Featured Snippet
The boxed answer at the top of Google search results — the predecessor to AI Overviews and the original answer engine placement.
What it means
Featured snippets pull a direct answer from a web page and display it prominently above organic results. They're the bridge concept between traditional SEO and AEO: winning a featured snippet requires structuring content as a direct answer to a specific question, which is identical to what AI citation optimization requires. Many AEO best practices — FAQ format, direct-answer structure, factual density — trace back to featured snippet optimization.
Why it matters for Shopify
Shopify merchants who already optimize for featured snippets have a head start on AEO — the same content principles transfer directly to AI citation optimization.