When the search intent is local (visit-in-person) it is normal for the local pack to dominate the results and be much less prone to the featured snippet.
Similarly, transactional searches are the least likely to return featured snippets.
At the same time, these searches are the most lucrative for Ads campaigns, so it is logical that when more ads are presented, the probability of finding featured results is lower.
What can you tell us about the recent FAQ featured snippet?
We are now seeing many transactional pages that are being forced to add FAQ sections to appear in this type of featured snippet.
Regardless of the CTR obtained, the queries where we aim to position ourselves qualify in some way a search intention that is currently informational but that reveals a latent transactional intention, as we see in the image below:
Featured Snippets - FAQ
Although Google's guidelines state that this structured markup cann philippines phone code ot be used with a promotional intent, it is clear that the landing page for this result takes the user to a clearly transactional page where frequently asked questions have been added with the sole SEO objective of positioning for this featured snippet.
We have seen cases where the abuse is even greater and at Human Level we believe that it is only a matter of time before Google corrects these cases, as it did recently by removing rich snippets from blog content reviews, for example.
Final set of tips to help generate a featured snippet
First, consider whether you're interested in fighting for featured snippets. Are you creating content that will primarily benefit Google, or are you going to get traffic or at least brand recognition?
Study your potential customer’s customer journey. Identify the most likely searches at each of the micro-moments of their purchasing decision process. Focusing on motivations and objections helps a lot to identify the most likely searches at each stage of the conversion funnel.
Do your keyword research. For each of the searches in point 2, identify which ones Google is already showing featured snippets for and which ones it isn't. Identify which ones it is, which ones you think it could, and the traffic potential of each one.
Analyze the content that is already positioned as a featured snippet: on-page and off-page factors. Do you think you can generate better content? Can you achieve greater authority? Your first goal is to reach the TOP10 and, from there, attack the featured snippet.
Prioritize searches for which a direct answer is not optimal. Target queries for which users would prefer relatively long-form content to improve CTR in the SERPs.
Identify the most appropriate format for your target keywords. Are the featured snippets shown by Google list, table, direct answer, video, FAQ, HowTo…?
Generate the best possible content for each search using the most appropriate format.