SERP
A SERP, short for search engine results page, is the page a search engine shows in response to a query.
On Google it can include ads, an AI Overview, organic results, People Also Ask questions, a local map pack, a knowledge panel and more. Which features appear depends on the search.
Position 1 isn’t the top of the page any more. When an AI Overview appears, it sits above the organic results. Ahrefs’ February 2026 update, using December 2025 data, found the click-through rate for the top-ranking page fell by 58% when an AI Overview was present. The drop shrank further down the page, to about 19% at position 10.
Common SERP features
| Feature | Appears for | Can you earn it? |
|---|---|---|
| AI Overview | Many informational searches | Yes, by being cited |
| Featured snippet | Questions with a short answer | Yes, no markup needed |
| People Also Ask | Most informational and commercial searches | Yes, by answering the question clearly |
| Local pack | Searches with local intent | Through a Google Business Profile |
| Knowledge panel | Known entities: brands, people, places | Indirectly, through consistent entity data |
| Ads | Commercial searches | Paid only |
Some features have gone. Google’s documentation notes FAQ rich results stopped appearing in Search on 7 May 2026, after being limited to government and health sites in 2023. In June 2025 Google phased out several other structured data features, including Course Info, Claim Review and Estimated Salary. Advice written before those dates may still recommend chasing them.
Check the SERP before you write
The SERP tells you what Google thinks the searcher wants and how hard the search is to win. In September 2026, the US SERP for “SD-WAN for healthcare” had no AI Overview, only People Also Ask, and the page ranking first had no referring domains, per Ahrefs. Big brands such as Cisco and AT&T ranked below it. A results page of that kind is worth more than any difficulty score.
Common mistakes
-
Reporting rankings without checking which features sit above them.
-
Chasing SERP features Google has retired.
-
Judging difficulty from a tool score without looking at the live results.
-
Assuming the SERP looks the same on mobile and desktop.