Opting Out of Google Featured Snippets Led to 12% Traffic Loss [SEO Experiment]

Everybody desires to win Google featured snippets. Proper?
At the least, it was that manner. Winning the featured snippet usually meant further visitors, partially as a result of Google confirmed your URL twice: as soon as within the featured snippet and once more in common search outcomes. For publishers, this was often known as "double-dipping."
All that modified in January when Google announced they might de-duplicate search outcomes to point out the featured snippet URL solely as soon as on the primary web page of outcomes. No extra double-dips.
Publishers fearful as a result of older studies steered profitable featured snippets drove much less precise visitors than the "pure" prime rating end result. With the brand new change, profitable the featured snippet may truly now result in much less visitors, no more.
This led many SEOs to invest: must you choose out of featured snippets altogether? Are featured snippets inflicting publishers to lose extra visitors than they doubtlessly achieve?
This is how we discovered the reply.

The experiment

Working with the workforce at SearchPilot, we devised an A/B cut up check experiment to take away Moz Weblog posts from Google featured snippets, and measure the impression on visitors.
Utilizing Google's data-nosnippet tag, we recognized weblog pages with profitable featured snippets and utilized the tag to the primary content material of the web page.
Our working speculation was that these pages would lose their featured snippets and return to the "common" search outcomes beneath. A majority of us additionally anticipated to see a destructive impression on visitors, however needed to measure precisely how a lot, and determine whether or not the featured snippets would return after we eliminated the tag.
On this instance, Moz misplaced the featured snippet nearly instantly. The snippet was as an alternative awarded to ContentKing and Moz returned to the highest "pure" place.

Right here is one other instance of what occurred in search outcomes. After launching the check, the featured snippet was awarded to Backlinko and we returned to the highest of the pure outcomes.

One essential factor to bear in mind is that, whereas these key phrases triggered a featured snippet, pages can rank for a whole bunch or hundreds of various key phrases in numerous positions. So the impression of shedding a single featured snippet will be considerably softened when your URL ranks for a lot of completely different key phrases — some which earn featured snippets and a few which do not.

The outcomes

After including the data-nosnippet tag, our variant URLs rapidly misplaced their featured snippets.
How did this impression visitors? As an alternative of gaining visitors by opting-out of featured snippets, we discovered we truly misplaced a major quantity of visitors fairly rapidly.
General, we measured an estimated 12% drop in visitors for all affected pages after shedding featured snippets (95% confidence stage).

This chart represents the cumulative impression of the check on natural visitors. The central blue line is the perfect estimate of how the variant pages, with the change utilized, carried out in comparison with how we might have anticipated with none adjustments utilized. The blue shaded area represents our 95% confidence interval: there's a 95% likelihood that the precise end result is someplace on this area. If this area is wholly above or beneath the horizontal axis, that represents a statistically vital check.

What did we be taught?

With the addition of the “data-nosnippet” attribute, the check had a considerably destructive impression on natural visitors. On this experiment, proudly owning the featured snippet and never rating within the prime outcomes gives extra worth to those pages by way of clicks than not proudly owning the featured snippet and rating within the prime outcomes.
Including within the “data-nosnippet” attribute, not solely have been we capable of cease Google from pulling knowledge in that part of the HTML web page to make use of as a snippet, however we have been additionally capable of verify that we might rank once more within the SERP, whether or not that's rating in place one or decrease.
As a further software, we have been additionally monitoring key phrases utilizing STAT Search Analytics. We have been capable of monitor adjustments in rating for pages that had featured snippets, and seen that it took about seven days or extra from the time of launching the check for Google to cache the adjustments we made and for the featured snippets to be overtaken by one other rating web page, if one other web page was awarded a featured snippet spot in any respect. The turnaround was faster after we ended the check, although, as a few of these featured snippets returned as rapidly as the following day.
Nonetheless, a destructive side of operating this check was that, though some pages have been crawled and listed with the newest adjustments, the featured snippet didn't return and has now both been formally given to competing pages or by no means returned in any respect.
To summarize the numerous findings of this check:

1. Google's nosnippet tags can successfully choose out publishers from featured snippets.
2. On this check, we measured an estimated 12% drop in visitors after shedding featured snippets.
3. After ending the check, we did not win again a portion of the featured snippets we beforehand ranked for.

For the overwhelming majority of publishers profitable the featured snippet seemingly stays the sensible technique. There are undoubtedly exceptions however as a basic "greatest observe" if a key phrase triggers a featured snippet, it is usually in your greatest curiosity to rank for it.
What are your experiences with profitable featured snippets? Tell us within the feedback beneath.

Observe: This submit was co-authored by Cyrus Shepard and Rida Abidi.

Be a part of Moz search engine optimisation Scientist, Dr. Pete Meyers, Wednesdays in April at 1:30 p.m. PT on Twitter and ask your most urgent questions about find out how to navigate search engine optimisation adjustments and challenges in a COVID-19 world. Tweet your questions all week lengthy to @Moz utilizing the hashtag #AskMoz.

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