SERP Features Unveiled: Maximizing Visibility in Today's Competitive Search Landscape

The competition for real estate space on search engines is high. As of May 2023, there were already 201,045,211 active websites online with this number rising rapidly. In fact, around 175 new websites are created every minute on average.

Coupled with over 3.5 billion daily searches, search engines like Google compete to provide fast and accurate results to help their audience find what they are looking for.

If you’re wondering how these results are presented, the answer lies in a multitude of search engine results page (SERP) features.

What are they, how do they look, and what purpose do they serve? Keep reading to get the answers to these questions!

What Are SERP Features?

Designed to enhance the online user’s search experience, Google’s SERP features are, in a sense, Google results on steroids. They are specifically tailored to an individual’s search query.

Their aim is to present them with the most relevant information by limiting the amount of searching and the number of clicks a user has to make to receive their intended result or answer to a query.

All this is achieved through Google’s algorithms, which study what the most relevant answer is and then present it to the user in an enhanced way.

Benefits of Appearing in SERP Features

There are many good reasons to aim for the covered Google SERP feature spots through solid content optimization. Just a few of the reasons behind this include to:

• Drive traffic to your website
• Gain greater visibility
• Lead to higher engagement
• Improve your click-through rate
• Promote your online authority
• Boost brand awareness
• A better understanding of user intent
• Enjoy more flexibility in adjusting your strategy
• Enhance the user experience

The 13 Most Important Google SERP Features

Having mentioned some of the benefits of being featured in a Google SERP feature, let’s explore what some of the most important features are by looking at both the organic and paid varieties.

Organic SERP Features

1. Featured snippets

When a Google user types in a query such as a question that needs to be answered, often, the answer that will appear will be in the form of a featured snippet. This is a box of text, with the answer highlighted, and it appears just underneath the promoted or paid advert space. It therefore occupies what is known as the “zero position” on Google.

Although it aims to answer a question directly and immediately, many of these searches have a lower click-through rate. However, businesses can turn this around as an advantage for their website by providing users with accurate and helpful answers. This can ultimately ensure that your website gets the necessary visibility while being positioned as an authority.

2. Video carousels

Even though video results appear less frequently, they do have a special spot in the SERP. Usually acquired from YouTube, in the past, they used to be around three but today, there’s a greater variety of these thumbnails, and users can see up to 10 video results for their search queries. There is the option to scroll through various video results at the top of the SERP.

Additionally, some videos that aren’t hosted by YouTube (such as a video on a business’s website) can also be pulled into the video carousel. However, you need to indicate to Google through schema markup that you have a video on your page that should be indexed. This requires specific information to be entered, including a video description, title, URL, video duration, etc.

3. Rich snippets

With rich snippets, you get more from a single site link than appears on regular organic search results. For example, apart from the meta title and description, users can also see information and links related to a company’s website or services, how many reviews they’ve acquired, etc. All this is aimed at helping users quickly navigate through a massive webpage instead of having to search through it.

4. Site links

Site links are links designed to help users navigate through extensive web pages. For example, a business can have a site link taking a user to a particular page on a website or to a particular section of the same website. The purpose of site links is to help users quickly and easily find what they are looking for when the search could have numerous potential results and involve more extensive searching.

5. People Also Ask boxes

Created as a way of being additionally helpful to users, People Also Ask (PAA) boxes are just what the name suggests: a collection of questions that are related to a user’s search term that helps anticipate any requests for information related to the same topic. When clicked upon to expand them, PAA boxes reveal a short answer to a query to help reduce time spent clicking and searching online.

6. Local packs

When a user carries out “near me” or location searches, they’re likely to see local results. These results usually feature businesses that are in close physical proximity to the user to help them locate what they are looking for—such as a product or a service. Local packs usually come in a pack of three local search results.

They are more dependent on an optimized Google My Business profile, good reviews, and accurate NAP (name, address, phone number) citations as opposed to high-quality backlinks.

Often, they are accompanied by the location on a map and images to help users make more informed decisions when choosing to frequent a local business or service provider.

7. **Knowledge Graph panels \ Another important organic Google search feature is the knowledge panel. This is a box that is displayed on the right-hand side of the SERP and features snippets of valuable information about famous people, companies, events, and more.

Unlike a featured snippet, which pulls data to answer a search query from one website, the knowledge panel data is pulled from the Google Knowledge Graph. This Graph gets its information from a wide variety of sources, including websites such as Wikipedia.

8. **Image packs \ Image packs are a series of images that Google pulls from its extensive database to help a user find visual information related to a search query. Google’s RankBrain algorithm usually determines that, in some cases, images can be more helpful to a search query than information presented as text. That’s why a search for cats, for example, will yield a series of images at the very top of the SERP with visuals that can convey an answer to a response in a way that differs from text or video.

9. Top stories

The top stories SERP feature are sourced from top and trending news stories from Google News-approved websites. These can be local, national, or international news stories, and they help users find trending topics and what reporting and coverage they are receiving from different sources online.

10. Job listings

Google also pulls job listings from various employers and career sites to display relevant information to search queries related to job searches. Using schema markup is a must in order to ensure that a business’s job posting is found and indexed by Google.

Users looking for jobs this way will be able to find information about job openings that includes details such as the hiring company and location, the website where the opening was originally posted, the length of time since posting, whether the job is full-time or part-time, and others.

In addition, it’s possible to filter data by category, title, location, date posted, full-time or part-time, industry, and company name. Users can also create bookmarks or use the alert function as an advanced option.

11. Google Flights

When Google detects that a user is looking to find or book a flight, the Flights block will appear in the SERP. As is standard practice, paid ads appear at the very top of the SERP, the Flights block appears next, and this is followed by the remaining organic results. The Flights block is interactive, and users can enter details such as date of departure and arrival, desired airport, destination, time, layovers, airlines, flight pricing, etc.

Paid SERP Features

1. Top and bottom advert slots

Most Google users are familiar with where the search engine positions adverts. These are at the top of the SERP and at the bottom of the SERP, before and after the first and last organic results, respectively. If there are Google Shopping results, ads will appear below these.

Previously known as AdWords, today they’re called Google Ads, and they look quite similar to organic results with blue links. However, an “Ad” or “Sponsored” label appears next to the URL. The appearance of Google Ads at the top or bottom of a SERP occurs when advertisers bid on certain keywords, and this works through the pay-per-click model.

2. Google Shopping

Formerly known as Google’s Product Search, this is a paid SERP feature that appears as a carousel at the top of the search results or the right-hand side of the SERP. This carousel features products related to a user’s entered keyword.

Common information within the carousel includes the product name, price, the website, ratings (if available), and any discounts that may be on offer. When a user clicks on one of these carousel ads, they are taken to the advertiser’s product landing page.

In addition to product listings, some advertisers have started utilizing innovative technology such as a cloud-based phone system to provide immediate customer support and inquiries directly from the search results page, enhancing user engagement and customer service experiences.

Conclusion

Google’s SERP features are an enhanced way to help users find what they are looking for quickly and with greater accuracy. For businesses to achieve these coveted spots is not always easy.

However, putting in the effort to maximize your business’s visibility online and build your authority in today’s competitive search landscape is worth it.

With a broad range of benefits, businesses can truly stand out from the crowd with optimized organic content and even through paid advertising. Whichever option you choose, or even if you choose a combination of both, always think of your users as you keep their search intent in mind when creating content or ads.