Open Google, search for almost anything, and count how many things on the page are not a normal link. Questions you can expand. A map with three businesses. A video row. An AI-written summary. Those are SERP features, and they now take up most of the page.
This guide lists every feature that matters and shows how often each one appears, using real data from September 2026. For each feature you get what triggers it and how to earn a spot in it.
What SERP features are
A SERP is a search engine results page. If you want the basics first, read what a SERP is.
A SERP feature is any block on that page that is not a standard organic result or a text ad. Google builds the page from blocks and picks the blocks that fit the search. A question gets an answer block. A restaurant search gets a map. A brand search gets a fact panel.
That matters for two reasons. First, features sit above and between the links, so they change where your result lands on the screen. Second, many features can be won. A spot in a feature can be worth more than a spot in the links.
How often each feature appears
We fetched 200 live Google pages on September 6, 2026 to put numbers on this. That was 100 US queries, each on desktop and mobile: 40 how-to and what-is questions, 30 “best X” product searches, 20 local searches, and 10 brand names.
| Feature | Share of all 200 pages | Where it shows up most |
|---|---|---|
| People Also Ask | 93% | 99% of questions and product searches |
| AI Overview | 68.5% | 95% of questions and product searches, 0% of local searches |
| Related searches (desktop) | 96% of desktop pages | Bottom of nearly every desktop page |
| People also search for (mobile) | 97% of mobile pages | Mobile replacement for related searches |
| Video | 31.5% | 61% of how-to questions |
| Perspectives | 30.5% | Forum and social posts, 50% of local searches |
| Local pack | 22.5% | 100% of local searches |
| Discussions and forums | 13% | Mostly Reddit, on questions and product searches |
| Knowledge panel | 5.5% | 40% of brand searches |
| Popular products | 7% | 18% of “best X” searches |
| Short videos | 7% | How-to questions on mobile |
| Images | 6.5% | Visual topics |
| Featured snippet | 0% (none of 200) | AI Overviews now cover the same questions |
Our larger October 2026 study of 494 US searches found AI Overviews on 77 percent of pages and on 34 percent of local searches. Two samples with different keywords cannot show a trend, so read each one as a snapshot.
Two things changed a lot in the past two years. AI Overviews went from rare to the norm on informational searches. And featured snippets, once the prize of SEO, did not appear on any of our 200 pages. That was one day in one country, so read it as a strong sign, not a rule. The October study found none on its 494 pages either. On the questions that used to get a snippet, Google now shows an AI answer.
Ads were under-counted in this sample. Automated fetches see fewer ads than a signed-in person does, so use ad numbers from any tool with care.
The SERP features that matter, one by one
AI Overview
What it is. A summary written by Google’s AI at the top of the page, with links to the pages it drew from. On mobile it can fill the whole first screen.
What triggers it. Questions, comparisons, and “best X” searches. In our September sample it appeared on 95 percent of both. It never appeared on local searches like plumber or coffee shops that day.
How to win it. You cannot own it, but you can be cited in it. Pages with clear, direct answers under descriptive headings get cited most. Google says there is no special markup for it. Ranking in the top ten helps, but it is not enough. In the October study, only 26 percent of cited links were also top ten results for that search. To see which pages get cited on your keywords, track your AI Overviews.
People Also Ask
What it is. A block of related questions. Each one expands to show a short answer pulled from a page, with a link. Google shows three or four to start and adds more as you click.
What triggers it. Almost everything. It was on 93 percent of pages in our sample, the most common feature by far.
How to win it. Add a heading that matches a question Google already shows, and answer it in two to four plain sentences right under it. The full method is in how to rank in People Also Ask.
Local pack
What it is. A map with three businesses, each with a rating, address or distance, and a phone or website button. Also called the map pack or the three-pack.
What triggers it. Searches with local intent, whether or not they include a city. Every one of our 20 local queries had one, on both devices.
How to win it. This is not about your website. It is about your Google Business Profile: the right category, complete details, reviews, and an address inside the area the searcher is in. Local packs change from one part of a city to another, which is why you need to check local rankings for the exact city.
Featured snippet
What it is. A box near the top with a short answer, list, or table taken from one page, with that page’s link. Sometimes called position zero.
What triggers it. Direct questions with a short factual answer, on pages where Google does not show an AI Overview.
How to win it. Rank on page one, then answer in 40 to 60 words or a clean list right under a heading that uses the question. Expect few chances in 2026. Our guide on how to get a featured snippet shows where they still appear.
Video and short videos
What it is. A row of videos, almost always from YouTube, with thumbnails and lengths. Short videos is a separate block for vertical clips.
What triggers it. How-to searches. Video showed on 61 percent of our how-to questions, and more often on mobile (37 percent of all mobile pages) than desktop (26 percent).
How to win it. Publish a video that answers the query, with the query in the title. Add it to the matching page on your site with video structured data so Google can connect the two.
Knowledge panel
What it is. A box of facts about one entity: a company, a person, a place, a product. Logo, description, founding date, social links.
What triggers it. Brand and entity searches. It showed on 40 percent of our brand queries.
How to win it. Be a clear entity. A consistent name across your site, Wikipedia or Wikidata where you qualify, organization structured data, and matching profiles on major platforms.
Discussions and forums, and Perspectives
What it is. Two related blocks that surface posts from Reddit, Quora, niche forums, and social sites. Discussions and forums shows threads. Perspectives shows “what people are saying”.
What triggers it. Questions where opinion and experience matter: product picks, comparisons, local recommendations.
How to win it. These pull from community sites, not brand sites. If your audience is on a forum, being useful there over time is the only way in. Do not spam it.
Shopping and popular products
What it is. Product cards with images, prices, and stores. Popular products appears on “best X” searches. Shopping results are ads tied to Google Merchant Center.
What triggers it. Product and purchase intent. Popular products showed on 18 percent of our “best X” searches.
How to win it. A Merchant Center feed with accurate prices and product structured data on each product page.
Related searches and People also search for
What it is. Suggested queries at the bottom of the page. Desktop shows related searches. Mobile shows “People also search for” chips.
What triggers it. Nearly every page.
How to use it. You cannot rank in it, but it is free keyword research. The chips tell you what Google thinks the searcher wants next.
Sitelinks, rich results, and other extras
Some features attach to a normal result rather than sitting in their own block:
- Sitelinks, extra links under a result, usually for brand searches. Our guide to what sitelinks are shows how Google picks them.
- Rich results, stars, prices, FAQ dropdowns, recipe times, or event dates shown under a link. These come from structured data on the page.
- Images, an image row or grid for visual topics.
- Top stories, news articles for current events.
- Jobs, events, recipes, courses, flights, hotels, vertical blocks for those searches.
Google’s visual elements gallery shows what each looks like, and its structured data gallery shows which markup unlocks which rich result.
Why features change your clicks even when your rank does not
Your rank tracker says you are still number one. Your traffic fell 30 percent. What happened?
A feature arrived above you. In the best running shoes page we fetched for this guide, the first organic result is in the second spot on the page, under an AI Overview. On mobile it can be below the fold. Same rank, fewer eyes.
Across our 200-page sample, a normal website held the very first spot on only 14.5 percent of pages. For how-to questions it was 1 percent.
This is why tracking rank alone is not enough. You want to know, per keyword, which features are present and whether you own any of them. That is the point of SERP feature tracking, and it is a standard part of a SERP analysis.
A simple plan for your keywords
- List your top 50 keywords.
- Fetch the real page for each, on the device and in the location your customers use.
- Write down the features on each page and which domains own them.
- Sort into three groups. Features you can win (People Also Ask, local pack, video, rich results). Features you can be cited in (AI Overview). Features you cannot touch (forums, knowledge panels for other brands).
- Work the first group first. They are the cheapest clicks you will find.
- Check monthly. Features come and go with Google’s updates, so recheck after each core update too.
Frequently asked questions
What are SERP features?
SERP features are the extra blocks Google adds to a results page beyond the standard list of links. Examples are AI Overviews, People Also Ask, featured snippets, local packs, video carousels, knowledge panels, and shopping results.
How many SERP features are there?
Google's own visual elements gallery lists a few dozen. Serplify's parser detects more than 40 block types and returns 9 of them with fully typed fields. In practice about ten appear on most pages. If you want to count them yourself, use a SERP API that returns every block as JSON.
Are SERP features good or bad for SEO?
Both. A feature you win, like a featured snippet or a local pack spot, can bring more clicks than rank one. A feature you lose, like an AI Overview above your result, can take clicks away. The job is to know which features your keywords trigger and go after the ones you can hold.
How do I get my page into a SERP feature?
Match the format Google is already showing. For People Also Ask, answer the question directly in a short paragraph under a matching heading. For local packs, keep a complete Google Business Profile. For video, publish a video that answers the query. For rich results, add the right structured data.
How can I track SERP features for my keywords?
Use a rank tracker that records feature types for each keyword, or a SERP API that returns the full page as typed items. Then count, per keyword, which features appear and whether you own any of them.
Sources and further reading
- Google Search Central: Visual elements gallery of Google Search developers.google.com
- Google Search Central: AI features and your website developers.google.com
- Google Search Central: Structured data gallery developers.google.com
- Serplify docs: SERP feature types docs.serplify.io