SERP Features

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SERP features are elements in Google’s search results that go beyond the standard list of organic links. They include direct answers, visual blocks, maps, product listings, video carousels, and AI-generated summaries. For most queries in 2026, a user sees several of these features before or instead of a traditional organic result.

Understanding which features appear for your target queries, and how they affect clicks, is essential for accurate traffic forecasting and content strategy.

Why SERP features matter for strategy

A page ranking position 1 in 2016 might have captured 30–40% of clicks. The same position today may capture far less if AI Overviews, a featured snippet, and a People Also Ask block sit above it. Alternatively, your page might be cited inside an AI Overview, generating brand exposure even if the user never clicks through.

The SERP is no longer a ranked list — it is a composition. Knowing what that composition looks like for each query shapes how you measure success and what kind of content you produce.

The main SERP features

AI Overviews

AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of the results page, synthesising information from multiple sources to answer a query directly. As of early 2026, AI Overviews appear on approximately 58% of all Google searches. They are most prevalent for informational and general knowledge queries; lower (15–20%) for YMYL topics like healthcare and finance.

Pages cited inside AI Overviews don’t always receive clicks, but they do receive brand impressions. There is a strong correlation between pages that win featured snippets and pages that get cited in AI Overviews — the same content signals that trigger one tend to trigger the other.

A single extracted answer shown above the organic results, drawn from one page. Snippet formats include paragraph (direct answers), list (steps or items), and table (comparisons and data). Featured snippets appeared on around 15% of queries at the start of 2025 and had fallen to roughly 5.5% by mid-2025, as AI Overviews absorbed many queries that previously triggered snippets.

Despite the decline in volume, featured snippets remain worth targeting because: they claim position 0 above all other organic results, they drive strong click-through when they appear, and pages that hold featured snippets are disproportionately cited in AI Overviews.

People Also Ask

An expandable box of related questions, each opening to show a brief answer pulled from a source page. PAA boxes appear on a large proportion of informational queries and expand dynamically — clicking one question generates more questions. Appearing in PAA drives modest direct traffic but contributes to topical authority signals and visibility for related queries.

Knowledge panels

Information panels about entities — people, organisations, places, products — that appear on the right side of the desktop SERP (or prominently on mobile). Pulled from the Knowledge Graph, Wikipedia, official sources, and structured data. Knowledge panels are not paid placements; Google determines eligibility based on entity prominence and data availability.

Local pack (map pack)

A block of three business listings with a map, appearing for queries with local intent. Click behaviour on local queries is heavily concentrated on these three listings. Ranking in the local pack depends on Google Business Profile signals, proximity, and local authority — distinct from the organic algorithm.

Shopping carousels

Product listings from Google Shopping (Merchant Centre) appearing for commercial and transactional queries. Clicking goes to the retailer’s product page. Appearing here requires a Merchant Centre feed, not organic ranking signals.

Video carousels

A row of video thumbnails, primarily from YouTube, appearing for how-to, tutorial, and entertainment queries. Schema markup (VideoObject) and structured data improve eligibility. Optimising for video carousels means optimising on YouTube as well as on your own site.

Expanded links below a branded search result showing sub-pages of the same site. Appear automatically when Google judges a site to have strong authority for a branded query. Not directly controllable, but reflect site structure and internal linking quality.

Rich snippets

Enhanced organic results showing additional information extracted from structured data: star ratings, review counts, prices, availability, event dates, recipe details. Rich snippets don’t change your ranking position but can increase CTR by making your result more visually distinct.

How features affect CTR

Features don’t uniformly reduce clicks. Their effect depends on query type:

  • Navigational queries (brand searches, “X login”) — sitelinks improve CTR for the target brand
  • Informational queries — AI Overviews and featured snippets often answer the query without a click; impressions rise, CTR falls
  • Transactional queries — shopping carousels capture commercial intent; organic results below them still convert well for users who scroll
  • Local queries — local pack dominates; organic results below see very low CTR unless the local pack doesn’t match user intent

When tracking rankings for a keyword, always check the SERP composition. A position 3 result below an AI Overview and a featured snippet performs very differently from a position 3 result with no features above it.

Targeting SERP features

The comprehensive SERP features guide in resources covers targeting strategies for each feature type — including how to structure content for featured snippets, when structured data helps, and how to track which features are triggering for your target queries.