SEO glossary

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 mix sponsored ads, organic text results, rich results, images, videos, local listings, AI Overviews and features such as People Also Ask, and the layout changes with the query, device and country.

Reviewed by Gareth Hoyle, Managing Director
Last reviewed 31 October 2026

What appears on a Google SERP?

Google published a Visual Elements gallery on 13 December 2022 to give the parts of its results page official names. It groups the most common ones as text results, rich results, image results, video results and exploration features.

Text results: a title link, snippet, site name, favicon and visible URL or breadcrumb
Rich results built from structured data, such as review stars or recipe details
Exploration features such as the related questions group, better known as People Also Ask
Featured snippets, which show an extract from a page before its title link
AI Overviews, a generated summary with links to the pages it draws on
Text and Shopping ads, which Google groups under a Sponsored results label

Why the SERP matters more than rank

A first position is worth less when ads, an AI Overview, a map and a People Also Ask box sit above it. Looking at the live results page for each target query shows which features take the space and which format Google favours: a video for some how-to queries, the local map for searches with a place name. That decides what kind of page to build, not just which keyword to target.

Ads are bought through Google Ads auctions. Organic results can't be bought, and appear because Google's systems rank the page.

Example

For the query 'best running shoes for flat feet', a retailer may find the results page opens with sponsored Shopping ads, then an AI Overview, then a People Also Ask box, leaving the first organic listing below the fold on a phone. Ranking first there can earn far fewer clicks than the same position on a page of plain links.