SERP Features You Should Monitor for Better SEO

Improving SEO should always be your number one priority when it comes to maintaining the company website. With that in mind, we are talking about SERP features you should monitor for better SEO. These additional elements contribute to the search engine results by adding a new piece of information. They are also known as search result features or just search features. It is essential to monitor these features as a part of your regular SEO audit.

Table of Contents

Rich results

When a person does a search query, they get the usual results, which include the URL, title, and description of the website. Rich results represent additional pieces of information that are shown to the customer, like a site link, breadcrumbs, or a customer review. This is a critical SERP feature because it enriches the customer experience.

Reviews

Customer reviews are, on their own, a very useful SERP feature. Word of mouth is usually the best marketing strategy for any business, and customer reviews are a version of that strategy. If you are browsing the web and searching for a specific website, it will be beneficial to see customer reviews. This way, you know what the experience of previous customers was.

Furthermore, positive customer reviews help people to decide to visit the website quickly. That is why acquiring as many 5-star reviews as possible is very important.

Sitelinks

Additional site links are always helpful to the person searching for something. If a customer does a search for your website, you should provide more than just the homepage URL. Adding a link to the blog, the contact page, or even the download page if you have some content will help the user get more value with a single search.

Featured snippet

A featured snippet is an additional piece of information that comes directly from a page the user is searching for. This short description tells the user what the page is about. This description helps out because the user can immediately see if the page has value to them or not.

For example, if you are searching for a tutorial on how to do something, a featured snippet could show you a list of steps from the page. You can quickly read through it, and if it looks like a valuable piece of information, you will visit the link.

When it comes to this piece of information, it is crucial always to have website metadata updated. Besides providing the information to the users, this can impact your rank. While metadata sits in the back of your website, it holds crucial bits of information that will improve the search results.

“People also ask” section

You probably noticed that when you search for a specific question, you also get examples of similar questions that others ask. This feature is handy because it allows the user to come up with different variations of a question and find the answer more quickly. They can also visit various pages and see responses already posted to other users’ search queries.

Knowledge graph

The knowledge graph always shows on the right side of the search results. It is a box that provides helpful information about the business. For example, if a person searches for a specific company, the knowledge graph will show:

the company name;
a short description of what the company does;
headquarters location;
the name of the founder;
the year of founding;
CEO;
number of locations;
revenue;
type of business;
links to the company’s social media profiles.

This knowledge graph is very useful because it allows the user to get to know the company a little bit better. It also has a very positive impact on organic traffic.

Events

This SERP feature looks for events related to the search query and returns the links to the user. For desktop users, it shows on the right side of the page, while for mobile users, it sits on the top of the SERP. It usually includes the date, time, and location of the event.

Twitter posts

If you are actively using Twitter for your business, you must include this SERP feature. When a user does a search query, this feature returns relevant tweets in the search results.

Popular products

All websites that have an online store need this SERP feature. If a customer searches for a specific product, this feature will also return the most popular products related to it. This improves the chances of users clicking on the store link and converting to paying customers.

Paid SERP features

Besides free features, paid SERP features can improve the search results for your website. The most common include various ads.

Top and bottom ads

Depending on where you want them, the ads can show at the top or bottom of the page. A paid ad is beneficial because it will have priority over free ads.

Shopping results

Another helpful feature for online stores is the shopping results feature. It shows a cartwheel of sold products and allows the user to compare prices, product ratings, and so in. It also offers basic info like a product name and a photo.

Images and videos

Besides text results, the search engine can also return images or videos related to the search query. This feature enriches the user experience and provides more value to the customer.