Regular Googler? Chances are you’ll have seen a fair few changes to search engine results pages (SERPs) over the years. In the early days, Google would serve-up a list of blue hyperlinks, favouring those that answered your query in the most relevant and authoritative way. Now its SERPs are a lot more sophisticated.

Let’s take a look into the different types of SERP features and how they can be used to your advantage, as well as how to protect your content from being swallowed whole...

SERP features are any response in a search engine results page that sits outside of the traditional ranked organic text results. They typically show when Google has a good understanding of what you’re looking for.

What is position O?

Position 0 was a term coined to represent the additional opportunity to rank for SERP features that appear above the organic listings. As traditional results are ranked 1-100+, with everyone after the top spot, a SERP feature above position 1 presented an additional opportunity to rank.

This all changed when Google announced that, in an effort to ‘declutter’ the results, it will no longer repeat a listing that’s elevated into the featured snippet position. As a featured snippet that appears at the top of a SERP can now be considered position 1, it’s even more important to optimise for them.

Types of SERP Feature

The term ‘SERP feature’ is very broad. It covers many different types of results, with more being introduced all the time. Each SERP feature has been designed and tested by Google to answer a specific type of intent, and they can be broadly categorized into four areas:

Rich snippets are additional links and information included in an organic listing, providing extra information about a business or entity. Crucially, these can have a big impact on click-through rate and have also been shown to boost conversion rate in some cases. Google uses structured data (e.g. Schema.org markup) to decide which links and information to show as rich snippets, making them easy to control. Common rich snippets include:

• Site links   

These are hyperlinks to other relevant pages within the same website, like category pages, hero products, contact details, and store locators.

Most likely to appear for: brand searches, though increasingly for non-brand too

• Internal search 

A search bar can also appear in branded searches, allowing users to use the internal site search and be taken directly to an internal search results page for that website

Most likely to appear for: brand searches

• Reviews and ratings

Google will pull ratings, and occasionally reviews, into a search result where the page has the correct Schema.org mark-up

Most likely to appear for: product searches

• Price and availability

For product-specific searches, Google can pull the current price shown on a product page directly into the SERP listing using schema.org mark-up. Google can also show whether the product is out of stock – an important snippet to optimise for if you want to reduce bounce rate.

Most likely to appear for: product searches

• FAQs

Like the ‘People also ask’ box, FAQ rich snippets anticipate a searcher’s related questions and expand to show answers pulled from your webpages. The obvious benefit here is that you have complete control of the answers it shows.

Most likely to appear for: branded informational searches

• Recipe

If you want to improve the click-through rate to a recipe page, you may want to give people a taste of how the dish is made. Recipe rich snippets can include additional information like preparation time, calories and imagery.

Most likely to appear for: recipe searches

• Video

When the relevant result is a video on YouTube or elsewhere, it may include a thumbnail preview.

Most likely to appear for: searches where Google has seen that people prefer video results, including some how-tos and trending videos.

Featured snippets are information blocks that will often show above the organic results. They aim to satisfy a user’s intent directly in the SERPs and are generally pulled straight from a webpage. Common featured snippet formats include:

• Paragraph (text) snippet

Google often pulls a relevant paragraph from a page to directly answer a query that has a single, clear response. It’s most likely to pull content from a webpage when a commonly-asked question sits in the title, followed by a clear and concise answer.

Most likely to appear for: ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘when’ questions

• Numbered snippet

These snippets usually appear when a user is looking for a list of steps on how to do something or a ranked list of items. These are taken from sites that have marked up numbered lists with the relevant HTML code.

Most likely to appear for: recipes, ‘how to…?’, ‘how do I…?’, ‘top ten...’

• Bulleted snippet

Bulleted lists appear when a user is looking for less structured information. These are taken from sites that have marked up bulleted lists with the relevant HTML code.

Most likely to appear for: ‘best of’ lists, unranked items, feature lists

• Table snippet 

Google will pull tables from a webpage to display relationships between values. They’re often used for comparing products (e.g. the specifications of digital cameras) – ideal for specialist retailers. These rely on having the relevant HTML markup for tables.

Most likely to appear for: lists, pricing, rates, data e.g. nutritional information

• FAQ

Frequently-asked questions and answers can be pulled into featured snippets when relevant content is marked up with FAQ Page Schema.org markup, so make sure they work as standalone copy.

Most likely to appear for: branded questions

• Video

Google can pull relevant videos into feature snippets and, using closed captions, play this at the point that it answers the user’s query.

Most likely to appear for: a wide range of informational searches e.g. tutorials and how-tos, news and reviews

• Q&A

These are most often pulled from sites with lots of user-generated content (UGC), answering common questions that have multiple answers. This can include questions about specific products; answered by previous purchasers.

Most likely to appear for: product-related and ‘advice’ questions

• Recipe

Recipe snippets feature a wide range of structured elements including ingredients, method, cooking time, nutritional information, etc. The highly structured nature of recipe content makes it perfect for structured data; so much so that Google often uses recipe featured snippets to explain the feature or the application of Schema.org mark-up.

Most likely to appear for: ‘recipe for...’ and specific questions about calories and cooking time

Google’s Knowledge Graph is a huge database holding millions of datapoints around search terms (location, people, businesses, events etc.) and the relationships between them.

The database is fed by a number of information sources including Wikipedia, Freebase, Lexico, and LyricFind. It also uses information taken directly from relevant or official websites, like Local Business and Organisation Schema. Data is pulled into the Knowledge Graph in image or text form, and you may come across details like:

• Businesses (branch or store)

• Organisations

• Definitions

• Recipes

• People​

Google will also enrich its primary search results by pulling in results from its other engines – including video, images, and maps. Not strictly featured snippets, rich snippets or Knowledge Graph results, the below features sit within the main SERP and may appear at the top, bottom or in the middle.

• Video pack

This refers to a set of video results that can’t be played in the SERP, but link to the video location on YouTube or elsewhere.

Most likely to appear: when Google’s noticed that people prefer video results. This may include how-tos and trending videos

• Image pack

If a keyword has strong search volume in Google image search, chances are images will be pulled into the universal result too.

Most likely to appear for: informational searches where an image is needed to illustrate a point clearly or answer a query more directly than text could (e.g ‘what does a manatee look like?’)

• Local pack

If there‘s navigational intent behind a keyword or a type of business is mentioned but it isn’t specific, a stack of local listings may appear with the Google map interface.

Most likely to appear for: generic navigational searches and searches for business types

People Also Ask

Just in case the current SERP and any featured snippet haven't satisfied a user’s intent, Google’s People Also Ask snippet offers popular questions related to the query. Each question is expandable and pulls a featured snippet from that result – kind of like a SERP within a SERP.

This is a crafty move by Google that’s likely to play a huge role in shrinking the total classic results within a SERP – but more on this later…

It’s easy to see how ‘richer’ results (that answer a query directly in the SERPs) provide a better user experience. People can find answers faster, without the need to review web pages to decide whether the information can be trusted.

Diversification of SERP formats and feature also creates opportunities beyond conventional search metrics. There is clearly value for brands and marketers in targeting SERP features. How do we approach them?

Driving clicks

Now at this stage, you might be thinking, “questions answered directly in SERPs? There goes my organic traffic!” And you’re right – some have reason for concern...

SERP features that aim to be the last step in a user’s journey could spell bad news for your traffic figures and have caused fewer people to click through to the site.

The bad news

The real trouble comes when a question can be fully answered in a featured snippet. Take the example of CelebrityNetWorth.com. Launched in 2008, the sole purpose of this website was to provide a database detailing how much celebrities are worth. The business thrived for a long time; boasting high volumes of organic traffic and a healthy income from ad revenue.

But when Google began showing its entire database of 25,000 celebrities in featured snippets in 2016, the site’s traffic plummeted, advertisers pulled out and the company was forced to downsize significantly.

Cases like this have led to the controversy around featured snippets – with many arguing that Google is essentially pinching websites’ content and traffic.

The good newsCelebrityNetWorth.com is an extreme example – it saw a huge drop in search traffic because it’s built around a very specific singular need. But for most websites, featured snippet visibility could bring you additional clicks. 

Increased brand awareness

Featured snippets are a great way to increase your visibility and boost awareness of your brand. Let’s say you currently rank in position four but Google’s also used your content to populate a snippet in position zero. If the featured snippet goes some way to satisfy the user’s intent, it’s very likely you’ll take clicks from whoever ranks in position one.

For some sites, a prime spot in the SERPs can also be valuable with no click. Presenting your brand as an expert and answering a direct question helps build authority and may make it a more obvious choice to revisit later – establishing your place on the consideration shortlist.

Voice search

A large percentage of current voice search results are the same as those shown as featured snippets. Why? Well-optimised content should be suitable for each result type, consisting of around 50 words and a concise answer – this works as well for voice search as it does for featured snippets.

Google Home or Siri attributing information to your brand is a powerful way to grow brand awareness and trust and Google will send the relevant URL to the user’s device to read in more detail later. Read our voice search guide to find out more..

Intent

SERP features are hugely valuable to brands and marketers. They offer a glimpse into how people that search for a keyword have been engaging with the SERP and the type of content they’re looking for. As mentioned in this guide to visual search, Google constantly updates the types of results it shows based on how people interact with them.

If Google notices a lot of people switching to image search from universal search for ‘interior design ideas’, for example, they’ll cut out this step in the journey by including image feature snippets in the universal results.

By looking at the Google’s chosen SERP features for a query, you can understand which content formats and types a searcher is interested in and use these insights to shape your own content to meet audience needs. This can inform the breadth and depth, how much focus we put on visual elements, whether to present information in lists and how to structure sub-headings and topics.

How to monitor SERP features

Most rank trackers now include information on which SERP features are showing for specific keywords, and where applicable who is ranking. Some tools also include a ranking for traditional SERPs, and a ranking for all SERPs shown. This helps you understand whether your website is really at the top of page one or the first result below a competitor’s nicely-optimised featured snippet.

Tracking click-through rate for specific terms in Google Search Console may also help to highlight search terms where SERP features are eroding traffic and where optimisation for these might be needed.

How to optimise for SERP features

Schema

Schema.org structured data mark-up may help your content show for certain types of result, and in some cases it’s essential. This mark-up helps search engines understand information on a web page in terms of entities and properties (for example, the price and ratings of a product).

Content format

The right formatting is important for SERPs. Particularly in the case of featured snippets, Google needs to understand how relevant content is to a user’s question. The most obvious way to do this is to ask the question in a heading and follow it with the answer, a list or a table.

The answer should be written so it can stand alone without the context of the rest of the page. Try reading the content aloud to check it would make sense as a voice search result.

Further data from Semrush suggests that for web content to enjoy rich snippet status, the likelihood is improved for content with the following features:

• HTTPS

• 1,100+ word count

• Schema mark up

• 14 headlines

• 8 images with ALT tags

Trends in SERPs

Images and video dominated the UK search results for the latter half of 2021. This trend is likely to continue in 2022, with images playing a greater role.

The result types in the UK from December 2021 show Site Links and Images are more prevalent on desktop search while Related Questions, AMP and Ads feature more heavily on Mobile.

According to research by SEMRush, 19% of SERPs have rich snippets with 7% of these being double stacked. A mobile screen is 50% or more likely to be covered with a rich snippet when performing searches on Google.