What it is
A featured snippet is the short answer Google lifts out of a page and displays in a box at the top of results, with a link back to the source. It might be a paragraph, a list, or a table. Earning it means your page got promoted above everyone ranking below it.
Why it matters
Featured snippets were the early version of what answer engines now do at scale: pick one source and show its answer instead of a list. The page structure that wins snippets, a clear question followed immediately by a clean answer, is the same structure that gets content pulled into AI Overviews and chat answers. Learn to win snippets and you are practicing AEO before the term even comes up.
What to do
Find questions you almost rank for, then add a tight, direct answer right under a question-style heading. Keep paragraph answers to roughly 40 to 60 words, and use real lists and tables where the question calls for them.