Position Zero: Google’s New Pole Position

Sujal Raju, founder and chief technology officer, Enqbator

If you’ve done a Google search over the past year, you’ve probably noticed something different at the top of some search engine results pages (SERP). It’s a featured snippet, also known as Position Zero, and it’s Google’s way of showing users what it thinks is the best answer to their search question.

Position Zero provides the answers to questions, but it also includes a link to the website from which the answer came. That means users can usually get all the information they want from Position Zero without scrolling down the page.

And that, says Sujal Raju, founder and chief technology officer of Enqbator, is why Position Zero can be significant for your organization.

Position Zero is “kind of saying that Google trusts this provider, this organization, or this brand providing that answer for that particular question,” Raju explains. “It automatically increases the credibility of your brand because it [Position Zero] is announcing ‘This is who we, as Google, trust to provide the best answer for your question. You should probably look at their website to find what you’re looking for and interact with them.’”

Raju says Position Zero results can take several forms, with about 70 percent in the structure of a paragraph, 2 percent in list form, and the remaining 10 percent in a video, image, or chart.

“It’s not always showing users results in paragraphs,” he says. “If your video is the most relevant answer to the question being asked, it will show your video.”

Learn more: When Zero Is More Than One

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Matt Humphrey
President