Since July 2015, Stone Temple has followed more than 1.4 M questions, keeping a track of the exact number which have results based on Knowledge Graph, featured snippets and improved snippets regularly in search results. Stone Temple used the same questions for all their studies.
All these questions were chosen since it seemed that they could be answered either through a featured snippet or a Knowledge Graph result. All the questions looked for a plain answer based on facts. There are a number of terms which you will have to understand before you go through the data. Some of them are mentioned below-
- Knowledge Graph- This is a Google database which includes innumerable public domain facts.
- Knowledge Panel- Knowledge Panel refers to the details offered by Google from either Wikipedia, their own Knowledge Graph or from both. In case of desktop services, it is shown to the right of search results. However, on mobile phones it is visible with normal search results. Apart from Wikipedia, no categorization regarding the source of information is offered.
- Knowledge Box- This are factual details which Google offers usually from Knowledge Graph. It is visible with usual search results on desktops as well as mobiles. As in the case of Knowledge Panel, it doesn’t come with any attribution.
- Featured Snippet- These are the details which are sourced by Google from third-party websites. They are visible over organic search results along with the acknowledgment to the page from which Google has sourced the details.
- Enhanced Snippet- When a normal search result is improved with more details apart from title and description. For instance, the sitelinks feature in search results.
- Rich Answer- It refers to any search result which contains one or more of the features mentioned above in the result shown.
Total Rich Answers:
There has been continued growth in total occurrence of Rich Answers as shown below-
Total Featured Snippets
There was a little drop by 11% in total number of featured snippets.
Total Knowledge Graph-Based Results
There was a bigger drop in total Knowledge Panel+Knowledge Box results by 32% as shown here-
Total Featured Snippet Results With Videos
There was a sharp rise in the occurrence of feature snippets with videos.
Stone Temple used a mobile user agent in order to look for these search queries. They also took random sampling of 1,85,075 additional questions which were run with a desktop user agent in order to compare the results.
Total Rich Answers: Desktop vs. Mobile
The occurrence of rich answers on desktop is quite higher as compared to mobile.
Total Featured Snippets: Desktop vs. Mobile
Desktops have a slight lead in this aspect.
Total Knowledge Graph-based Results: Desktop vs. Mobile
Desktops dominate in this aspect.
Total Featured Snippets With Videos: Desktop vs. Mobile
A high presence of videos in feature snippets on mobile is pretty logical since videos work satisfactorily in a mobile-based environment.
Total Rich Answers: Desktop vs. Mobile
The occurrence of rich answers on desktop is quite higher as compared to mobile.
Key Findings From Stone Temple’s Study
- Consistent growth in Rich Answers- Over all types of search, Google has persisted on increasing the number of results which extend beyond short descriptions.
- Slight Drop in Featured Snippets and Knowledge Graph results- This was for the first time that there was a small drop in the number of Featured Snippets and Knowledge Graph results over all types of search.
- Featured Snippets with videos keep growing- After a sudden decline in 2017, it seems that Google has renewed its trust in Featured Snippets with videos.
- All kinds of Rich Answers are more prevalent on desktop rather than mobile- This includes Featured Snippets. But Featured Snippets with videos on mobile happen with the same frequency on desktop.
