Google SERP giving competitor a paragraph of text

[standenman]

I am a social security disability attorney in Dallas. A person can be found disabled for any legitimate medical condition/disease, and I have found a combination of "social security disability" and name of the disease. For example, "social security disability and Lupus". I am finding that this combination results in a number 1 for a site called disabilitysecrets. What is interesting is that there is a paragraph of text above the site listing that has been pulled from the page.

how in the world did they get that free text?

 

[whitespark]

That sounds like an Answer Box, and here's how to get them: https://builtvisible.com/answer-boxes/. Also, the site must be mobile friendly to get an answer box.

 

[standenman]

Thanks for the response. So google has pulled the quick box answer from a competitor, but it is not entirely clear that brings them any benefit. The text is not a hyperlink, and it is seperated enough from the site just below that it is not clear at all that the "answer" has come from that site. And for example, for the search term "social security disability fibromyalgia" in Dallas TX I sit "atop" the quick answer text with my adword ad. Though there is more space between my ad and the quick answer, I could see searchers thinking that text "belongs" to me, giving me more credibility. Answer throughts? Linda, what do you think?

 

[James Watt]

Someone with a better memory than me will have to chime in with the article (or one that's like the one I'm thinking of) to back up this statement, but I seem to remember seeing a few months back a study around answer box traffic, pointing to it as being on par with a first rank in the organic spot. I think it's very safe to assume that getting an answer box up there is worthwhile, especially since the link right below answer box answers is in fact a hyperlink (not sure how you're seeing it in a way where it's not? Are you sure you saw that right?)

As far as whether or not an answer box answer being below your adword listing might increase the credibility of your ad... wishful thinking in my opinion, but you never know.