Navigating the Search landscape
The Search Landscape is constantly changing for SEO due to SERP Features. Position 1 is no longer what is used to be, meaning many SEOs face an increased challenge when competing for visibility.
We have mapped out all the different types of SERP features we have encountered, including how this impacts your results, and what you need to do to compete.
- What are SERP Features?
- SERP Features; Rich Snippets & Blocks
- SERP Features Glossary
- Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
- Answer Box Results (ABRs)
- App Downloads
- Breadcrumbs
- Discover More Places
- Events
- Explore Panels (Knowledge Panel Hybrids)
- FAQs
- Featured Snippets
- Find Results On
- Forum Multi-Results
- Google Flights
- Google Hotels
- How To
- Images
- Indented Results
- Jobs Search
- Knowledge Cards
- Knowledge Cards (Advanced): Sports
- Knowledge Graph Carousels
- Knowledge Panel – Brand
- Knowledge Panel – Other
- News Packs & News Carousels
- People Also Ask
- People Also Search For
- Places & Map Packs
- Podcasts
- Popular Products
- PPC ads
- Ratings & Reviews
- Recipes
- Refine By
- Related Searches
- Research Carousel
- Scholarly Articles
- Search Box
- See Results About (Knowledge Panel Links)
- Shopping
- Sign in (Voice Assistant)
- Sitelinks & Jump to’s
- SOS Alert
- Translate
- Twitter Box
- View in 3D
- Videos
Contents
- What are SERP Features?
- SERP Features; Rich Snippets & Blocks
- SERP Features Glossary
- Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
- Answer Box Results (ABRs)
- App Downloads
- Breadcrumbs
- Discover More Places
- Events
- Explore Panels (Knowledge Panel Hybrids)
- FAQs
- Featured Snippets
- Find Results On
- Forum Multi-Results
- Google Flights
- Google Hotels
- How To
- Images
- Indented Results
- Jobs Search
- Knowledge Cards
- Knowledge Cards (Advanced): Sports
- Knowledge Graph Carousels
- Knowledge Panel – Brand
- Knowledge Panel – Other
- News Packs & News Carousels
- People Also Ask
- People Also Search For
- Places & Map Packs
- Podcasts
- Popular Products
- PPC ads
- Ratings & Reviews
- Recipes
- Refine By
- Related Searches
- Research Carousel
- Scholarly Articles
- Search Box
- See Results About (Knowledge Panel Links)
- Shopping
- Sign in (Voice Assistant)
- Sitelinks & Jump to’s
- SOS Alert
- Translate
- Twitter Box
- View in 3D
- Videos
What are SERP Features?
SERP features describe additional elements used in Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). These are anything outside of the standard Organic or Paid listings, and can include anything from Sitelinks on a specific result, to Featured Snippets:
SERP Features; Rich Snippets & Blocks
SERP features can be divided into two camps;
Rich Snippets – things that enrich your existing organic listing,
and Blocks – boxes of content in the SERP that take up space in addition to and independent of the organic listings.
Although Blocks appear less frequently than Rich Snippets, there are a greater number of variations and they take up much more physical space in the SERP.
SERP Features Glossary
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
DISPLAY NAME IN STAT
“amp (news)”, “amp (organic)”, “amp (recipes)”
IMPACT ON ORGANIC/ PAID
2/10 affects speed of page so could increase CTR
VISIBLE ON
Mobile only
POWERED BY
On page optimisation
PAID?
No
Answer Box Results (ABRs)
This is the umbrella term given to results like ‘Featured Snippets‘ & ‘Knowledge Cards‘
App Downloads
Display name in Myposeo
“App Download Block”
Impact on Organic/Paid
4/10 Naturally only found on mobile
Visible on
Mobile only
Powered by
App Store
Paid?
No
Breadcrumbs
Display name in Myposeo
N/A
Impact on Organic/Paid
2/10
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
On Page Schema
Paid
No
Discover More Places
Display name in Myposeo
Discover more places block
Impact on Organic/Paid
3/10 Almost exclusively used as a secondary SERP feature further down the page
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Google Maps / Google My Business (GMB)
Paid
No
Events
Display name in Myposeo
N/A
Impact on Organic/Paid
8/10 – These events blocks take up a huge amount of space on both mobile & desktop. They also encourage clicks through to the ‘events portal’ which has an ever-increasing wealth of related information.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Events Schema sometimes, but often just pulled from the on-page content or a Facebook event
Paid
No
Explore Panels (Knowledge Panel Hybrids)
Display name in Myposeo
Usually tracked as Knowledge Panel or other SERP Feature
Impact on Organic/Paid
7/10 – With standard featured snippets a 6/10 these hybrid panels should take up even more space in the SERPs, but beware that they could contain knowledge graph links in there with you
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
On Page Optimisation
Paid
No
Credit
@dr_pete and @MordyOberstein (More info here from SearchEngineLand)
FAQs
Display name in Myposeo
RS FAQ
Impact on Organic/Paid
4/10
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Schema Markup
Paid
No
Featured Snippets
Display name in Myposeo
Featured Snippets blocks
Impact on Organic/Paid
6/10 Answer Boxes improve CTR, on average they secure a 32.3% CTR
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
On Page Optimisation, can use question & answer schema but not a requirement
Paid
No
Find Results On
Display name in Myposeo
TBC
Impact on Organic/Paid
TBC
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Google chooses among the most trusted and relevant directories to display
Paid
No
Google Flights
Display name in Myposeo
Flights block
Impact on Organic/Paid
8/10 easy to use tool that aggregates all flight companies via paid feeds
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Paid Feed
Paid
Yes
Google Hotels
Images
Images 1 - Image Rich Snippet (single)
Display name in Myposeo
RS Images
Impact on Organic/Paid
4/10 – make your listing stand out
Visible on
Mainly Mobile, Sometimes Desktop
Powered by
On Page Optimisation
Paid
No
Images 2 – Image Carousel
Display name in Myposeo
RS Images
Impact on Organic/Paid
4/10
Visible on
Mainly Mobile, Sometimes Desktop
Powered by
On Page Optimisation
Paid
No
Images 3 – Image Search Block
Display name in Myposeo
Images blocks
Impact on Organic/Paid
1/10
Visible on
Desktop
Powered by
Image Search
Paid
No
Images 4 – Multi Image Rich Snippet
Display name in Myposeo
Image rich snippet
Impact on Organic/Paid
7/10 – if all your competitors have this & you don’t, you’re going to have a bad time
Visible on
Desktop & Mobile (no carousel functionality)
Powered by
No consistent schema used across competitor sites. No rich results triggered in Google test. Suspected that these multiple category images must be of a particular size to be eligible for this rich snippet.
Paid
No
Credit
New Look’s Sam Pennington @sampenno_mufc
Indented Results
Display name in Myposeo
None
Impact on Organic/Paid
8/10 – Take up that space!
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Paid
No
Credit
Jobs Search
Display name in Myposeo
Jobs blocks
Impact on Organic/Paid
9/10 – The jobs search feature has really impacted the jobs & recruitment sector, with everybody trying to be the 1st referrer (yellow underline) for the job within the feature, as other referrers (red underline) get no visibility in the SERP.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Schema Markup
Paid
No
Knowledge Cards
Display name in Myposeo
Knowledge card block
Impact on Organic/Paid
10/10 – These pure answer intent Knowledge Cards usually mean a 0% CTR for any sites listed below
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Google’s Knowledge Graph
Paid
No
Knowledge Cards (Advanced): Sports
Display name in Myposeo
Knowledge card block
Impact on Organic/Paid
10/10 – These pure answer intent Knowledge Cards usually mean a 0% CTR for any sites listed below.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Google’s Knowledge Graph
Paid
No
Knowledge Graph Carousels
Display name in Myposeo
TBC
Impact on Organic/Paid
9/10 – Can lead to further research if query intent is not Pure Answer or Visual.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Google’s Knowledge Graph, Google My Business
Paid
No
Knowledge Panel – Brand
Brands can have one of the following Knowledge Panels, a combined version of both, or even the two different versions appearing above one another on Branded queries:
Knowledge Panel – Brand: Google My Business
Display name in Myposeo
Knowledge Graph block
Impact on Organic/Paid
7/10 – Takes up a lot of real estate on both mobile & desktop. Usually contains reviews which could influence CTR.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Google Maps / Google My Business (GMB)
Paid
No
Knowledge Panel – Brand: Google Knowledge Graph
Display name in Myposeo
Display name in Myposeo
Impact on Organic/Paid
5/10 – Takes up a lot of real estate on both mobile & desktop. Doesn’t usually contain any consumer-focused information (e.g. reviews)
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Google’s Knowledge Graph / Wikipedia / Wikidata
Paid
No
Knowledge Panel – Other
Display name in Myposeo
Knowledge Graph block
Impact on Organic/Paid
7/10 – Takes up a lot of real estate on both mobile & desktop. Can contain consumer-focused information (e.g. reviews) which could influence CTR.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Google’s Knowledge Graph / Wikipedia / 3rd party sites
Paid
No
News Packs & News Carousels
Display name in Myposeo
News blocks
Impact on Organic/Paid
7/10 – News SERP features tend to make the SERPs very busy, you may struggle to get anyone to click past the first few results, but CTR for those AMP pages in particular should be high.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
On Page Optimisation / Google Publisher Center
Paid
No
People Also Ask
Display name in Myposeo
PAA block
Impact on Organic/Paid
4/10 – Very common. A great way to gain even more visibility within a SERP as these additional questions can be less competitive to gain than the query they’re appearing on.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
On Page Optimisation / Schema
Paid
No
People Also Search For
People Also Search For – PAA Style
Display name in Myposeo
PASF block
Impact on Organic/Paid
4/10 – Not very common but more visually impact-ful than your standard PAA. These are an amalgamation of PAA’s & Related searches. Only on mobile so far.
Visible on
Mobile Only
Powered by
On Page Optimisation & Knowledge Graph
Paid
No
People Also Search For – Individual Listing Box
Display name in Myposeo
NA – doesn’t track (only appears once user returns to the SERP after bouncing on that page)
Impact on Organic/Paid
3/10 – Can encourage more search variation before moving down the page – important to track these related terms.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Google Knowledge Graph
Paid
No
Places & Map Packs
Display name in Myposeo
Maps blocks
Impact on Organic/Paid
6/10 – very impact-ful on mobile and voice search. Desktop searches could result in more research behaviour. Users are likely to click through to the GMB listings and then potentially through to location websites. A top 10 style (e.g. TimeOut) organic listing may get some visibility after the map pack.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Google Maps / Google My Business (GMB)
Paid
No
Podcasts
Old format
Display name in Myposeo
“Podcasts block”
Impact on Organic/Paid
7/10 – If the intent of the user is to find the podcast, having these surface within the SERPs will mean any results lower down the page are unlikely to get any visibility.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Schema / Podcast feed
Paid?
No
New format
Display name in Myposeo
“Podcasts block”
Impact on Organic/Paid
7/10 – If the intent of the user is to find the podcast, having these surface within the SERPs will mean any results lower down the page are unlikely to get any visibility.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Schema / Podcast feed
Paid?
No
Popular Products
PPC ads
Okay, not technically a ‘SERP Feature’ – but something we should all be considering when looking at the competitiveness of individual SERPs.
Display name in Myposeo
“PPC ad” – Myposeo also measures PPC ad placement ans styles like ‘shopping’ separately!
Impact on Organic/Paid
6/10 – Paid listings almost always get pride of place at the top of the SERPs – these listings can stop users even getting to organic results. Ads on mobile are now even more subtle, dropping the green ‘Ad’ marker for a less obvious black one.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
PPC Advertising
Paid
Yes
Ratings & Reviews
Display name in Myposeo
RS Reviews
Impact on Organic/Paid
4/10 – Although these elements don’t take up much space within the SERP – they are a key differentiator between competitors.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Google My Business &/or Schema Markup
Paid
No (Although often companies will pay a company like Feefo or Trustpilot to house reviews)
Refine By
Display name in Myposeo
Refine by block
Impact on Organic/Paid
2/10
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Google Knowledge Graph
Paid
No
Related Searches
Display name in Myposeo
Related Search block
Impact on Organic/Paid
2/10 – These features often appear quite low down in the SERPs and are unlikely to appear on more specific long-tail Transactional queries.
Paid
No
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Google Knowledge Graph
Related Searches & Featured Snippet Combo
Display name in Myposeo
would be grouped under either “Related Search block” or “Featured Snippet”
Impact on Organic/Paid
4/10 –Appearing before your featured snippet, these rude little links could steal your clicks even though they look like they should go to your site
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Google Knowledge Graph
Paid
No
Research Carousel
Display name in Myposeo
TBC
Impact on Organic/Paid
2/10 – Often appear low down the page, but mostly appear alongside other SERP features e.g. Related Searches, Refine By, Discover More Places, etc.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
On Page Optimisation
Paid
No
Scholarly Articles
Display name in Myposeo
TBC
Impact on Organic/Paid
3/10 – Powered by Google Scholar, these are usually freely available online resources that are more citation-worthy than simply a website.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Google Scholar
Paid
No
Search Box
Display name in Myposeo
TBC
Impact on Organic/Paid
1/10 – Produces a site: search for the domain listed. Query intent will almost always be Brand so impact on the website means the user searches with query parameters before clicking through. These should appear in GSC (without colon) if this happens often for the same terms.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Google Search & Structured Data
Paid
No
See Results About (Knowledge Panel Links)
Display name in Myposeo
“See Results About block”
Impact on Organic/Paid:
2/10 – These features aren’t very common but tend to appear when Google isn’t 100% on the topic in question. Most interestingly, is that clicking through these links doesn’t take you to the exact same results as you would get searching the query.
Visible on
Desktop (Top Right)
Powered by
Knowledge Graph
Paid
No
Shopping
Display name in Myposeo
Shopping
Impact on Organic/Paid
7/10 – Paid listings always get pride of place at the top of the SERPs and shopping ads are no exception. Colourful and full of information – these listings can stop users even getting to organic results, especially as they add more tabs and filter options.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
PPC
Paid
Yes
Sign in (Voice Assistant)
Display name in Myposeo
TBC
Impact on Organic/Paid
6/10 – Linked to the move into Google voice search, this feature will appear when you ask Google questions about your own data e.g. calendar reminders, bills, etc.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
User Google Account
User Google Account
No
Sitelinks & Jump to’s
Display name in Myposeo
RS Sitelinks
Impact on Organic/Paid
5/10 – Sitelinks can help a brand listing take up more space on the page, whereas ‘jump to’ links are pulled from anchor links on the page. These help users find specific information faster on long-form content. This could also help improve bounce &/or conversion rates.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
On Page Optimisation: links, layout, tables, etc.
Paid
No
SOS Alert
Display name in Myposeo
TBC
Impact on Organic/Paid
1/10 – Highly specific results – only highest authority news sites and public agencies rank.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Partnerships with organisations and government agencies
Paid
No
Translate
Display name in Myposeo
RS Translate
Impact on Organic/Paid
?/10 – Ideally handled by hreflang ‘Translate’ views the page through Google Translate subdomain, see: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ta&u=https://www.maalaimalar.com/News/State&prev=search – Unsure as to whether this affects traffic attribution (theoretically this isn’t a click to your domain?)
Visible on:
Desktop Only
Powered by
Google Translate
Paid
No
Twitter Box
Display name in Myposeo
RS Twitter
Impact on Organic/Paid
1/10 – unlikely to affect CTR or branded queries unless tweeting something particularly eyecatching.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Paid
No
View in 3D
Display name in Myposeo
TBC
Impact on Organic/Paid
2/10 – Not hugely eye catching yet, but could be a huge part of eCommerce in 2020!
Visible on
Mobile only
Powered by
See: 3D Model Schema and download the 3D file here it also has an awesome augmented reality function for size!
Paid
No
Credit
The awesome John Campbell @ Rabbit&Pork
Videos
Video Answers
Display name in Myposeo
“Featured Snippet” Type: “Video”
Impact on Organic/Paid
9/10 – Answer videos will mean the likelihood of clicking through to a website is lower if the video clip answers their query. Video carousels below, however have very little impact.
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Youtube
Paid
No
Video Carousels
Display name in Myposeo
Video blocks
Impact on Organic/Paid
2/10
Visible on
Mobile & Desktop
Powered by
Youtube
Paid
No
In this video
Display name in Myposeo
Videos blocks
Impact on Organic/Paid
2/10
Visible on
Mobile
Powered by
Youtube
Paid
No
