After a long test phase, Google has updated its feature snippets and now redirects directly to relevant text passages on a website.
Already in 2019, Google tested a different way of linking featured snippets: Instead of going to the upper area of a page, users should be redirected directly to the relevant passage of a website that was used for the content of the snippet. Google employee Danny Sullivan has now confirmed the final introduction of this function on Twitter:
We’ve done this regularly with AMP pages since December 2018. We tested with HTML pages last year, as noted. We now do it regularly HTML pages, since last week. More info here: https://t.co/z0AP78h1qH
– Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) June 3, 2020
The text passage already shown in the featured snippet is additionally highlighted in color on the underlying website.
The highlighted information can now be found even more easily. (Screenshot: gsqi.com / t3n)
What do site operators have to consider?
The forwarding from the featured snippet directly to the relevant passage takes place automatically via the Scroll-to-text function for HTML pages. No additional markup is necessary. Site operators do not have to take any further measures to benefit from the innovation.
Google explains in further tweets that only the browser used must support the underlying technology.
There is no markup needed by webmasters. This happens automatically, using Scroll To Text for HTML pages https://t.co/cE9O2cBgKu. See also more background here: https://t.co/vKFmR3HLK3
– Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) June 3, 2020
In the associated Auxiliary document Google explains: If a browser does not support the technology or Google cannot determine beyond doubt where users should be forwarded to, they will still end up in the upper area of the source page.
The update of the featured snippets makes things easier for users. Scrolling and searching for the actually relevant text passages are no longer necessary. For site operators, however, this means that important page elements may be skipped automatically. CTA, buttons or ads may need to be repositioned.
Cornelia Erichsen
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