SERP Features Explained

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What does SERP stand for? 

SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page. When you make a search on Google and hit enter, it displays the SERP. 

What are SERP features?

There’s two key elements which make up a search results page and these are Organic listings and Paid listings. SERP features are everything but these two. It’s important to note that they only apply to Organic listings therefore, Ad extensions are not classed as a SERP feature. 

Different Elements to SERP Features:

There’s a range of SERP features but some will be more important for your website depending on the context of it. 

If your website is heavily focused on content, Featured Snippets would be a priority. Google have also released an article in the last couple of weeks and have renamed this “Passage Indexing” which I wanted to mention to prevent any confusion. 

Featured Snippets (Passage Indexing):

Do you ever Google something and you no longer have to click a link to find the answer, Google simply populates the SERP with the answer. Not only this, but if you can’t find the answer you’re looking for, Google will show an endless list of questions & answers for you to flick through without even landing on a website. So, why is this so important for content based websites?

It’s an amazing opportunity to boost your content to the very top of Google and the key aspect for this is brand awareness. If you undergo a Featured Snippet project on all content pages, you may see your Organic traffic drop – for the obvious reason that people are not clicking through to your website, they are finding the information they need already. As people will not be clicking on your page, it’s important to measure impressions of pages via Google Search Console. 

If your website is designed to drive footfall to specific locations then the Local Pack would be a priority for this. 

Local Pack:

The local pack will appear for users searching for a specific location or details regarding a specific business such as “Wilko opening hours”. The local pack SERP is linked up with Google My Business so you need to make sure this is created and optimised properly. A local pack will display a range of things to inform users such as: 

• A map 
• Opening hours 
• Website links 
• Contact Information 
• Additional business services (such as parking available on-site) 
• Images
• Q&A’s

An example of a Local Pack SERP Feature:

Video Carousels: 

Video carousels are typically pulled from YouTube. This used to be three static videos, but it now allows you to scroll to see further related videos – making it easier for companies putting out videos to rank. 

The thing with video carousels is that it’s an uncommon SERP feature which shows up as you have to search for a specific video. Searching “How to’s” in general will unlikely bring up a video. As Google would rather try and answer the question through a Featured Snippet. However, when they do appear, they take up a lot of the first page in prime position. If you post a lot of video content, it’s absolutely worth exploiting this SERP feature. 

FAQ Snippets: 

Let’s steer away from niches for a moment. Afterall, not everyone creates tons of video and not everyone is a purely local business however everyone has Frequently Asked Questions. 

When you search a question on Google, it’s unlikely that you even need to click on a website to find your answer due to the FAQ Snippets. 

There are other SERP features available, but these are the key ones for improving your significance on page 1 of Google. If you need any help with your SEO, book a free discovery call with our team today.