Is being in position 1-3 without a featured snippet better for conversions?

[Smileworks_Liverpool]

I'm a cosmetic dental practice so we're local and want people to visit our website, look around and make a booking.

I've followed very closely the featured snippet debate on WBF and in the blogs here and everywhere else on the web.  I've got many 1-3 positions and have been optimising for featured snippets with great success.

I have noticed though that once I get a featured snippet the CTR of the page that the snippet is taken from drops significantly.  This can often put me from position one into two or three.  The same thing happens sometimes on the local listings.  You get in the pack and people start visiting your homepage rather than the particular services page in the SERP.

At a conference I was at, here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iXlVcbpvd0 (11:14) there is a suggestion that Vodafone de-optimise because a position one or two is better for their sales than a featured snippet.

After all my interests are not the same as google.  They want to answer questions and I want to sell cosmetic dentistry.  So is answering a question without bringing a user to my site a good idea?  I've certainly seen the amount of enquiries drop once the category has a number of featured snippets.

Are they as good as everyone says they are?  I think possibly not from my data and this Vodafone talk is the first time i've heard anyone agree.

I've scoured the web for answers and it's all just "GET FEATURED SNIPPETS",  "HERES HOW TO GET THEM" etc.  But my business is not about getting more traffic it's about selling.  Could someone please point me to research on conversion rate and featured snippets. or ROI and featured snippets?

Thanks.

[Smileworks_Liverpool]

Yes you are right realises own confirmation bias  I love how new this all is, it's so interesting and I feel we're on the cutting edge of something. I'll get some more data together and do my own little study.    #alwaysbetesting

[GastonRiera]

_Do you find that the FS can so detrimentally affect the CTR that you drop out of 1-3 altogether?  I've seen that happen a couple of times but can't say for certain it's because of the FS. _

It depends on the topic and niche you are in. Can't say anything exact, in my experiences works better being in the tops positions WITHOUT a FS rather than having a FS and being the chosen one.

_Check out search console data.  It all goes 100% haywire when I got the snippets.  CTR right down and impressions through the roof.  Clicks are stable (ish). That research you recommended looks great.  Thanks so much. _

Yeap, the effect in the impression with the FS is fantastic. Be cautious, you do have more clicks even dropping down the CTR.

If I were you, I'd try to de-optimize one FS and test the results. 
SEO is tough and many times is just trial and error

[Smileworks_Liverpool]

Thanks Gaston, I'll test that out.  I'm also thinking that you're right about the nature of the FS being question answering. It's almost as though local traffic is still visiting the site but the national traffic is just looking at the snippet and leaving.  So it's worth looking at the location demo too I think.

Do you find that the FS can so detrimentally affect the CTR that you drop out of 1-3 altogether?  I've seen that happen a couple of times but can't say for certain it's because of the FS.

Check out search console data.  It all goes 100% haywire when I got the snippets.  CTR right down and impressions through the roof.  Clicks are stable (ish). That research you recommended looks great.  Thanks so much.

rLdGzX0

[GastonRiera]

Hi Ed!

Definitely **YES! ** Being position 1-3 _without_a featured snippet will drive more visitors to your site. You are clearly seing that.
The math here is simple: less visitors to your website, less conversions.
There are 2 clear studies to show here:

Ahrefs’ Study Of 2 Million Featured Snippets: 10 Important Takeaways
MozCon Slide: Reverse-Engineer Google’s Research to Serve Up the Best, Most Relevant Content for Your Audience

In the last one, the key information to extract is that google chooses more often FS that contains rather informational keywords than transactional ones.
As you say that mastered the process to win FS, there might be a chance to optimize (if that's even possible) the information shown in the snippent to include a text telling the searcher to go in the site and buy.

Hope this helps.
Best luck.
GR.