Rich Snippets Are Crushing Me

[Darth]

Here's what's happened to my site in the last 3-6 months (data from Search Console).

1. Impressions are exactly the same. Exactly.
2. Position slightly down
3. CTR has halved

Site is several years old and I was doing fine up until now. Most of the traffic is mobile and therefore most of the SE happenings I refer to below are from mobile devices.

The problem is that a major brand (worth hundreds of millions) has all of a sudden started getting rich snippets for everything. Last year (and the years before), when things were good they were usually #2-3 and I was #1 for key terms. Slowly they started taking over some #1 spots (fine) but I didn't really notice any major traffic changes.

With them getting rich snippets for every term now though, the drop in CTR is starting to really hurt.

I have followed every guide there is on snippets, and back when snippets were just starting to appear had some myself (without trying). Not any more though - big brand gets most and the remaining are split between the top 10 excluding me. I do get some thumbnail rich snippets, but not the text (table/list) which is the key one.

Thing is, my text/tables are spot on. As I said I've followed the guides and have all the mark up required. I've experimented with tables, lists, different mark-up etc on different pages. All the on-site SEO you can think of. It hasn't done jack.

Technically I am positive I should be getting snippets. Big brand has a simple table and gets them, and some other sites literally get them with lists (not formatted lists, just <br>!).

Big brand obviously has more DA than me (and covers a broad niche with my site being focused on a sub-niche), but the other sites are all lower DA and in the same sub-niche as me.

And recently, big brand also started getting an extended site links carousel on some terms with a thumbnail attached to every one. So the results go big brand snippet, big brand in #1, then big brand site links carousel with thumbnails. That has pushed me over the edge. It's too much from one site for terms that doesn't even need all that!

I really don't know what to do now so I am posting here. I don't think Google is going to be reversing any of these "enhancements" any time soon. The opposite if anything (more clutter).

The one thing I can think of is that I have too many ads (it's a content site and is very ad heavy) but I am loath to half my income out the gate (and don't think I would pick up 50% more traffic). Maybe I need to bite the bullet and do some serious testing in this regard though.

Help, please!

 

[Sutra]

Two things off the top of my head:

1. If you think the ads may be part of the problem, why not test it on just a handful of pages? Don't need to do it for every page.
2. You mentioned that you're niched down and big brand is beating you bad. Have you considered growing your own site into a brand? Of course, this will take time and doesn't solve the problem right now but could set you up to dominate in a few years time. But in the current situation if you start using email capture with targeted AR, driving traffic from Social outlets, and traffic leaking forums, etc, you'll get a quick boost of income now. Plus, that is needed anyway to start growing your brand. Assuming you're not doing all that already though.

 

[Ryuzaki]

I've been posting the same sentiment around the forum for a while, minus the Featured Snippets or Rich Features part, whatever they're calling it now. (You're talking about the big boxes on the top, not stuff like having stars and breadcrumbs on your specific SERP listing, right?)

Starting around May/June, Google started having weekly updates that led to me plateau-ing and ultimately losing around 25% of traffic. Watching the SERPs, it was because Google was awarding older and sometimes less powerful sites with more short tails while giving more of the long-tails to the smaller sites. They also seemed to want to award these same sites with commercial search terms too, which really hurt for a while.

This seemed to start turning around in November, but it's hard to say too much since December came around with it's lower-on-average traffic. We'll see what happens come January / February.

 

[Future State]

• Impressions are exactly the same. Exactly.

• Position slightly down

• CTR has halved

Yeah, it sucks that #1 gets an estimated 30% of the clicks while #2 get's 15%. I lost a lot of #1's in the past 6 months. Kept my traffic levels nearly the same thanks to publishing and getting more long tails, but there's a big difference in the quality of traffic even in position #1 vs #2. #1 simply buys and clicks more.

Featured Snippets are dumb and broken. I've never clicked one in my life. I imagine the impact isn't nearly as bad as we imagine, even with normal internet users. Losing positions is the killer.

Getting the snippet is definitely about structuring your content correctly but it also has a lot to do with authority. They also split test everyone worthwhile and see who performs the best.

I doubt ads on the page are at play, especially when you look at the how-to type of searches and the content mills that get the snippets there.

 

[Darth]

Getting the snippet is definitely about structuring your content correctly but it also has a lot to do with authority. They also split test everyone worthwhile and see who performs the best.

Thanks for all your comments. My structure is better than some of these sites, DA is better than all except the multi million $ one, so maybe my split test did poorly. That would be odd though.

Coincidentally since this thread I've gained back a snippet, but unfortunately it's for one of the lower traffic terms. One single page on big brand site is still smashing the snippets and positioning.

 

[IngvarXH]

From what I've seen:

Google likes to award the featured snippet to a site that is not ranking #1. It seems like some sort of balancing system (or, in my conspiracy theory, it's to make the top rankings domains pay for PPC lol)

I think the PA/DA plays a big role. My clients' pages who are featured in rich snippets have a lot of links pointing to them. If your on-page optimization is near or at its best possible shape ever, it goes back down to link juice. At least that's what I've concluded from the sample size available to me.

 

[Darth]

Google likes to award the featured snippet to a site that is not ranking #1. It seems like some sort of balancing system (or, in my conspiracy theory, it's to make the top rankings domains pay for PPC lol)

I think the PA/DA plays a big role. My clients' pages who are featured in rich snippets have a lot of links pointing to them. If your on-page optimization is near or at its best possible shape ever, it goes back down to link juice. At least that's what I've concluded from the sample size available to me.

The second part seems true, but in my niche big brand is DOMINATING with #1 + snippet.

 

[IngvarXH]

The second part seems true, but in my niche big brand is DOMINATING with #1 + snippet.

I think there are a lot of variables at play. Honestly, some of the featured snippets my on-page work resulted in don't really deserve it. I definitely think it's simply because the pages have so much link power. This means Google still needs to iron out the kinks as its FS algo isn't great at nominating the best tidbits.

 

[luxer]

@Darth

Has anyone ever tried hitting the report this post for rich snippets from say 10 or 20 accounts to see what happens? Sayings its not helpful,relevant etc. It says it does not affect the rankings. We believe that right?