When an AI Overview and a featured snippet appear on the same results page, average click-through rate drops by 37 percent. That figure comes from Amsive’s study of 700,000 keywords, and it is why clients keep asking the same question: are featured snippets in 2026 still worth the effort?
Short answer: yes, but not for the reason they were worth it in 2022. Snippets have stopped being a pure traffic play and become an eligibility play.
Here is what has actually changed, and where to spend your time.
Key Takeaways
- AI Overviews have taken the top of the page, but featured snippets have not disappeared. Both can appear on the same search.
- Clicks suffer most when the two appear together: a 37.04 percent average fall in Amsive’s 700,000-keyword study.
- Google’s documentation states a page must be eligible to show with a snippet to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Block snippets and you block AI visibility too.
- The formatting that wins snippets is the same formatting that gets you cited in AI answers. It is one job, not two.
- Commercial and transactional queries trigger AI Overviews far less often, so snippets remain a genuine source of enquiries lower down the funnel.
- Since June 2026, UK sites have had a Search Console report showing AI impressions separately. Measure it separately.
What is the difference between a featured snippet and an AI Overview?
A featured snippet is a passage lifted word for word from a single page and shown in a box near the top of Google’s results, linked to that page. An AI Overview is a generated summary that blends several sources and cites them as small link cards. One quotes you. The other paraphrases you.
That distinction decides what each one is worth commercially.
| Featured snippet | AI Overview | |
|---|---|---|
| Source | One page, verbatim | Several pages, synthesised |
| Link | Direct, and deep-linked to the passage | Citation cards beside the answer |
| Typical trigger | Clear factual and how-to questions | Broader, multi-part questions |
| Controls | nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet | The same snippet controls, plus the Search Console AI setting |
| What it wins you | Clicks | Mentions, citations and recall |
Have AI Overviews replaced featured snippets in 2026?
No. AI Overviews have taken the space above them on many informational searches, but featured snippets in 2026 still appear across how-to, comparison and commercial queries, and Google still documents them as a live feature. The two coexist. On some results pages you will see both, stacked.
Be careful with the percentages you read. Trackers disagree wildly on how often AI Overviews appear because they sample different keyword sets and different industries.
Check your own SERPs for your own money terms instead. That takes twenty minutes and beats any published average. For the fuller picture, read our explainer on how AI Overviews work and how to rank in them.
Do featured snippets still drive traffic?
Yes, but less than they did. Ahrefs found the top-ranking page’s average click-through rate was 34.5 percent lower when an AI Overview was present, across 300,000 keywords. Amsive measured a 15.49 percent average drop across 700,000 keywords, worsening to 37.04 percent when a snippet and an AI Overview appear together<.
Pew Research Center’s behavioural study found users clicked a result on 8 percent of visits where an AI summary appeared, against 15 percent where it did not. Around a quarter simply ended the session.
So the pool is smaller. The wins are now concentrated where AI Overviews are rarer: pricing pages, comparison queries, local service searches and anything with buying intent.
Imagine a 12-person commercial cleaning firm in Croydon. “What is a cleaning specification” may well be swallowed by an AI Overview. “Office cleaning cost per square foot UK” is far more likely to still show a snippet, and far more likely to produce a quote request. That is where the effort belongs. We covered the same logic in our guide to the questions cleaning clients actually ask AI.
Why is snippet optimisation now AI visibility work?
Because Google has tied them together. Its guide to optimising for generative AI features states that to be eligible for those features, a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Search with a snippet. The same preview controls govern both.
Which means the nosnippet tag is now a blunt instrument. Use it to protect content from being quoted and you also remove that page from AI Overviews and AI Mode.
This is the practical heart of answer engine optimisation: write the passage that a machine can lift cleanly, and you become quotable in both places at once.
How do you optimise for featured snippets and AI Overviews at once?
Answer the question in the first 40 to 60 words under each heading, in plain language, with no throat-clearing. Use the question itself as the H2. Keep the answer self-contained so it makes sense when lifted out of context. Then add the depth underneath for the reader who clicks.
A working checklist:
- Phrase H2s as the question a customer would actually type or say.
- Put the complete answer in the first two or three sentences beneath it.
- Use tables for comparisons and numbered lists for processes. Both formats get pulled directly.
- Keep definitions to roughly 40 to 50 words.
- Add an FAQ block with genuine questions, not keyword variations.
- Include a real number, date or price where you have one. Specifics get cited.
- Check
nosnippetandmax-snippetare not quietly suppressing your best pages.
Note that Google’s featured snippets documentation confirms you cannot mark up a page to force a snippet. You can only make the passage easy to select.
Snippet-shaped answers also feed spoken results, which is why this overlaps with voice search optimisation.
What should UK SMEs measure now?
Measure AI impressions separately from clicks. Since June 2026, Search Console has offered UK site owners a generative AI performance report covering AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover, alongside a control to opt out of AI features without harming rankings.
The report shows impressions, not clicks. Treat it as a brand visibility metric and judge revenue on enquiries, calls and form fills instead.
Falling clicks with rising AI impressions is not failure. It usually means fewer, warmer visitors. Our GEO and AEO services are built around exactly that trade-off.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are featured snippets going away?
There is no sign of it. Google still maintains public documentation for featured snippets and still shows them alongside AI Overviews on many queries. What has changed is their share of attention, not their existence. Assume they will keep shrinking on informational searches and holding steady on commercial and local ones.
Can one page win both a featured snippet and an AI Overview mention?
Yes, and it happens often. The two systems reward the same signals: a clear question, a direct answer near the top, clean structure and credible sourcing. Winning the snippet is usually the strongest available evidence that your page is formatted in a way Google’s AI systems can also lift and cite.
How long does it take to win a featured snippet?
Usually weeks rather than months, if the page already ranks in the top ten for that query. Snippets are typically drawn from pages already ranking on page one, so the fastest route is reformatting an existing near-miss page rather than publishing something new.
Should I use the Search Console control to block AI features?
Almost certainly not, if you sell services. The control was designed for publishers whose revenue depends on the visit itself. For an SME, appearing in AI answers builds recognition at the point of research, and blocking it removes you from a surface your competitors will happily occupy.
Do featured snippets still matter for voice search?
Yes. Assistants generally need one concise spoken answer, and snippet-formatted passages remain the most likely candidates. If you serve local customers who search by voice while driving or on site, a well-structured 40-word answer is worth more than another 2,000-word guide.
Ready to get quoted by the machines?
Featured snippets and AI Overviews are not competing priorities. They are the same discipline, measured two ways, and the businesses winning both are the ones writing genuinely liftable answers to the questions their customers ask.
If you want your pages structured so Google, Gemini and ChatGPT all reach for them, we can help.
See our AEO service → /services/geo-aeo/answer-engine-optimisation/
