overviews now sit above the snippet box on a large share of results pages. The box still exists, but the contest has moved.
Here is what the official documentation says, what the published measurements show, and what you can act on. The short version: you cannot ask for a featured snippet, only make a page easy to lift.
What a featured snippet actually is
Google pulls a few sentences, a list or a table from a page that is already indexed and presents that fragment as a block in answer to the query. The source page stays linked: it is a search result, not content Google wrote.
Three formats come up most often:
- The paragraph. Two to four sentences that define or explain something. Typical of "what is" and "why" queries.
- The list. Numbered for a procedure, bulleted for an enumeration. Typical of "how to" and "steps" queries.
- The table. A comparison, a set of prices, a handful of numeric characteristics.
The format is decided by the query, not by your preference. The same page can be lifted as a paragraph on one question and as a list on another.
No, you do not request a featured snippet
This is the point most often misunderstood, and Google's answer leaves no room. Asked how to mark a page as a featured snippet, the Google Search Central documentation says you cannot. Google's systems determine whether a page would make a good featured snippet for a given search and, if so, promote it.
There is no tag, no attribute and no structured data type dedicated to featured snippets. FAQPage markup does not do this job: it is a structured data type for a different display, which Google has reserved since September 2023 for recognised government and health websites. Plugins that promise to "target position zero" add markup that has no bearing on this mechanism.
The opposite, however, is documented. You can prevent the display. That is the only real control you have.
| Directive | Effect | Scope |
|---|---|---|
nosnippet |
No text snippet and no video preview. Also stops the content feeding AI Overviews and AI Mode. | Whole page |
max-snippet:[n] |
Limits the snippet to n characters, and limits by the same amount what can feed AI Overviews and AI Mode. max-snippet:0 is equivalent to nosnippet; max-snippet:-1 lets Google choose. |
Whole page |
data-nosnippet |
Excludes one portion of content from any snippet. A boolean attribute, recognised only on span, div and section, and it must be in the HTML as served, not added by JavaScript. |
Block within a page |
In practice:
<meta name="robots" content="nosnippet">
<meta name="robots" content="max-snippet:50">
<span data-nosnippet>Excluded from any snippet</span>Google is explicit that a low max-snippet value reduces your chances of appearing as a featured snippet without ruling it out; only nosnippet is certain. The full rules sit on the robots meta tag reference page. Watch the side effect first: nosnippet also removes the description under your link in ordinary results, which usually costs more than it saves.
What AI Overviews changed
The featured snippet no longer owns the top of the page. Three public measurements are worth knowing, each with its own scope. All three were run on English-language panels, mostly in the United States, over different periods and with different methods.
- Pew Research Center tracked the real browsing of 900 American adults in March 2025: 68,879 Google searches, of which 12,593 came with an AI summary. When a summary appeared, a traditional result was clicked in 8% of visits, against 15% without a summary; a link inside the summary itself was clicked in only 1% of visits (study published 22 July 2025, United States, observed behaviour rather than self-reported).
- Ahrefs compared 300,000 keywords (150,000 with an AI Overview, 150,000 informational without) from aggregated Search Console data, March 2024 against March 2025, on desktop. In first position, the observed click-through rate on queries with an AI Overview came out at 2.6% against 4.0% expected without the rollout, a fall of 34.5% (Ahrefs study, March 2025, US market).
- Seer Interactive, in its update published in April 2026 (53 brands, 5.47 million queries, 2.43 billion organic impressions, January 2025 to February 2026), records a rebound: organic click-through rate on queries with an AI Overview climbed back from 1.3% in December 2025 to 2.4% in February 2026, still below the 3.8% seen on queries without one. Being cited in the AI Overview is worth roughly 120% more clicks per impression than not being cited (Seer Interactive, April 2026, agency clients, predominantly American).
Treat these as orders of magnitude, not as a forecast for your site: sectors, query mixes and countries do not behave alike. What the three agree on is narrower and more useful. Visibility at the top of the page no longer converts mechanically into clicks, and any published click-through curve by position has to be re-read against your own traffic data in Search Console.
What genuinely improves your chances
Since the box cannot be requested, the work is to make the page easy to lift. Three levers, in order of weight:
Rank on the query already
Google draws the snippet from pages that already rank for the search. A page on the second page of results has effectively no chance, and a page that is not indexed at all has none. The underlying work — relevance, authority, links — is the prerequisite, not an alternative. If you are nowhere near the top, the snippet is a premature question and your effort belongs in ordinary search work.
Answer the question in a self-contained block
Put the question in an H2 or H3, then answer immediately underneath, in roughly 40 to 60 words, without referring back to an earlier paragraph. The passage has to make sense pulled out of its context, because that is exactly what happens to it. The same property makes it quotable by an AI Overview.
A short answer is not the same as a thin one. The block answers the question; the rest of the section qualifies it, shows the exceptions and explains the method.
Give the page a structure that can be lifted
A procedure as a numbered list. A comparison as a table with clear headers. Subheadings that use the wording people actually type, not internal jargon. The "People also ask" suggestions and related searches are a free source for spotting those formulations. This is content structuring work, not markup work.
A reader's question, and why it still holds
A reader once wrote in about two boxes she kept seeing. On the version of her query that named a town, a competitor's business listing appeared in a panel on the right. On the broader version, a featured snippet appeared among the results. Are the two connected, she asked, and can good search work win her the second?
The answer has two parts, and neither has aged. The boxes are independent: the listing comes from the company's business profile, filled in by its owner and tied to local search, while the snippet is lifted from a web page. As for winning it, you do not ask, you make the page fit to be lifted. In her case that meant rebuilding it around the questions people genuinely ask, with a short answer under each subheading. That work pays for itself whether or not the box appears.
Is it worth making a priority?
Three decision criteria are more use than a general rule:
- Are your queries questions? Snippets fire mostly on informational intent. On transactional or brand queries the opportunity is marginal.
- Are you already near the top? If not, the effort will produce more elsewhere.
- Do you want the click, or the citation? On a very general query the user may be satisfied by the box alone, and the pages that generate enquiries are rarely those pages.
In practice, aiming at the featured snippet is rarely a goal in itself. It is a by-product of a well-structured page that genuinely answers the question it raises. That same structure is what now makes a page quotable by AI Overviews. Build for the reader, keep the answers self-contained, and let the box be a bonus.
Common questions
Are position zero and featured snippet the same thing?
Yes. "Position zero" is industry shorthand; Google's documentation says featured snippet. Both describe the answer block shown above the results, with a link to the source page.
Is there a tag that asks Google for a featured snippet?
No. Google states plainly in its documentation that you cannot mark a page as a featured snippet: its systems decide on their own. No structured data type and no plugin can trigger the display.
How do I stop Google showing a snippet from my page?
The nosnippet robots rule removes every snippet from the page, including the description under your link in ordinary results. The data-nosnippet attribute, recognised on span, div and section, excludes only the portion you mark.
Do I have to rank first to win the box?
Not necessarily, but Google draws the snippet from pages that already rank for the query. A page beyond the first page of results has almost no chance of being lifted, so ranking work comes first.
Are AI Overviews replacing featured snippets?
No, the two coexist, though the AI Overview generally sits higher. What has shifted is how clicks are distributed: on Seer Interactive's April 2026 data, being cited in the overview is worth around 120% more clicks per impression than not being cited.
Does FAQ markup help win position zero?
No. Since September 2023 Google has reserved the FAQ rich result for recognised government and health sites, and that markup was never a lever for featured snippets. Structuring a page as short question-and-answer blocks does still help it get lifted.