Danny Sullivan from Google said on Twitter "Maybe we'll eventually break out that type of data" when it comes to showing click-through rates on featured snippets. Google almost gave it to us, it was a beta filter that went away back in 2016 for some reason. It is a feature we all wanted for five or more years and has not come.
Here is a screen shot of it from then:
But that might change, well, maybe. Here is Danny's tweet:
Maybe we'll eventually break out that type of data. We've heard that request, definitely. But again, you've already got data to show them -- as you said -- that the change did not drop their traffic.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 30, 2020
Just a note, the featured snippet change should not really impact the existing Search Console performance reports.
If CTR was really good like Google has implied, then give us the data. At least let us make informed decisions on if we want to have a featured snippet or if we want to remove our featured snippet to show up in the main results. Give us the data!
Google doesn't have to spend time defending it with third-party case studies or analogies:
Some believe being a featured snippet is having the cake. Some believe not being a featured snippet is having the cake. You have the option to choose which cake you want. You just no longer get to have two cakes.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 30, 2020
"SEOs and site owners can rest easy knowing there’s no significant change in organic search traffic following Google’s featured snippet update" is from another studyhttps://t.co/FzkPRhrbAy
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 30, 2020
But again, ultimate, look to your own site, use options we do offer as makes sense.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
