Content
- What SERP features does the Searchmetrics Suite analyze?
- How do I work with the SERP feature section?
The abbreviation SERP (also SERPS) stands for Search Engine Result Page. This is a list of results returned by the search engine in response to a query for a keyword. The list usually includes articles with relevant keywords in the titles, descriptions, or attached links. They attract a lot of clicks because they are visually different from other results and thus get more attention.
In addition to these traditional organic SERPs, most searches show a number of other SERP features. The Searchmetrics Suite breaks down the percentage of Visibility Distribution across various generic SERP features.
Which SERP features analyzes the Searchmetrics Suite
The following SERP features are analyzed:
- Ads
- AMP
- Images
- Direct Answer
- Events
- Featured Snippet
- Flights
- Google Destinations
- Google Jobs
- Google Music
- Knowledge Panel
- Maps
- Mobile Apps
- News
- Product Listing Ad
- Site Links
- Related Questions
- Video Carousel
- Videos
- Scholarly Publication
1. Ads: Ads are labeled as "Advertisement" and can be obtained, for example, by purchasing Google Ads. In the Searchmetrics Suite they are divided into top and bottom. This only describes a position of the display.
2. AMP: "Accelerated Mobile Pages" are marked with a lightning sign in the search results. These are smartphone-optimized pages that are loading faster due to their narrow code and are easier to use than "regular" pages. You can find more information about AMPs on Google Search guidelines page.
3. Images: When you enter a search term, a selection of images is displayed. The chance to rank among images in the SERPs is achieved by optimizing the images used on the website. First of all, it is important to make sure that the file format and size are correct, and that the correct file name is used. In addition, title attributes, alt text, and text in the close proximity to the image are also decisive ranking factors.
4. Direct Answer: Searching for a specific question often gives a direct answer in the box. This allows users to respond quickly without clicking on the results.
5. Events (3pack): When searching for event types or specific events, there is a SERP feature from Google that suggests 3 upcoming events. Within this SERP feature, you can filter by specific dates (see screenshot).
6. Featured Snippet: As the name suggests, a featured snippet is a highlighted search result. It displaces regular search results from the top and displays paragraphs, lists or tables in a so-called response box. These are also read out, when voice search is used. Google tries to respond quickly to questions that are easy to answer. Here, Google also chooses where the featured snippet is displayed. However, it can be helpful to summarize the content (e.g. in the form of lists).
7. Flights: The Google Flights integration is especially important for comparison sites of trips and flights. Google searches various comparison portals for connections and prices to the most diverse destinations and compiles the most important data in a list.
8. Google Destinations: The Google Destinations integration is also part of this. It summarizes the complete travel segment (Hotel Finder, flight search, Google Trips or Google Travel) and lists all possible information regarding the input that exists in connection with a trip.
9. Google Jobs: This is especially relevant for publishers in the field of job advertising. When looking for a specific job, Google looks for suitable job advertisements on various websites and lists them in the box.
10. Google Music: For music streaming providers this Google integration could be interesting. When searching for a specific artist, album or song, track lists are displayed and possible platforms for listening are suggested.
11. Knowledge Panel: Key points and data are displayed with the most important information for the entered keyword (mainly for cities, people, weather, etc.).
12. Maps: The search for location is often followed by a direct map integration into the search results.
13. Mobile Apps: When searching for a keyword on a mobile phone, Google collects results from Google Play (for Android users) or the App Store (for Apple users). It then displays the top 6 apps that Google considers relevant in relation to the keyword entered.
14. News: The SERP feature "News" is filled with results from Google News. This means that publishers have to be logged into Google News in order to be listed on the news listing.
15. Product Listing Ad: The Product Listing Ads (PLA) are particularly relevant in e-commerce. Besides Google Ads, Google also allows to post its products as PLA. When you search for a product, a list of websites offering that product appears. They make a quick comparison easier for the user.
16. Site Links: Site links allow the user to navigate the site faster. The owner cannot determine whether the site links are displayed and which ones are displayed or not. Google decides this by itself and only shows it if it is considered to be helpful for the user. You should always make sure that the anchor texts and alt texts for all internal links are as compact and informative as possible.
17. Twitter: Searching for a currently relevant keyword sometimes shows a Twitter carousel in the search results. It displays the most relevant trending tweets for that keyword.
18. Related Questions: If questions are entered in the search bar, users receive suggestions for further "related" questions. This makes it easier to search again if the first search did not lead to the desired results. Therefore, it makes sense to optimize your content for questions.
19. Video carousel: A selection of different videos for a specific keyword appears here. While the user is hovering over it, a small preview is already running. Google combines videos that were previously ranked in the top 100 results into a carousel.
20. Videos: Besides the organic search result, video integration also appears.
21. Scholarly articles (Google Scholar): When publishing scientific articles, it can be an advantage to be included in the listing, as it is the first result that appears and thus creates trust and credibility with the user.
How do I work with the SERP feature section?
Search Experience
On the Overview page you can display the percentage distribution of the SERP features for the entire relevant market and for your personal project. From the example below we can conclude that the image integration covers the market with 67%. Moreover, Ads and PLA appear relatively few compared to the market.
The bar graph shows the distribution of the individual SERP features in comparison to the organic competitors and benchmarks.
In addition, the table below provides a breakdown of the exact SERP feature distribution for the project keywords in comparison to the competitors.
Example: the first line in the table is your project, the values listed below are the distributions among competitors. The first column shows the total number (and proportion) of project keywords to which at least one SERP feature is assigned. The example has SERP feature integration for 226 keywords (56.9%), with the next competitor having integration with 216 keywords from your project.
This table allows you to have a quick overview. The green cells show which competitors are most represented by the corresponding SERP feature (the red cells show the least represented ones).
Each SERP feature can be analyzed more thoroughly on the Details page. All project keywords are checked for the integration of the selected SERP feature. Relevant URLs are shown, including Traffic Index, CPC, and search volume.
| In addition, the SERP feature integrations of individual keywords are displayed directly in the Organic Rankings. The symbols on a blue background provide information about the SERP features that are currently ranking your URLs for keywords. Gray symbols indicate which SERP feature integrations are common to the keywords and are used by competitors. |
Research Cloud
The SERP feature section in the Research Cloud can provide information about which SERP features might be relevant in the market so that they can be ranked alongside them.
The bottom part of the World Rankings page provides an overview of the SERPs by country. Once a country is selected above, country-specific information for the SERP features is displayed on the page. The page provides information about which SERP features have gained or lost the most in the trend, and shows an overview of the distribution of SERP features in the country, as well as the historical development of individual SERP features. Each KPI is divided for desktop and for mobile.
The Domain Overview shows a comparison of SERP features based on the market specifics. Similar to the overview page in the Search Experience, this page shows the distribution of SERP features of the entered domain in comparison to the overall market distribution.
The bar chart below shows the SERP competitors for the selected SERP feature (marked in yellow).
Historical data for individual SERP features are also shown in the line chart for the analyzed domain. Tip: In this context, if there are strong fluctuations, it often makes sense to also display the Google updates so that you could find possible connections to the changes.
A detailed analysis of each SERP feature is shown in the Domain Details. It displays a detailed list of keywords for which the selected domain ranks for the selected SERP feature. It also displays the traffic generated by the feature, as well as the search volume and CPC.
More questions?
SERP Features: 19 Questions and Answers
Have also a look at our Workflow for market analysis and keyword research based on SERP Features!