What are SERP features? The boxes, panels and carousels around the links

SERP features are everything on a search results page that is not a standard blue link. Featured snippets, People Also Ask boxes, image packs, local map results, shopping carousels, video blocks, knowledge panels and AI Overviews all count. On most commercial queries, they now take up more of the first screen than the organic results do.

The features you will meet most

• Featured snippet. A block of your text lifted above the first result, answering the query directly. Position zero.
• People Also Ask. An expandable set of related questions. It grows as you click, and each answer is pulled from a page.
• Local pack. Three map listings with ratings and opening hours, driven by Google Business Profile rather than your website.
• Image and video packs. A row of thumbnails, usually triggered by how-to and visual queries.
• Knowledge panel. The entity box on the right. Sourced from Google’s Knowledge Graph, Wikipedia and structured data.
• AI Overviews. A generated summary at the top, citing a handful of pages. The newest and the most disruptive.

Which ones are worth chasing

Not all of them, and some are actively bad news. Featured snippets are worth winning for commercial and comparison queries, where the snippet rarely satisfies the searcher and they click through anyway. For simple factual queries, a snippet often ends the search, so you win the feature and lose the visit.

Local packs are the highest value feature for any business with a physical location, and the work sits mostly in Google Business Profile: categories, reviews, photos and consistent details. People Also Ask is worth targeting because the questions tell you exactly what the audience wants covered, whether or not you win the box.

How to win a featured snippet

You usually need to rank in the top five first, since Google almost always pulls the snippet from that group. Then match the format Google is already showing. If it is a paragraph, answer the question in 40-55 words directly under a heading that matches the query. If it is a list, use a real ordered or unordered list. If it is a table, mark up a proper table.

Pull the query up, look at what is already there, and copy the shape rather than the wording. This is the kind of work that fills our client reporting for our SEO service because it moves visibility without needing new links.

Tracking them properly

Rank tracking that reports only position numbers is now misleading. Position three under an AI Overview, a video block and a People Also Ask is a long way down the page. Use a tool that records which features appear on each tracked keyword, and read click-through rate in Search Console alongside position. A page that holds position two while its click-through rate halves usually means a new feature has appeared above it.

Common questions

How many SERP features are there?

Google has never published a definitive list, and it changes constantly. Tracking tools typically monitor between 15 and 30 distinct types. The set you actually see depends heavily on your industry and whether the query is local, commercial or informational.

Do SERP features reduce my traffic?

Features that answer the query on the page, such as direct answers, weather boxes and increasingly AI Overviews, reduce clicks to every result below them. Features that showcase your content, such as image packs and local listings, usually add clicks.

Can I stop Google using my content in a featured snippet?

The nosnippet, max-snippet and data-nosnippet directives control it at page or element level. Very few sites should. Blocking snippets almost always costs more visibility than it saves.

Does structured data guarantee a rich result?

Valid schema makes a page eligible, but Google decides whether to show it. Review, FAQ and How-to eligibility has narrowed considerably since 2023, so treat markup as a useful signal rather than a guaranteed display.

See our glossary entry for SERP features for the short version.