Definition

SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page — the page a search engine displays in response to a query, containing organic results plus any visual features such as ads, knowledge panels, image carousels or rich snippets.

A SERP is rarely a flat list of ten blue links. Google may include featured snippets, AI-generated overviews, 'People also ask' boxes, video carousels, local packs, sitelinks and other features depending on the query. Search Console reports separate position data for each visual element a site appears in.

Examples

• A query with rich SERP features

  Searching for 'banana bread recipe' returns a SERP containing organic results, a recipe carousel with star ratings, and a 'People also ask' box — all alongside the standard list.

• Position depends on SERP feature

  A page may rank position 1 in the standard organic list but appear visually below an AI Overview, a featured snippet and a video carousel — meaning the user has to scroll past several other elements before reaching it.

Sources

• Google Search Central — Visual Element Gallery

Related terms

• Meta Description
  A short HTML attribute summarising a page, often used by search engines as the snippet shown beneath a result's title.
• Schema Markup
  Structured data added to a page that describes its content to search engines in a machine-readable format.

Where QueryCatch uses this

• Google Search Performance
• Meta Title Optimisation