SERP Features Tracking: The 18 Result Types That Change What ‘Position 1’ Means

SERP features tracking records what else Google shows on the results page for each of your keywords: ads, maps, image and video blocks, questions, AI answers. A position number can’t tell you any of that. Ranking first on a page of plain links and ranking first under ads, an AI Overview and a block of questions can both be summed up as “position 1”, but searchers meet them in very different places on the screen. A SERP rank checker that records the features next to every position shows you the difference.

Our pay-per-check rank reports record which of 18 SERP feature types appear next to every keyword position, on every Google engine checked. This guide explains each of the 18 in plain English, what it does to the value of a ranking, and how to read the feature column in a real report.

Why position 1 doesn’t mean the same thing on every page

Google’s visual elements gallery shows the building blocks of a results page: text results with their title links, snippets and sitelinks, image results, video results, and exploration features such as the related questions group better known as People also ask. The same page notes that how results look varies by device, country and search language, and that no single result shows every possible element.

Even Google’s own position count treats them differently. Search Console’s help on impressions, position and clicks says ads do not occupy a search position, while a carousel or an AI Overview occupies a single position. In Search Console terms, then, position 1 can sit underneath paid results.

That is why a rank report needs a feature column. Without it, a steady top position and a falling number of clicks look like a contradiction. With it, you can see that a new block arrived above you.

A position tells you your place in the list. SERP features tell you how far down the screen that list starts.

The 18 SERP features a rank report records

Here is the full list our reports use, with the short code from the keyword table in brackets.

Features that push your listing down the screen

Ads at the top, shopping listings, the local pack, image, video and news blocks, People also ask and AI Overviews all take space on the page. When they appear above the organic results, every organic listing starts lower, including yours.

For these keywords, a top 3 position is likely to be worth less than the same position on a plain page, and to bring fewer clicks than the number suggests. I won’t put a percentage on it: the effect depends on the query, the device and what the blocks contain. What you can do is flag these keywords so nobody promises a client the traffic of a “clean” position 1.

AI Overviews deserve their own reading, because being cited inside one changes the picture. Our guide to AI Overview tracking explains how to read “Cited #2 of 7” and “Mentioned”.

Features that make your listing bigger

Sitelinks, review stars, thumbnails and video results make a single listing take more room or stand out from the results around it. Google’s gallery describes sitelinks as a group of two or more links from the same domain under one result, and says rich results and rich attributes such as review stars are typically powered by structured data that you provide.

You can’t switch these on yourself, but you can make your pages eligible: clear site structure for sitelinks, valid structured data for review stars and other rich attributes, and a relevant image on the page for thumbnails.

Features that give you a second way onto the page

A featured snippet, an answer inside People also ask, an image or video result, or a citation in an AI Overview can each put your site on the page a second time, or for the first time if your organic listing is low.

Google’s guide to featured snippets says its systems decide whether a page would make a good featured snippet, that you can’t mark up a page to become one, and that featured snippets can also appear inside a related questions group. In practice, the best candidates are keywords where you already rank on page one and the results page carries a featured snippet or People also ask.

How the report flags SERP features for each keyword

In the keyword table, each row lists the features found on that keyword’s results page as short codes, read from the same page as the position. Figure 3 shows five rows from the google.co.uk mobile section of our public sample report:

1. “adr vs revpar”: images, a video result, sitelinks, reviews, People also ask and an AI Overview, all on one page (marker 1).
2. “hotel pms system”: seven features, including thumbnails and both AI Overview codes (marker 2).
3. “hotel point of sale systems”: sitelinks and thumbnails on mobile (marker 3). On google.co.uk desktop the same keyword showed only individual video results (VIDR), reviews and People also ask.
4. Features are recorded even when you don’t rank. “hotel pms system” is not in the top 30 on this engine, but its feature list still tells you what the page looks like (marker 4).

Across all 400 keyword rows in the sample, People also ask appeared on 395. For that keyword list, almost every results page carries a block of questions, which makes the answers in it a realistic target.

How to use SERP features tracking

If you’d rather have someone read the report and turn it into actions every month, our SEO rank tracking service does that. If you want the data for your own keyword list, you can order a rank report with SERP features included: all 18 types are recorded for every keyword and engine, with a legend, as part of every check. For a walk through the rest of the report, see how to read a rank tracking report.

FAQ

What are SERP features?

SERP features are everything on a Google results page that isn’t a plain organic listing: ads, maps, image and video blocks, featured snippets, People also ask, knowledge panels, AI Overviews and more. They change how much attention each organic result gets, so they change what a ranking is worth.

How many types of SERP features are there?

There is no single official list. Google’s visual elements gallery describes the building blocks of a results page, and different tools group features in different ways. Our reports record 18 types, listed in the table above, with a legend in every report.

Can I make my site appear in a SERP feature?

Not directly, but you can make your pages eligible. Rich attributes such as review stars are typically powered by structured data. Featured snippets are chosen by Google’s systems and can’t be marked up, so the best preparation is a clear, direct answer on a page that already ranks well.

Does SERP features tracking cost extra in a Rank Check Report?

No. Every report records the 18 feature types for every keyword on every engine checked, together with the AI Overview column showing whether Google’s AI Overview cited or mentioned your site.