SERP features

SERP features, or search engine result page features, are special rankings in search that appear among other organic results. These are information-packed elements that Google highlights and usually have higher click-through rates than regular organic results. 

The reason I’m talking about these SERP features is that if you analyze them well, they hold information you can consider when optimizing your content and maximizing your chances of ranking, not just simply for your target keyword, but ranking for it in a SERP feature, in a highlighted position.

Let’s see what are the most common SERP features and how you can optimize your content for them:

  • Featured snippet
  • People also ask
  • Images
  • Videos
  • Shopping results
  • Generative AI results in search

Featured snippet

A short answer or the summary of an answer to a related search query that Google pulls in from an authoritative source. From there, you can always click through to the referenced site which is why it’s good to try and appear here as a content creator. 

It appears above the organic results but not necessarily on the top of the page. Sometimes you see ads on the top, then comes the featured snippet, and then the organic results. There are four types of featured snippets: paragraph, list, table, and video. The most common ones are the paragraph and list types.

Screenshot of a paragraph-type featured snippet in Google search results — Image source: Screenshot taken by TC’D team
Screenshot of a list-type featured snippet in Google search results — Image source: Screenshot taken by TC’D team
How to optimize your content for a featured snippet?

Include a section in your writing that covers the same subtopic and question, and try to write a similar answer in your content. The key is similar, not the same! Never copy! 

Look at the highlighted word(s) by Google in the featured snippet, and the format: if it’s a list format, organize your information and answer the relevant question in a list format too. You can use the highlighted words, too. 

This is all about analyzing what Google deems as a valuable, useful answer or piece of information in the related topic, and you catching that and using that intel so you can offer a piece of content that not only your visitors but also Google will like.

People also ask

The People also ask section is a text box with drop-down questions, related to the search query. The answers listed give more context to the keyword and topic. If you answer these, you’ll have a higher chance of ranking for the keyword.

Screenshot of a “People also ask” box in Google search results — Image source: Screenshot taken by TC’D team
How to optimize your content for “People also ask”?

Look at the questions listed and see if any of them would fit the message of the content you’re planning. Yes, you don’t necessarily have to use any of those, in fact, most of the time you don’t. 

Usually, these questions are good to think about and are really helpful pointers for you to figure out what else to cover in your content, but sometimes, it’s okay to leave them as they are.

Similarly, you don’t need to answer all the questions listed, especially because you’ll notice that first, Google shows you four but as you click on one, you’ll see more and more listed and then you’ll entangle yourself in a nearly endless list of questions.
 
“People also ask” questions are a great way to expand your content and a chance for you to see what else people are interested in the topic you want to write about, but as always with SEO (and everything else 😉), use your common sense.

Image packs

Image packs can appear in any organic listing position. When you click on them, you’ll land on a Google Images search page and then, the page where the image was sourced from.

Placing images in your content will increase your chances of ranking in search but only if you optimize them well.

Screenshot of an “Images”-type SERP feature in Google search results — Image source: Screenshot by TC’D team
How to optimize images in your content for better ranking?

There are four things to remember when optimizing your images:

1. Use a descriptive file name, simply describing shortly what is on the image.

2. Have the right resolution (px), so the image is clear and presentable.

3. Have the right file size (KB). Your CMS system, like WordPress, will signal to you if something is wrong here, but to make sure, you can reduce image size with a tool like Tinypng.com or Compressor.io before uploading.

4. Add a keyword-optimized “Alt Text”,  around 125 characters, with keyword(s).
Screenshot of the settings of an image with optimized description, title, and Alt Text used in an article on The Creators’ Diary that runs on WordPress — Image source: Screenshot taken by TC’D team

Videos

Videos are a SERP feature that can appear anywhere in the organic search positions. It’s usually YouTube and sometimes Facebook videos. 

If you see many videos listed for a keyword or text-based content that also includes videos, it’s a sign that it’s better to create your content in a video format as well, because this is what Google thinks is the right format to use when answering the related search query (because users reacted better to that format).

If you don’t have the resources to create video content, then simply keep looking for a different keyword where you can rank in search without video.

Screenshot of a “Videos”-type SERP feature in Google search results — Image source: Screenshot taken by TC’D team

Shopping results

Shopping results are paid results, in other words, “product listing ads” that can appear above the organic search results. 

One of the reasons I’m including this feature here is for you to know that you cannot organically optimize any content to appear in this section. You have to run an ad to be there. 

The other reason I’m sharing this is for you to learn that if you see a search result page with ads like this on the top, then you found a commercial-intent keyword and the content pieces ranking well for it are also commercial-type, usually webshop pages. 

In most cases, after these product listing ads, will come another long line of sponsored URLs, and the organic search results will start way down the page.

The average person won’t spend time scrolling there, so again, I wouldn’t recommend to try and optimize your content to organically appear for the related keyword, especially when you have limited resources and a website or webshop with smaller SEO power.

Screenshot of a “Shopping results”-type SERP feature in Google search results — Image source: Screenshot taken by TC’D team

+1: Generative AI results in search

This wouldn’t be an up-to-date course about content SEO if I didn’t mention generative AI in search. Generative AI is artificial intelligence capable of generating text, images, or other data using generative models, often in response to prompts — and it has made its way into Google.

With generative AI, Google can show you search results to quite complex questions, without the need to break them down into several shorter ones, using compact keywords.

To use an example from Google, you could type in: “what’s better for a family with kids under 3 and a dog, bryce canyon or arches”, inquiring about which national park to go to with your family in the US, and Google could show you this:

Image source: “Supercharging Search with generative AI” on blog.google

The above is an AI-powered search result, a summarized take on the given topic, that appears above the regular organic rankings, with key information collected for you from several sites without the need to visit any of them (albeit, with the option to dig in deeper with some links at the bottom).

As Google explained it, they are “taking more of the work out of searching”, so you can get things done more easily and quickly. 

This is a work-in-progress and this feature hasn’t taken over the whole search landscape yet but is pointing to a future where the way we search and the way Google presents us with search results is changing, and it’s important for you to know about it.

From an SEO point of view, this means that the way we create content that is not only helpful to humans but also liked by Google needs to be different as well. 

Look at how much of the screen is taken by that generative AI search result in the screenshot. 

Currently, less than 1% of searchers click on the second page of Google results, and the higher you rank the more likely people will click through to your site.

Now, if you’ll be presented with a generative AI response on the top of the search results page, where you get your answer practically immediately and there is no need to click through anywhere, the regular organic listings below will likely get fewer clicks, and the websites they’re linking to will get less traffic. Why would anyone scroll down after all?

What does this AI feature actually mean for SEO?

Don’t run out the door just yet! Although the first surfacing of generative AI in Google didn’t include them, since August 2023, they have started rolling out links to webpages within the AI-powered answers.

You can see them on the screenshot above, those down-arrow icons. After you click on them, Google will show you the relevant web pages that used to help form that part of the answer.

We don’t have the experience to know yet but SEO experts around the world hope that with well-optimized content, your page could be featured that way on the search result page in the future. That would certainly be better than nothing and would be in line with Google’s messaging from the beginning.

It has always been Google’s desire to provide the very best answer to a user’s query, and generative AI is another step towards that. Google wants to see people getting answers to their questions, and they look at signals that represent user satisfaction — that is what the algorithm uses to decide what results to show in search. 

Rolling out this AI feature means nothing else than what the search engine company has been telling us for years: If you create helpful content for users (and don’t overthink keyword optimization), Google will see that and will help expose it to a bigger audience to help them in the subject. 

Yes, as generative AI answers in search keep rolling out and more and more users will encounter them, the click-through rate, or CTR, of the regular organic search results, is going to be lower, resulting in smaller website traffic. But we’ve yet to see how the traffic from those AI answers is going to catch up, and how the content discovery landscape will change how we think about content creation and SEO. 

For now, and to be honest, always, give it time to figure out the technicalities, and keep creating useful content that helps people get their answers.