SERP: what it is, how it works, what’s on Google

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For several years now, it is no longer a simple list of links, but a complex and rich results page that deeply influences user behavior and online marketing strategies. We are talking about the SERP, which stands for Search Engine Results Page, that is, the results page that the search engine offers in response to a user’s query. Although there are billions of web pages online, none perhaps takes on more value for digital marketing and SEO than Google’s SERP, which from the canonical 10 blue links over time has been enriched and now displays a plethora of boxes, features and various elements, which have revolutionized its aesthetics and usability with a view to tailoring the SERP to the user’s true search intention, personalizing their experience to maximize their satisfaction.

What is the SERP

The SERP is the page that every search engine generates in response to a user query.

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The word SERP is an acronym for Search Engine Results Page, which in Italian we can translate as search engine results page. Essentially, then, by this term we refer to all the “simple” Web pages that each search engine provides in response to users searching for something online, generally by entering their search query (often using specific terms and phrases known as keywords) in the appropriate box or browser bar (or voice commands, another growing trend).

Definition of Search Engine Results Page

Each SERP is unique and different: while it is quite intuitable that we will not get the same page if we launch an identical search on different search engines (because each search engine constructs the SERP in its own way and evaluates the results according to its own criteria and algorithms), even if we do the same search (using the same keywords or queries) on one search engine we may notice variations, however slight. This is because virtually all search engines customize the experience for their users by presenting results based on a wide range of factors in addition to search terms, such as the user’s physical location, browsing history, and social settings, so as to offer their users a more intuitive and responsive experience.

In addition, the structural appearance of search engine results pages is also constantly changing due to experiments conducted by Google, Bing, and other search engines, often in the wake of emerging and rapidly developing technologies in this area, and thus the SERPs of today differ significantly in appearance from those of a few years (sometimes months) ago.

What is the significance of SERPs

A Search Engine Results Page thus represents the tangible result of any search made through a search engine. When a user enters a query into a search engine, such as Google, the immediate response to that query is displayed in the form of a SERP, which is no longer simply a list of hyperlinks, but represents a dynamic and complex ecosystem that aims to provide the user with the most relevant and useful information in the shortest possible time.

Modern SERPs are in fact composed of a variety of elements designed to enhance the search experience. In addition to traditional organic results-which are what the engine considers to be the most relevant answers based on the ranking algorithm-SERPs also include sponsored ads, often placed at the top or bottom of the page. These paid ads can be crucial to digital marketing strategies and are a primary source of revenue for search engines.

In addition, SERPs are enhanced by featured snippets, which directly answer user queries without the need to click further. These snippets can include text, images, and even video, making the answers provided more immediate and complete. Another common element in the SERP is the Knowledge Graph, an information panel that gathers data from authoritative sources to provide a concise picture on a specific topic. This proves particularly useful for informational searches and queries about famous people, organizations, places, and other structured entities.

Local snippets are another special feature of SERPs. They use geolocation to provide relevant local results, such as restaurants, stores, or services in the user’s vicinity. These snippets often include maps, reviews, and contact information, facilitating more immediate interaction with the local user.

Recent developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning have further transformed SERPs, making them capable of predicting and responding to user needs with an unprecedented degree of personalization. This personalization takes into account numerous factors such as search history, geographic location, and previous interactions, making the search experience unique to each user.

For example, with the latest updates Google has embraced the AI revolution by introducing AI Overviews in SERPs: called AI Overviews in English, this feature is designed to further enhance the user experience by offering quick and concise answers to complex queries without forcing users to click on multiple links or read long articles. The system is based on advanced artificial intelligence models such as Gemini and others and analyzes a wide range of information sources to generate a cohesive summary that directly answers the question posed by the user. Still unavailable in Italy and Europe, in early tests in English AI Overviews appears to resemble an even more enhanced and expanded featured snippet, which also has the ability to contextualize information: the AI in fact scans and analyzes numerous relevant documents in Google’s index and, thanks to machine learning models, extracts the most relevant portions of text and integrates them into a “new” summary.

How search engine SERPs work

In short, SERPs are the beating heart of search engines, and their formation occurs through a complex process orchestrated by search engine algorithms. Understanding how SERPs work and how results and features that appear in them are generated is crucial for anyone who wants to optimize their online presence.

It all starts with the process of crawling and indexing: search engines, such as Google, use bots (called crawlers or spiders) to scan the web and gather information about the available pages. This data is then indexed, that is, organized into a vast database that allows for quick access and analysis of the data.

When a user enters a query in the search field, the search engine algorithm springs into action, performing a series of complex operations to return the most relevant results. This process includes analyzing the keywords in the query and comparing them with the content of the indexed pages. Google, for example, uses a ranking system that evaluates more than 200 factors to determine which pages offer the most relevant and authoritative response. Among these factors are content quality, keyword relevance, website structure, and backlinks received from other authoritative sources.

SERPs are not static, but highly dynamic. Pages can contain different types of results: from organic snippets to sponsored ads, from videos to featured snippets. Paid ads, run through ad auction platforms such as Google Ads, generally appear at the top or bottom of organic results and their position depends on bifactors such as financial bidding and ad quality. Featured snippets represent a quick and concise response to the user’s query and are chosen based on relevance and well-organized page structure.

The sorting of results on the SERP is strongly influenced by personalization based on the user’s search history, geographic location, and preferences obtained through browsing data collected by search engines. These factors make the SERP a unique experience for each user.

In addition, search engines such as Google are not limited to showing only textual results. Modern SERPs include multimedia visuals, such as images and videos, interactive maps, reviews, and quick responses, thanks to the implementation of advanced technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. This continuous updating and improvement of search engines aims to provide an increasingly effective and satisfying search experience for users.

What a SERP looks like: basic elements and advanced features

Beyond the huge differences between search engines, almost all SERPs today offer (at least) two types of content: “organic” results and paid results.

The former are the result of organic search, and thus lists of web pages ranked based on the criteria followed by the search engine’s algorithm. These are the links that the search engine considers to be the most relevant to the user’s query and of interest to the SEO activity, the classic positions for which they battle to the tune of optimization in search of visibility.

In contrast to organic links, paid results or paid results are displayed for a fee by an advertiser, who purchases a space to display their ad, which is then placed according to ad auction systems. In the past, paid results were almost exclusively limited to small text ads, usually displayed above or to the right of organic results, but today they can take on a wide range of ad formats to meet the needs of advertisers and win the interest and clicks of users.

In addition to these core components, the SERP includes other recurring elements such as quick links and breadcrumbs that help navigate between website pages.

And then there are the advanced features: for example, Google’s SERPs include featured snippets, quick responses, information panels, and image carousels, among others, and we will shortly look at the full set of SERP features that can appear on Google.

Why SERPs are important (and why it is important to know about them)

Understanding their function and structure is essential for those in the digital marketing and SEO fields, as they determine what content is displayed and in what order.

SERPs interest (and are important to) both SEO specialists and PPC advertisers, who strive to conquer what in English is called SERP real estate, that is, to consolidate their property on the results page and gain valuable space in the most important parts of the page. Competition is fierce and technological developments in search, however, dictate that one must be abreast of developments, aware of how search works and what obstacles and features can diminish the visibility of results and sometimes render even a first organic position useless.

Any site that has Google ranking as its core business cannot, therefore, neglect the optimal management of all aspects related to these additional features to the classic organic results, starting with the implementation of structured data, a central element of this progressive revolution, because only awareness can help us understand what is the aspect on which it is convenient to focus the strategy and try to work.

SERPs and SEO: how SERPs affect SEO strategies

In short, understanding how SERPs work is crucial especially for those working in the world of SEO and digital marketing, and the reason is easy to understand: the position of results in the SERP can determine the success or failure of an online marketing campaign.

Being among the top results means having more visibility and, consequently, more traffic to one’s website, but in light of the constant evolution of search engines and changes in user behavior, it may not be enough. In fact, the composition of the SERP directly affects content strategies: knowing what types of content Google favors can help you create articles, videos and images that are more likely to be displayed among the top results.

The presence of various elements in the SERP, such as paid ads and featured snippets, directly affects content optimization techniques. For example, if the SERP for a specific query shows predominantly videos, it might be worth considering creating video content optimized for that keyword. The increasing presence of quick answers and featured snippets requires close attention to content structure and the use of direct questions and answers.

And, on the other side of the coin, there are more and more searches that end without a click because users do not need more information than what is served up by Google through the various SERP features.

How to monitor the position in the SERP

Therefore, it turns out to be more important than ever to know how to constantly monitor the position of one’s content in the SERP – and SEOZoom’s tools help to track page rankings and obtain reliable data on search terms used by users, search volumes, page position and seasonality of searches, for example – while also knowing the composition of the SERP itself for the keywords we are interested in.

Here again, SEOZoom comes to our rescue, which not only allows users to identify the various SERP features present for a specific query, but also manages to quantify the true position of organic results relative to other SERP features. This type of keyword analysis helps to understand how much space is actually available for unsponsored results and how the presence of elements such as ads and snippets affects the visibility of organic results.

In addition, SEOZoom also provides a graphical representation of the SERP, showing a preview of the precise arrangement of elements.This visualization is extremely useful for planning content optimization strategies in a targeted way, checking not only the keyword’s potential difficulty of competitiveness, but also the risks posed by the presence of Google’s boxes, which often erode clicks and actual organic traffic.

Careful monitoring allows SEO strategies to be adapted and optimized to maintain or improve visibility in search results, as well as to target efforts on keywords that are easier to “attack” and potentially more effective for the strategy, more likely to bring organic traffic to the site.

What is the Google SERP

Let us focus, however, on the SERP par excellence, at least for the moment, and that is Google’s SERP, which is a complex and dynamic ecosystem. Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, Google is able to customize the SERP according to users’ preferences and geographic location, while the presence of featured snippets, knowledge panels, videos, and related images demonstrates how the SERP has become a multifunctional tool. This transformation has greatly affected the way SEO is implemented, requiring a more strategic and diversified approach.

When we launch a query, in fact, we will practically never display a page with only blue links, as it used to be, and for the past few months the only information that until 2024 had remained unchanged has also changed slightly: the approximate number of search results for the query and the time it took to provide the SERP. If in fact Google has always shown these little tidbits just below its bar, we can now read them only if we click on the “Tools” filter (and they appear to the right of the screen, from desktop).

Otherwise, the visualization is fragmented, varied, and very rich, with so many differences depending on the type of search intent identified by the algorithm and, no less relevant, also on the geographical location of the user: checking the Google SERP from different locations (by manually setting the location) allows us, for example, to discover how an identical query can produce different search results depending even on the city district where the user is located!

The evolution of Google’s SERP has had an effect both on SEO – today organic results are in much less prominent position than in the past, and even one of our studies has shown how effectively they can be “hidden” because of all the other features that infill the page, and thus the CTR drops even for the mythical first position – and on the approach of users, who now apply what is called a pinball pattern, that is, a gaze that, like a pinball, bounces between the various boxes and points on the page in search of elements of interest.

Today, the lion’s share of Google’s search results pages is played by SERP features, i.e., the additional functionality to classic organic links.

Google SERPs, history and evolution

As we were saying, among all types of web pages and even more so among all search engine page results, the ones we are most interested in are precisely the Google SERPs – if only because the Mountain View search engine monopolizes the industry, used by more than 91% of Web users worldwide and 93% of Italian surfers (July 2024 data).

The difference between a Google SERP of the late 1990s (but also those of the early 2000s) and one of today is abysmal, and one only has to look at this image (Google SERP in 1998, the year the search engine debuted) to realize this.

Google’s initial purpose was to replace the primitive purely text-based search engines, such as Altavista and Yahoo, and provide more relevant results by adding advertisements through which to monetize and make money.

To differentiate itself from its competitors and surpass them, it was necessary to focus on a better service, and time told that the project (initially called “BackRub”) developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin and officially launched in 1998 met its challenge, quickly becoming the most widely used web-based search engine in the world. The insight that enabled this very rapid rise was to create SERPs not by simply checking the frequency with which certain search terms appeared on Web pages (precise correspondence between query set by the user and keyword in the text, as virtually all competitors did), but the relevance of a page estimated through the relationships between various sites, and mainly through the quality and quantity of links.

In other words, since its origins Google has exploited the PageRank system, a true index of a site’s popularity on the Web, determined by the number of backlinks received from other sites interpreted as “votes” of trust and liking, which in turn had different weights based on the value of the linking site and its popularity-as we know, PageRank today is still part of Google’s ranking factors, but it is “just one of many” systems used to rank pages.

In any case, at least until the year Two Thousand, Google did not offer a particularly original SERP: each user query returned 10 blue links, pointing to as many search pages selected and ranked according to the criteria of Big G’s algorithm. Right in the year Two Thousand, however, there is a first major revolution in the results page, because the Google Adwords program, an advertising platform that allows businesses of all types and sizes to promote themselves on the search engine, starts, and that practically introduces paid results within the SERPs in the form of text ads relevant to the query (initially only at the top and to the right of the organic results – all images in this section are taken from Advia).

Another noticeable change to Google’s SERP came in 2001, with the birth of Google Images (a parallel search engine for image-only searches) first and then with the introduction of a tabbed interface at the top of the search bar, giving the ability to search the Web, images, groups, or directories.

In addition, at this stage (and until removal in 2006) at the bottom of Google’s home page also appears the number of Web pages in its search index, which exceeds one billion as early as 2000. Around the same time, between 2001 and 2002, Search was enriched with other sections and functions: after the events of September 11, for example, the News began to be distinguished, which would later merge into what we still know today as Google News, while technological evolutions made it possible to experiment with a system of automatic correction of the query typed by users. Curious is another experiment, leading to the sudden appearance of Froogle, a search engine dedicated to product shopping and commercial searches for tangible goods, which functioned for a few years as a stand-alone search engine before being retired in 2007 and relaunched as Google Product Search, which then recently became Google Shopping, a search feature integrated into Google’s main engine.

Between 2000 and 2004, the search engine continued to grow (and Google Doodles and easter eggs began to debut) and major changes came to Google SERPs, including online local listings and All Results. Local directories (Google local) were introduced to help users find results related to their areas, while the “All Results” tab allowed users to search for a variety of search result options, complementing the possibilities available to them.

In 2007, this feature was permanently integrated into the main engine, and Google introduced universal search, universal search, which combines all the previously separate elements into a holistic search experience, available directly Google on the main search results page: By typing in the query, the user can now get in response a SERP containing different types of results, such as links to web pages, images, videos, news, books, patents, and more, thus filling the classic search results page with additional elements to the classic organic blue links, such as news (Google News articles), Images (Carousel of previews from Google Images at the top of the page), and so on.

Continuing our quick overview of the history of Google and its SERPs, we recall in 2010 the attempt to “widen” the display with the creation of a sidebar on the right side of the page, dedicated mostly to sponsored ads and introduced to take advantage of computer screens that had grown larger and often left empty space along the left and right edges.

Since 2011 we have been seeing a new acceleration, including a technological one: the ability to do a reverse image search appears, Google Instant is perfected (which basically suggests keywords as the query is typed and precisely triggers searches instantaneously, in real time), and most importantly, the search engine’s new home page debuts, which is much more minimal and accessible. Little curiosity: as seen in the image below, there is still the I ‘m Feeling Lucky box, which essentially allowed users to ignore exhausting ads and skip SERPs to go directly to the website of the first search result. Although not many users used this button, legend has it that Google eliminated it because of the large financial losses it caused (because it did not bring up SERPs and ADSs), and today clicking on that button takes you to an archive of Doodles.

Even more important is the introduction in 2012 of the Knowledge Graph, which aims to enhance the search experience through a huge database of “entities” that people might search for, such as people, places, and things. Visually, the Knowledge Graph is most noticeable when it appears as a Knowledge Panel on the right side of the screen or as a Knowledge Carousel at the top of the page for certain types of searches.

Two years later, in 2014, Google first included featured snippets in SERPs, a result preview format that serves users to more easily and quickly discover information related to their query; around the same time Google also debuted Google My Business, tabs dedicated to businesses with all the useful information, which has recently been further integrated into Search becoming Google Business Profile.

Dating back to 2015 is the launch of People Also Ask, a box that (thanks to advances in natural language understanding) reports the main questions asked by Google users, allowing topics to be explored in more detail. The following year came the experimentation with Google Discover, a personalized feed that works independently of SERPs, and still we can mention among other features applied to SERPs the Key Moments in Videos (2019), the About this result and Content Warnings features (for extremely topical or fast-moving events) in 2021, and the Multisearch Search announced in 2022.

In the past two years, then, Google’s SERP has changed at an even greater pace-microchanges, but also far more obvious interventions: according to Mountain View news, nearly five thousand global launches were made in 2022 alone in the Search! – and the integration of Artificial Intelligence will likely mark another milestone in this evolution, with Ai Overviews and beyond.

But there is more than just a glimpse into the future: interestingly, a special filter in Search, simply called “Web,” also debuted in 2024, which allows us to “go back to basics” and display only relevant links for the query entered, clearing the SERP of all the trappings that do not interest us at that moment.

Google SERPs and SEOZoom, how to analyze pages and identify opportunities

For years, Google has always been considered a valuable ally in getting traffic to one’s website: every element that appeared in SERPs seemed designed to improve the user experience and, at the same time, offer more visibility to websites, without affecting the visibility of organic results.

The trend has completely changed for some time now, because today – while remaining faithful in improving the quality of the SERP for the user – Google is tweaking its pages with constant changes in graphic elements that are to the detriment of those who do SEO work and find their CTRs reduced. Another factor that many have noticed, then, is that now more than ever Google is the competitor of all sites, because its features preview information, reduce clicks to external sites, and retain users on products in the Big G ecosystem.

Said in other terms, the features introduced by Google have been slowly nibbling away at the visibility of organic results: the Ads ads are super invasive, the Google Shopping carousel steals so much space and turns the Google SERP into a mini e-commerce where you can click at a glance on the product of interest, direct answers preclude all other sites from getting traffic, and so on.

For this reason, it is essential to have a real-time overview of the SERP and what “inhabits” it for the keywords we are interested in, and as mentioned in SEOZoom there are special features that provide this snapshot. Basically, our algorithm performs an analysis of the SERP in real time (even for low search volume keywords), indicating the presence of any features and showing the size in pixels of each box.

And so, a ghost icon tells us that the SERP is problematic, because you have to scroll before you see an organic result-and currently more than 10% of Italian Desktop SERPs are colonized by the ghost! – while the smiling or sad emoticon signals the presence of a direct Google response. To be precise, the smiley face in green gives us the green light (Google does not respond to the search query), while the red sad face informs us that Google responds to the query and this reduces the CTR of the organic results: this situation affects more than 16% of the Italian SERPs, which therefore have a direct response from Google.

Google SERP features, what are they

Before going to the discovery of all the elements that make up the Google page, it is good to still provide a concise and clear definition of SERP features.

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Google’s SERP features are all the results on a search engine page other than classic organic links or standard paid ads, designed to provide a better experience for users by customizing each SERP to show more relevant and detailed information. In practice, as mentioned, today’s Google SERPs are much richer, useful, relevant, and accurate to reduce the time and effort it takes for users to find what they are looking for-and that means extra work to stand out on the part of SEO practitioners.

What Google’s SERP looks like: what all the elements are called

At a general level, there are nearly 40 possible extra features that can populate the Google results page, which are activated depending on relevance to the user’s query. This variety probably makes it necessary to recap and explain in detail what the most common UI features are, what they look like, what they are called, and how the website can be optimized for each element.

The most useful reference for this is the guide specially created by Google, from which all the following screens are taken, which presents precisely the basic components that the user can perceive or interact with.

In the opening, the document tells us the Google Search results page contains a number of different types of visual search result elements, and each search result has its own set of possible secondary visual elements. For example, a text result is a visual element in its own right and includes various secondary visual elements, such as attribution, title link, and snippet. In addition, the appearance of visual elements can change over time, and a given result may be displayed differently depending on the device used (e.g., a computer or smartphone), the country in which the user is located, the language of the search query, and many other factors.

The elements we may come across are divided into:

• Text result: is a Google Search result based on the textual content of the page. It is the old and classic “blue link.”
• Rich result: is a result that typically relies on structured data in the page markup to display graphical elements or interactive experiences.
• Image result: is a result based on an image embedded in that web page; it most likely appears for image search queries.
• Video result: is a result based on a video embedded in that web page; appears most likely for video search queries.
• Exploration features: are used to help users expand and refine their initial search.

Going into more detail about this real anatomy of Google SERPs, we also find out what the main parts of the search engine page are called and what they look like. We have, therefore:

• Attribution: describes the source of a search result and appears for various types of search results (text, video, images); it includes various source identifiers, such as the site name, favicon and URL (which consists of two parts, domain and breadcrumb).Specifically, the visual attribution elements are:
  • Favicon, the small icon associated with the site.
  • Site name (not to be confused with page titles: the site name refers precisely to the entire site).
  • Visible URL of the page, displayed in a readable format. A visible URL has two parts: domain (the name chosen when setting up the Web site) and breadcrumbs (the path that shows the page’s location within the site hierarchy).

• • Text results: formerly known as “web result” or “normal blue link,” the guide says, is the classic result based on the textual content of the page indexed and ranked by the algorithms. It includes various visual elements-but, the Google document specifies, no text result includes all possible visual elements-such as:
    • Attribution, the information about the source of the web page.
    • Title link, the title of the search result shown in Google Search and other properties (News and Discover, for example), which links back to the web page.
    • Snippet, the description or summary part of the search result on Google Search and other properties.
    • Date when Google estimates that the web page was updated or published.
    • Sitelink or group of sitelinks, two or more links from the same domain or its variants grouped together under a text result. For example, the links could be other pages from that domain, headers or anchors within that page.

• Text result image: is the most relevant image on a given web page for a specific query; by clicking on it, the user lands on the web page that is embedding the image. It appears most likely in image search queries, and we can optimize for the image in a text result by following best practices related to SEO optimization for images.

• Rich attributes: are one or more rows of additional information on the web page, such as review stars and recipe information, and are usually fed by structured data provided by the page itself.

• • Image results: are based on an image embedded in a web page and appear more likely to appear for image search queries. Visual elements present include:
    • Attribution, which is the source information for the Web page that embeds the image.
    • Image thumbnail, which takes the user to the destination page.

• • Video results: are based on a video embedded in a web page and appear more likely to appear for video search queries. Visual elements present include:
    • Video thumbnail, which takes the user to the page where the video is embedded.
    • Title link for the video’s landing page.
    • Attribution, with the source information for the video’s landing page.
    • Upload date, as indicated in the relevant metadata.

• • Exploration functionality, or the feature also known as “ People also Ask,” which helps users explore more questions or searches related to their original search query. While we can’t control what is displayed here, Google says, it can be useful to pay attention to related search queries when thinking about topics you might write about for our site. They take the form of:
    • Related searches group, which reports precisely the searches related to the query made by other people; by tapping or clicking on a related search, the user is directed to another page of search results. These searches are automatically generated based on the initial query and other things people have searched for.

• • Related questions group, which are questions related to what the user initially searched for (also known as “People also ask”); when a user expands the question, it displays a featured snippet.

How Google shows search results

Google thus supports many interesting elements related to appearance in search and can provide a rich set of features for the page in search results “if it understands the content of the page” and if you use structured data profitably and efficiently, which serve precisely offer additional information to the page code.

In general, we distinguish at least 6 macrocategories of features, which populate the SERP in many ways:

• Normal blue links, shown with title links, URLs, and meta description snippets.

• Optimization, a refinement of normal or advanced results with different types of enhancements, including breadcrumbs, sitelink search boxes, company logos and more. Speaking of breadcrumbs (an English word meaning breadcrumb), in Web language they represent the path that indicates a page’s position in a site’s hierarchy: as in the fairy tale of Tom Thumb, the user can go back up, crumb by crumb, to the various levels and categories of the site, navigating completely along the path traced by individual breadcrumbs. Google Search’s system uses breadcrumb markup in the body of a web page “to rank information from the page in search results” and to adjust content in the context of the Google Search query, because users can potentially reach a page from “very different types of search queries.”
• Advanced result, a result that contains graphical elements, such as review stars, thumbnail images, or some type of visual enhancement. These specific features are triggered based on the type of content on the page and communicated with the structured data, and are especially common when publishing a recipe, news story, or information about events, movies, or books, which can also generate a main news carousel, recipe carousel, or event listing. These multimedia results offer various types of summary information, especially in the case of searches for books, recipes, or products: searching for “To Kill a Mockingbird,” for example, generates a page where you can find page previews, reviews, short plot and story descriptions, and related searches, and then styles, images, and other features such as breadcrumbs and review snippets. Also called “extended search results” are certain types of results that Google defines as “more interactive and advanced class,” which include popups with engaging experiences or other advanced features for interaction. This category of actions is made possible through structured data and takes the form of extended searches or other properties: the image on the page describes the types of content and functionality available. The clearest examples are queries for job listings, recipes, or events, which provide the user with more complete and useful information. We can see more examples in our article on the gallery of results shown in Google SERPs.

• Fact sheet item is a knowledge panel tab, which reports information from one or more pages, shown in an enhanced result with text, images, and links.

• Featured snippet is the snippet that presents an excerpt of the answer relevant to the user’s query.

• OneBox result is a direct response box from Google.

Instead, with this screenshot, Google summarizes what additional information various sites might include on the page to get these enriched results-the display of which, however, remains at the discretion of the algorithm, which evaluates “the type of search device, location, and whether or not Google believes the feature provides the best search experience for the user.” The information has not been updated since 2022, but today there is no longer such a clear summary, so we preferred to keep the screenshot.

What’s in Google’s SERPs today: list of features

And so, between Google Ads, People Also Ask, knowledge panels, top stories, and videos, the risk of getting lost (and missing links) is absolutely there: but what and how many features in Google SERPs may appear today, in 2024? From desktop we have counted about forty of them (but on closer inspection there are many more, because some have different forms), to which we must then add all the filters that are currently available in the form of tab buttons that change the display, and now let us try to describe their main features and the case histories that activate them.

1. Knowledge graph

The knowledge graph appears above the organic results or in the right sidebar from desktop, and often includes images, facts, maps, and related search topics. Typically, this SERP feature is shown for queries on certain topics, places, or people and displays information extracted from Google services (e.g., Maps) or external sources such as Wikipedia.

2. Knowledge panel

Knowledge panels, more precisely fact sheets, are automatically generated boxes that contain useful semantic data, such as images, facts, social media links, and related searches, which typically appear on the right side of desktop search results. The information comes from various sources on the Internet, including human-modified sources such as WikiData, data extracted from the Google index, and private data partnerships.

3. Knowledge card

Knowledge cards are part of the Knowledge Graph and are made from information from a variety of sources, from semantic data from human-modified sources (such as WikiData) to data extracted from Google’s index to private data partnerships. They typically appear at the top of the SERP in a desktop search and contain precise answers to questions (even implicit ones) submitted by users, as in the example “population of Rome.” They differ from direct answers by the presence of the “more information” button, which links to the source, and they also influence the knowledge panel (e.g., in the one on Rome, the comparison with the population of other European capitals appears, which is absent in the generic panel).

4. Local pack

The local pack is a feature that shows a map and a list of some local businesses as multimedia results (typically 3), which is triggered for queries interpreted as pertaining to nearby businesses or organizations with strong commercial intent. With this pack, Google indicates in SERPs the three businesses with physical locations (no e-Commerce, then) deemed most relevant to the keyword, whose reviews, address and opening hours are indicated, as well as average rating and reviews.

5. Sitelink

Sitelinks are simply extra links from a specific domain that allow users to find specific content beyond the home page of that same site. They typically appear for navigational or branded searches and are used to navigate directly between popular pages on that site; usually the sitelink search box includes four or six links (up to a maximum of 10). Compared to other features, they bring benefits to the site because they allow for higher CTRs from SERPs and get users to the page they are looking for faster.

For some time, Google has also been experimenting with “nested results,” basically doubling the presence of a site in the SERP through a second link to a different but equally relevant page for the query, which, however, appears in precisely nested position relative to the first one placed. Now this element no longer appears frequently.

Another form of sitelinks are multi-results related to queries that are answered in posts on forums et similia: in this case, Google lists several threads that deal with the topic and seem to be in topic with the query.

6. People Also Ask

The People Also Ask section can appear anywhere on a SERP (increasingly also in a position interspersed with organic results), usually for a search query that is a direct question; it contains related questions to help users explore a topic further, and clicking on a question expands the answer, which thus resembles a featured snippet.

The answer also includes a link to the source for the answer, and in addition, each click on the box will automatically generate additional questions that continue the exploration of the topic.

For some queries, the presence of multiple “People also asked” boxes is possible (e.g., for some time for [SEOZoom] there was a box in the above-the-fold position with specific questions about our software and another one at the bottom with more general searches about SEO).

7. Correlated searches
   

This feature often appears quite low in SERPs, usually for generic intents that Google tries to direct to more specific paths.

8. Featured Snippet

It is perhaps one of the most famous and frequent examples of additional functionality: it is a preview response to the user’s query that Google tracks among the pages collected in its index, highlighting within a box a short content extracted precisely from the selected page (identified with a link) and placed before the organic results (in “position zero,” as this feature is often called in Italian). In addition to a “classic” textual response, these snippets can also present numbered or bulleted lists or in table format.

This feature is triggered when Google wants to answer a question that is not in the basic Knowledge Graph (and is not of universal knowledge), and relies on what it considers the most likely and comprehensive answer. Featured snippets generally have higher CTRs than regular organic results.

9. Direct Answers

Direct and instant answers are precisely a quick response to a question posed in the query (either directly or implicitly) that Google provides without referring to a Web site, simply showing the information at the top of the SERP.

Google calls them OneBox, defining them as results that have an embedded answer or tool in the search results.

This function is activated when Google is certain of the answer to the question posed by the user, which precludes all other sites from getting traffic. Typically, direct answers involve “certain” information such as weather; statistics; mathematical functions; calculation of the number of days for specific dates; conversions (currency, weight, length etc.); time zones; definitions of vocabulary; age/height/employee or other verifiable data of a “famous” person; dates of popular events, such as conventions and festivals; display of current price and stock market summary for major stocks; translation of words or phrases; search for results of a sports game.

In addition, Google provides direct answers in the form of broad snippets or boxes for other queries as well, related to song lyrics, movie information, book information, tourist information, flight/hotel booking, job listings, all based on the structured data provided on the page.

10. Reviews

Reviews are a type of rich snippet: it is a review/rating data system, showing the average rating based on stars (out of a maximum of five) and review count, placed between the target URL and the snippet for various types of results, such as products, recipes, and other relevant items. As in the other cases, the schema markup for reviews must exist on the page to be eligible and enable this feature.

11. Images

Images packs are a block of images displayed on a horizontal row (or even multiple rows) that feature images that link to a Google Images search (and thus not to the sites from which the image itself came). Image packs can appear in any organic location, and recently, Google has begun grouping images within the knowledge panel for the recognized entity.

According to some estimates, nearly 23 percent of Google SERPs show images, and this figure continues to increase.

12. Video

The presence of videos in Google SERPs is also much more frequent, and they are usually (inevitably) videos uploaded to YouTube, shown in various positions and forms within the page.

For example, there may be a block of videos before the organic results, but also a video result that intersperses the links-with opportunities also to take advantage of the “key moments” feature if properly enabled on the page; depending on the query, then, a large video preview and other related results may also appear as a list.

13. Ads

Sponsored results from advertisers using Google Ads can be displayed at the top and bottom of SERPs.

Today, ads are also enriched, and can, for example, contain sitelinks to the site or additional functionality.

14. Commercial ads
    

In addition to standard text ads, Google also offers retailers the ability to create visual commercial ads for their products.

Positions at different points in the desktop SERP, typically showing the product name, price, retailer, and product rating.

15. Top Products

This feature is triggered for commercial searches and, unlike shopping ads, Google shows unadvertised products. In some cases, this “carousel” of products intersperses organic search results.

When you click on a product, more details about the product are displayed; in addition, Google shows reviews from third-party sites, prices from multiple retailers, top media insights, and reviews from multiple retailers.

16. Carousels

Carousels are a list of similar content of varying numbers and generally appear at the top of SERPs, offering quick answers to the search query. They usually present a list of images in the form of small tabs: clicking on the individual image launches the related query and the SERP updates accordingly. Media results of the same type can be hosted on the site in the first position in SERP (with indication through structured data), or automatically generated by Google Search by retrieving information from different sites in the search results.

Among the most frequent content that generates carousels in Google Search are images, videos, products for purchase, and news stories in the Google News Carousel. A form of box carousel also appears when Google determines that a search intent may assume a user predisposed to click on a piece of media content: we are talking about the lists of image or video thumbnails that always appear before the classic 10 blue links, featuring resource previews and information about the site that published the video.

On the other hand, when the intent is markedly transactional, Google generates a shopping carousel in which there are sponsored ads or previews of products that fall under Google Shopping; this box is typically located at the top of the SERP, but sometimes (in desktop browsing) it can also be found as a list of products on the right-hand side of the page.

17. Place Sites

It is a fairly recent feature, usually appearing for queries related in some way to tourism (search for restaurants, places to visit, and even “what to do at” queries): it first proposes a series of clickable cards that link to specific web pages (not necessarily placed in TOP10 nor proposed in order of relevance to the initial query, it seems), but by clicking on the “Other sites” button the user lands on a completely different SERP, consisting only of blue links, which should provide the refined answer to the original intent.

18. Product sites
    

It is a variation of the previous feature, which is triggered for queries of commercial or transactional intent. It displays a box with a few “index cards” of e-Commerce sites and gives the ability to open the results in a new SERP, dedicated specifically to answering the query and what Google believes is the user’s need.

19. Info about source
    

Another recent feature, it contains details about the source of a given web page, broken down into small summary tabs that provide information from other sites that mention precisely the “source.” It appears mostly for navigational queries, as in the example [SEOZoom]

20. Top Stories
    

When the query is about news or current events-or if there is related news anyway, even about not the latest trend-Google might show a section of top news media. The Top Stories section used to be intended only for AMP pages, but since last year it has been open to all sites that fall within Google News parameters.Typically, it presents a series of articles, shown in a block with a preview image.

For the “hottest” topics, there is also an additional section, called “Other News,” which reports on other articles and concludes with a button that links precisely to further insights, transferring the query (and the user) to Google News.

21. Latest news from
    

For some searches related to news sources in Google News (e.g., newspapers or agencies), Google may show a box in SERPs with 3 articles of interest recently published online, with scrolling capability.

22. X (former Twitter)
    

Google shows a carousel of Tweets (posts on the current X) for some specific queries-when searching for a personality/brand with an official profile, for example, or for topical issues.

The box can appear before organic results, but also in an interspersed position after a link and possibly other features.

23. Podcast

For very specific queries, such as [name + podcast ], Google prominently displays a carousel with typically 3 podcast results and ability to select additional episodes. Currently, the feature no longer appears to be present and only links to video results.

24. App

Frequent especially for mobile searches, this feature shows the apps available on the Store related to the query entered.

25. Product comparison
    

Currently, this feature no longer appears to be active, but until recently-as this Search Engine Journal article also noted-Google used to capture (and display) information on specific products for users who wanted comparisons, with indications of reviews, price, and additional details, as well as images of the items.

26. Job Listings
    

Google helps job seekers by aggregating vacancies and proposals from various sources on the Web and displaying them within SERPs for queries such as [jobs near me] or [jobs + location].

It is an extension of Google Jobs Search and, in fact, by clicking on the box we are transferred to this Google platform.

27. Job listing sites

Similarly to what happens with products and local results, job openings can also be “expanded” into another cleaned-up page by clicking on the box that appears in the first SERP along with the tabs of some results relevant to the query.

28. Academic papers

Powered by Google Scholar, this feature is not very common and shows freely available online resources obtained from academic journals.

29. Result search box

Sometimes, for navigational and branded queries Google allows an internal search within the placed site, with similar effect to searching with the advanced operator site:.

30. Find results about
    

It is a box that appears for some searches, even general searches, and allows you to refine your search on some of the most reliable and relevant directories to display according to Google. It is now mostly gone.

It also works for travel-related queries, such as flights or hotels, by transferring to specialized platform sites.

31. Google Flights

For queries related to flight booking, Google shows a special box that aggregates results from all airlines via feeds.

Clicking opens a small screen showing a list of travel options.

32. Flight sites
    

As seen for the previous cases, this is a box that groups a few “similar” sites offering airline ticket sales with the possibility of extending the search into a new SERP by clicking on the button in the middle.

33. Flight status
    

It is a function that allows you to monitor precisely the status of flights in real time.

It works both with generalist route searches (as in the case of “Rome-Milan”) and with more specific queries, such as direct flight number-which brings up a more detailed box with relevant information about the requested flight.

34. Google Hotel

For queries related to hotel booking, Google shows a special box that aggregates results from all hotel providers via paid feeds, which are shown in a divided section: on one side is the list of hotels (with thumbnail photos with average price, star rating and total reviews, and indication of services), and on the other side is the map with the location of the hotel and average price.

35. Main attractions
    

Also as part of Google Travel, for searches related to specific cities or places Google shows a box that takes you back to fact sheets on major attractions in the area (clicking on the tab lands you on the Travel platform), with a button that invites you to learn more about “other things to do” and tabs to filter your searches.

As the search engine itself explains, these results are sorted by popularity, based on the frequency of mentions on the Web and the proximity of the search location to the destination.

36. Recipe carousel
    

When Google detects a specific intent for the query (even if only partial) it can show a box with carousel of recipes, linking back to web pages positioned for the keyword and possibility to expand the search.

37. See results
    

This is not a very common feature and usually appears when Google is not 100 percent on the topic at hand or is pushing to drill down on a topic, placed on the right-hand side in close proximity to a knowledge panel (of which it is precisely a possible refinement of search intent). Most interestingly, clicking on these links does not produce exactly the same results as searching for the query.