If you had a featured snippet at the top of Google's results page eighteen months ago and you've watched your traffic decline steadily, AI Overviews are almost certainly the explanation. Google's rollout of AI-generated answer blocks above traditional search results has reshaped the top of the results page in ways that make "position zero" a fundamentally different strategic concept than it was in 2024.
But the story isn't as simple as "featured snippets are dead." The SERP landscape in 2026 is more layered than that, and some snippet types remain highly clickable and worth targeting. Understanding which formats have been displaced versus which have survived — and how the optimisation approach has changed for each — is what separates SEO strategy that works from strategy that's still fighting the 2023 war.
What Actually Happened to Featured Snippets
Google didn't eliminate featured snippets — it added something above them. For many informational queries, an AI Overview now appears at the very top of results, collapsible by default on desktop and expanded on mobile. Where a featured snippet used to occupy the prime above-the-fold real estate, it now sits below the AI Overview, further down the page, if it appears at all.
For some query types, Google appears to have made a choice: either show an AI Overview or show a featured snippet, but not both. This is most visible on definitional queries ("what is X") and simple how-to queries ("how do I Y"). The AI Overview handles the answer directly, and the featured snippet that used to appear for those queries has been removed from the SERP entirely.
In Google Search Console data, this manifests as: same or growing impressions for a query, with clicks declining. The page is still appearing in search results — just further down, below the AI content that's absorbing the intent without requiring a click.
The New SERP Layers in 2026
Understanding the current structure of a Google results page helps clarify which opportunities still exist and which have genuinely contracted.
Layer 1: AI Overviews
Appear at the very top for informational and some commercial queries. Synthesise answers from multiple sources, citing three to eight pages. Clicking a citation link goes directly to the cited page — not to a generic search results page. For sites that appear as AI Overview sources, the traffic quality tends to be high: the user has already been primed by the AI answer and is clicking through for depth or verification.
Layer 2: Featured Snippets
Still appear for many query types, now typically below an AI Overview if both are present, or occupying the traditional position zero slot for queries where Google hasn't deployed an AI Overview. Featured snippets remain most common for: step-by-step processes, comparison queries, data/statistics lookups, and local or Indian English queries where AI Overview coverage is less complete.
Layer 3: People Also Ask
PAA boxes have expanded in 2026. They appear alongside AI Overviews (often directly below them), alongside featured snippets, and independently. They represent the most accessible snippet opportunity because they cover the secondary and tertiary questions in a user's research journey, not just the primary query.
Layer 4: Knowledge Panels
Entity-based panels for brands, people, places, and products. These haven't significantly changed in structure, though they now occasionally pull real-time data from AI sources alongside structured data from the knowledge graph.
Which Snippet Formats Still Drive Meaningful Clicks
Not all snippet types have been equally affected by AI Overviews. Some formats consistently show strong click-through rates even in 2026.
Navigational and Local Snippets
When someone searches for a specific business, a specific location, or something with clear navigational intent ("Kerala IT Mission vendor registration"), AI Overviews rarely appear. Featured snippets and local packs dominate these queries, and click-through rates remain high because the user wants to go somewhere specific, not just read an answer.
Commercial Intent Queries
Queries like "best web development agency Kochi 2026" or "compare SEO tools India" still show traditional organic results with minimal AI Overview presence. Google has been cautious about deploying AI Overviews for commercial queries where hallucination risks are high and user expectations are for curated recommendations, not synthesised answers.
Queries Requiring Recent Data
For queries where freshness matters — recent news, live pricing, updated statistics — AI Overviews are less likely to appear because the training data may not reflect current reality. Featured snippets from recently updated pages still dominate these results.
Indian English Queries
This is a nuanced point worth understanding for Indian website owners: AI Overview deployment is uneven across regions and query types. Many queries entered in Indian English from Indian IP addresses still show traditional featured snippets rather than AI Overviews, particularly for local government, education, healthcare, and legal queries. This is a window of opportunity that will narrow as Google expands AI Overview coverage, but it's real today.
Optimising for AI Overview Inclusion — The New Position Zero
The strategic shift from traditional featured snippet optimisation to AI Overview optimisation is real but less dramatic than you might expect. The underlying content principles — direct answers, structured formatting, clear attribution — transfer well. What changes is the emphasis.
Multi-Angle Coverage Over Single Definitive Answer
Featured snippets rewarded the page that gave the single best answer to a specific query. AI Overviews synthesise from multiple sources, which means they look for pages that contribute a distinct angle or specific data point rather than just being the most comprehensive single source. A page that covers one sub-aspect of a topic with exceptional depth may appear in AI Overviews alongside pages with broader coverage.
Direct Answer Paragraphs After Every H2
Place a concise, extractable answer immediately after every section heading. The AI system extracts these efficiently. If a section heading is "How to verify GST registration in India," the first sentence of that section should directly state the answer or the primary action — not provide historical context or background first.
Schema Markup as a Structural Signal
FAQPage schema, HowTo schema, and Article schema with author markup all reduce the interpretive work the AI needs to do when processing your content. Pages with proper schema markup appear in AI Overview citations at a higher rate than comparable pages without it. For Indian business websites, implementing even basic Article schema with accurate author credentials creates a meaningful differentiator in competitive niches.
What's No Longer Worth Chasing
Some snippet strategies that consumed significant SEO effort in 2023 and 2024 have poor ROI in 2026.
Pure definitional featured snippets ("what is X") for broad, high-volume terms have been almost entirely absorbed by AI Overviews. Optimising a page specifically to capture "what is digital marketing" at position zero is largely futile — the AI Overview handles that query with synthesised content and users have no reason to click through.
Similarly, simple how-to featured snippets for generic processes ("how to create a Google account," "how to send an email") have been displaced. Unless your how-to content addresses a specific niche process that AI Overviews don't cover well, these targets are low-value.
The patterns worth targeting are: comparison featured snippets, local-intent snippets, industry-specific data snippets, and People Also Ask entries that capture secondary research intent. These formats remain clickable and, in many cases, are less contested precisely because competitors have shifted attention to chasing AI Overview placement.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did my traffic drop when Google replaced my featured snippet with an AI Overview?
Almost certainly yes, for that specific query. When a featured snippet is displaced by an AI Overview, the featured snippet either disappears entirely or moves below the AI response, significantly reducing its visibility and click-through rate. The recovery path is to target inclusion inside the AI Overview itself rather than fighting for the featured snippet position that no longer exists at the top. Review the AI Overview for your query, identify which sources it's citing, analyse what those sources have in common structurally, and update your page to match or exceed that standard. Pages that appear as cited sources inside AI Overviews often recover more than their original featured snippet traffic because the AI Overview gives them both an attribution link and a credibility signal.
Are People Also Ask boxes still worth targeting in 2026?
Yes, more so than ever. PAA boxes have actually expanded their presence in 2026 — they appear on more query types and at more scroll positions than two years ago. Unlike featured snippets, PAA boxes haven't been significantly displaced by AI Overviews; they co-exist with them. Ranking in a PAA box for a query where an AI Overview appears above organic results gives you a visible position that otherwise wouldn't exist for your site. The optimisation approach is the same as for featured snippets — direct answer format, concise responses of 40 to 60 words, FAQ schema markup — but targeting should focus on follow-up questions users ask after their initial query.
How do I check if a query shows an AI Overview or a featured snippet?
The manual check is the most reliable: search the query in an incognito window to avoid personalisation and observe what appears above organic results. AI Overviews have a distinctive expandable format with a "Show more" toggle and source citations listed below the answer block. Featured snippets show a single source attribution directly, without the expandable format. For bulk checking, Semrush's SERP Features filter in their Keyword Magic Tool shows which SERP features appear for each keyword. For Indian market queries specifically, note that AI Overview rollout for regional English query types lags behind US rollout by several months, so some queries that trigger AI Overviews in the US still show traditional featured snippets from Indian IP addresses.