It is impossible to do SEO without analyzing a ton of Search Engine Result Pages. It is very significant to understand the different elements of SERP and how or why information from different sources shows up in each of the different areas. 

At the top of the page, 4 paid ads are always present. For more competitive terms, there may be blocks of AdWords ads at the bottom of the page. 

In the middle of the page 10 blue links of organic results are there that you are targeting for SEO efforts.

What are the SERP Features?

SERP features are basic; they are present almost on every search result when you browse for anything. Beyond the organic searches, paid listings and AdWords there are other 12 elements combined. That are given below:

What have featured snippets?

A featured snippet is the quick answer. It describes the brief summary of the answer for a search query displayed by the authoritative web page. Source page’s title and URL is also displayed by the snippet. There are 3 types of snippets:

• Paragraph Snippets 
• List Snippets
• Table snippets

What are shopping results?

Shopping results are also present above the organic result. These are paid results called Product Listing Ads and PLAs.  Typically they’re displayed in carousel format and include images, price information, and review stars.

What are sitelinks?

If a user searches for an exact business name or domain (where Google can clearly determine that there’s definite brand intent), up to 10 sitelinks might be displayed under the primary SERP link. If all 10 sitelinks are displayed, they’ll show in 2 columns, effectively taking up the top 5 organic positions on the SERP.

What are image packs?

Image pack can appear at any organic search position. They show a horizontal row of images that click through to a Google images search. If Google identifies that the image pack could give a relevant answer to the search query then it will display the image pack.

What are in-depth articles?

If a search query is broad or ambiguous, Google sometimes displays an in-depth articles widget. Three articles appear in the block, and while they look almost exactly like the standard organic results, the block only “counts” for one organic position. These article blocks are almost always articles from huge publishers with massive authority.

What are knowledge cards?

Similar to the featured snippets knowledge cards appear at the top of the page. They give a general overview of the search query to the user. They tend to be information that’s in the public domain – either from human-edited data or from a data stream from a Google partner. Unlike featured snippets, it’s not an element that you’ll be able to target with your SEO efforts.

What are knowledge panels?

Knowledge panels are what you see at the right hand side of the search result. The information that it consists of is gathered from the Google site index, human edited sites like Wikipedia, and Google data partnerships. While you can’t target a generic knowledge panel with your SEO efforts, you will be able to influence what shows up in the knowledge panel for a brand search for your own company or your client’s company. 

What are local packs?

If you need to search for a local shop or any other thing that is locally available, then you will see a local pack in SERP. The local pack appears on the op of the organic results. It contains a map and three locations with the address and phone number for each of three locations. Depending on the different queries it can also display the website link, directions, images and pricing information.  

What are news boxes?

When you search for any query that may be news related or related to current events then Google will show a news box in SERP. Results displayed are from Google news. The block is labeled “in the news” and has a lot of links to articles that relate to the topic. 

Related questions for SEO

Google is being asked a trillion of search queries daily, so If the phrase you’re searching tends to lead to additional questions or searches, Google might include related questions somewhere in the SERP. This section is named as “people also ask”. This shows the related more questions that people search for. When you click on one of these questions it expands the information related to this query. 

Tweets for SEO

For certain queries, Google displays tweets directly in the SERP, mixed in with the standard organic results. You can’t optimize to show up here, but visually, your brand gets more recognition on the SERP, which could boost your perceived relevance to the user. Videos. Certain keywords might display video results. It’s more likely that YouTube videos will be displayed, but other hosts can achieve these results as well.