What Is a SERP? Search Engine Results Pages Explained

What Is a SERP?

A SERP, short for search engine results page, is the page a search engine displays after a user submits a query. 

Each SERP contains a list of results that aim to answer the user’s question, along with other SERP features, like AI Overviews, paid ads, and video carousels. 

Here’s an example of what a SERP can look like:

If your website appears at the top of the SERP, it puts your business in front of more people. This can drive more traffic (and customers) to your site.

How Do Google SERPs Work?

When a user enters a search query, Google’s SERPs show results that the search engine’s algorithms select as the most relevant based on various ranking factors. It may also show paid ads for the query (typically marked “Sponsored”).

Let’s break these two aspects down further.

Traditional Organic Search Results

Traditional organic search results are unpaid, text-based results that show after a user enters a query and appear as blue links to the relevant pages.

Websites can earn higher organic rankings (SERP positions) using a variety of tactics to improve their website. This is called search engine optimization (SEO).

Google attempts to show the best possible results for each search query by taking into account a mix of factors. Broadly speaking, these include:

• Relevance: Google’s systems find content relevant to a searcher’s query based on things like whether the keywords on your page match the user’s query (among many other factors)
• Quality of content: Google also considers signals that indicate expertise and trustworthiness. One signal is whether other prominent industry websites link to your site.
• Usability of content: Google’s systems tend to prioritize pages with better user experience (e.g., mobile-friendly sites and pages that load quickly)
• Context and settings: Google can also take into consideration user-specific factors. Like location, past search history, and search settings.

Paid Search Results

Paid search results are ads that appear on SERPs, labeled as “Sponsored” or “Ad.”

Businesses bid on keywords to secure these spots. The result is that pages can appear at the very top of search results for increased visibility.

Paid search results can put your business directly in front of a targeted audience based on their search terms, location, interests, and demographics.

To appear in these results, you need to create, manage, and pay for ads through a platform like Google Ads. This type of marketing is called pay-per-click (PPC) advertising—you pay every time someone clicks your ad.

Which ads show up (and where they appear) is decided through Google’s ad auction. 

The system evaluates eligible ads and ranks them based on Ad Rank. Google calculates this using a mix of factors. These include the maximum amount you're willing to pay (your bid), and the quality of your ad and landing page.

Further reading: How to Run Google Ads: A 10-Step Guide

Personalization by Location and History

Google may also personalize results based on a user’s location, search history, and device type. 

For example, searching “best pizza” in New York will yield different local listings than the same query in Chicago. 

Similarly, Google uses your search history to influence results and personalize them to you.

SERP Features

SERP features are enhanced results that differ from standard listings to improve the user experience. 

SERP features stand out visually, so earning a spot in them can boost your visibility, attract more clicks, and drive more traffic to your site.

Here’s an overview of the 10 most common SERP features (on desktop in the U.S.) and how often they appear, according to Semrush Sensor:

Most search results show at least one SERP feature—only 1.19% of SERPs show none of them.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the most important SERP features you should know about.

AI Overviews

Frequency: 8.19%

AI Overviews are a relatively new feature in Google SERPs that provide AI-generated summaries. These typically appear directly at the top of the results page. 

AI Overviews often answer complex queries and pull insights from multiple sources, usually linking to their sources. 

Featured Snippets

Frequency: 0.86%
Featured snippets are brief text excerpts that show in search results (often at the top) and directly answer the user's question. 

Featured snippets can include bulleted lists and tables, or they may just be in paragraph form. 

Knowledge Panels

Frequency: 23.83%
Knowledge panels show up for well-known entities like businesses, celebrities, or organizations. 

They display key facts pulled from sources like Wikipedia, Google’s Knowledge Graph, and structured data on your site. 

People Also Ask

Frequency: 67.79%
People Also Ask (PAA) boxes include related questions that expand when you click them, each with a short answer and a link. (Note that AI Overviews can sometimes appear here too.)

You can capture visibility in PAA boxes by answering related queries. 

Further reading: People Also Ask: What It Is & How to Optimize for It

Local Packs

Frequency: 17.62%
Local packs often appear for location-based queries and highlight nearby businesses. 

These typically include a map, business names, star ratings, and contact details pulled from Google Business Profiles. 

Image Results

Frequency: 23.01%
Image results often appear as a horizontal carousel or block, showing thumbnails from image-heavy content. 

These are triggered for queries with strong visual intent (e.g., “modern kitchen designs”). 

Video Results

Frequency: 46.65%
Video results typically show up in a carousel format and often pull from platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook.

They can include a thumbnail, title, channel name (if relevant), and time stamp. They often appear for “how-to” or entertainment queries.

Emerging Features

Google has also introduced SERP features like discussions and forum answers and event results. The discussions and forums element typically pulls from platforms like Reddit and Quora, along with other forum sites.

The events SERP feature pulls from a range of sites. It opens a panel with more information and links to websites when you click a specific event.

How SERPs Vary Across Search Engines

While Google dominates search with just over 90% market share, other search engines like Bing and DuckDuckGo also serve millions of users. And each search engine displays SERPs differently.

To see how search engines differ, let’s run the same query—“technical SEO”—across Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo.

Google shows an AI Overview right at the top. And there are other rich features like a “Find related products & services” box and PAA section.

Bing shows a Copilot Search card with links to articles, images, and videos. Then there’s a Q&A/featured snippet section, with related searches down the side (rather than at the bottom, like on Google). There’s also a video carousel, something absent on the Google SERP for this term. 

DuckDuckGo, by contrast, shows a more minimal SERP, featuring just a few ads, a relatively small AI-powered “Search Assist” summary box, and then traditional blue links.

How to Rank Higher in SERPs

You can rank higher in SERPs through SEO. But you can also appear higher in SERPs using paid search ads. Each approach has different strengths, and you can use both at the same time.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO can help your pages earn top positions in SERPs without paying for placement.

Strong SEO involves optimizing your website to align with Google’s ranking signals. This includes:

• Keyword research: Find what keywords your audience is searching for
• Content optimization: Improve the content on your website to provide a good user experience and meet the user’s search intent
• Technical SEO: Improve site speed, mobile experience, and how easy it is for search engines to crawl and index your website
• Link building: Earn high-quality backlinks to gain Google’s trust and improve your website’s authority

Semrush’s SEO Toolkit is an all-in-one platform that helps you plan, create, and optimize content so your business can get found on Google. 

For example, here’s how to use the Keyword Magic Tool to find out what your potential customers are searching for:

Enter a seed keyword related to your business (like “email marketing”) and you’ll see how many people search for that keyword (search volume), how difficult it may be to rank for that keyword (keyword difficulty), along with other keyword ideas.

Then, use those keywords to create great content with the SEO Writing Assistant. It helps you:

• Optimize your article in real time for SEO, readability, originality, and tone of voice
• Get suggestions that can help your content rank and resonate with your readers

With the SEO Toolkit, you can also:

• Audit your website for technical SEO issues
• Track your keyword rankings daily
• Analyze competitor strategies
• Build quality backlinks

Instead of piecing together data from multiple tools, you can manage your entire SEO workflow in one place, saving time and making your efforts more effective.

Search Ads

Paid search ads can give you immediate visibility at the top of the SERP—for a fee.

With platforms like Google Ads or Microsoft Ads, you can bid on keywords and target audiences based on location, demographics, and interests. This helps your business show up where high-intent users are searching, even if your site isn’t ranking organically yet.

Paid ads on Google can help your business:

• Boost visibility fast: Unlike SEO, which takes time, paid ads can put you at the top of search results right away
• Target the right audience: With audience and keyword targeting, you can reach exactly who you want, right where and when they’re searching
• Drive conversions efficiently: From lead form signups to direct purchases, you can match your ad type to your business goals

Check out our complete guide to paid ads to learn more.

How to Track Your Positions in SERPs

Tracking your positions in SERPs helps you protect and grow your visibility and traffic.

Use Semrush’s Position Tracking tool to monitor your traditional organic rankings, appearance in SERP features, and your paid search positions.

Just head to the tool, follow the steps in the setup wizard, and make sure you add both the paid and organic keywords you’d like to track.

After setting up your project, you’ll see the “Landscape” report. Scroll down to the “SERP features” section. This shows you which SERP features you’re showing up in for the keywords you’re tracking.

Then, click the “Overview” tab and scroll down to the “Rankings Overview” section to see your organic rankings for your target keywords. You’ll also see the tool’s estimation for what you could potentially achieve with higher rankings. 

To see your paid search positions, scroll to the top of the report, click the gear icon, and select the circle next to “Google Ads.”

Start monitoring your rankings in SERPs today with the Semrush Position Tracking tool.