How do I stop my page appearing as a featured snippet?

Use the nosnippet rule to block all snippets, or data-nosnippet on specific text. If you want normal snippets but not featured ones, lower max-snippet until the page stops showing, though Google notes this is not guaranteed.

Is there a minimum length for a featured snippet answer?

Google says there is no fixed minimum. It varies with the information, the language and the platform. In practice, a complete answer in one or two sentences, followed by detail, is easy to extract.

Does blocking featured snippets affect AI Overviews?

It can. nosnippet removes the page as a snippet source, and Google requires snippet eligibility for a page to be a supporting link in AI Overviews and AI Mode.

AI search glossary

Featured snippet: how Google chooses them and how to opt out

A featured snippet is a Google search result where a short extract from a page, chosen automatically by Google's systems, is shown first and above the page's title and link because Google judges that it answers the query well.

Also called: answer box, position zero

Why it matters for AI search

Featured snippets and Google's AI features share a gate: Google says a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet to be a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode. The same habits that win snippets (a direct answer in plain text near a clear heading) also make a passage easy for any AI engine to lift and cite.

How featured snippets work

Google's Search Central documentation describes featured snippets as special boxes where the format of a regular result is reversed: the descriptive snippet comes first, then the title and link. They also appear inside People Also Ask, where each expanded question shows one. When someone clicks the link, Google tries to scroll them straight to the matching section of the page, and falls back to the top of the page if it cannot.

Selection is automatic. Google's systems decide whether a page would make a good featured snippet for a specific query and, if so, elevate it. Google states plainly that you cannot mark a page as a featured snippet.

Example

Search "how long to boil an egg" and the top of the page often shows two or three sentences from a cooking site, with the times for soft and hard boiled eggs, before any link. That extract is the featured snippet. The page did not use special markup. It put a direct answer close to a heading that matched the question.

Controls you do have

Control	What it does
`nosnippet` (meta robots)	Blocks all snippets for the page, featured and regular
`data-nosnippet` (HTML attribute)	Keeps specific text out of both snippet types
`max-snippet:[number]`	Limits snippet length; lowering it can stop featured snippets but is not guaranteed

If both nosnippet and data-nosnippet are present, nosnippet wins.

Think before using these. Google says a page must be eligible to show with a snippet to be a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, so nosnippet removes the page from Google's AI features as well as from featured snippets. data-nosnippet on a single block, such as a promo banner or legal text, is a narrower choice that leaves the rest of the page usable.

How to write for snippets and AI answers

Put the question, or a close version, in a heading.
Answer it in the first sentence below, completely, then add detail.
Use a list or table when the answer is steps or a comparison.
Keep the answer in HTML text that Googlebot can see, not in an image.

These habits help beyond Google. Engines such as ChatGPT and Perplexity also lift short passages into answers and link the source, which is what AI citations measure. Snippets also drive zero-click search: many people read the answer and stop, so count the mention as part of the value, not only the click.

Questions

Can I mark up a page to be a featured snippet?: No. Google's documentation answers this directly: you can't. Its systems decide whether a page would make a good featured snippet for a query. There is no structured data type for it.
How do I stop my page appearing as a featured snippet?: Use the nosnippet rule to block all snippets, or data-nosnippet on specific text. If you want normal snippets but not featured ones, lower max-snippet until the page stops showing, though Google notes this is not guaranteed.
Is there a minimum length for a featured snippet answer?: Google says there is no fixed minimum. It varies with the information, the language and the platform. In practice, a complete answer in one or two sentences, followed by detail, is easy to extract.
Does blocking featured snippets affect AI Overviews?: It can. nosnippet removes the page as a snippet source, and Google requires snippet eligibility for a page to be a supporting link in AI Overviews and AI Mode.