SERP Feature Trends Every

SEO Must Know

SERP Feature Trends Every SEO Must Know | 1

Introduction

Every time you type a question into Google, the results page
can look completely different. Think videos, images, ads,
graphs, and related questions.

Today there are more than 40 different interactive elements or

SERP features that can appear. It wasn't always this way.

These responsive results offer an improve user experience, but

pose a real challenge to search engine optimization (SEO).

So, how can you know what SERP features should be at the
forefront of your strategic planning?

In this report, we analyzed the most popular SERP features

across various industries. Keep reading to find out the best
strategies to leverage in your market.

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 Introduction 02
Data methodology 04
SERP feature trends 07
SERP features by industry

What’s inside
13
SERP feature keyword research 16
Optimizing your SEO for SERP 20
Key takeaways 30

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What data did we use?
11.9T
Keywords
● We collected keyword data using
a range of methodologies
● Our keyword data is dynamic and
updated daily
19
SERP features
● We looked at data from January
2020 to April 2021 for the U.S.
● Data covered desktop and mobile
devices across brand and
non-branded keywords
14
Industries
● Data pulled from 120 industries
from Similarweb Digital
Marketing Intelligence solution
● Analyzed the industries likely
impacted by COVID-19
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Examples of the data we used

Industries we analysed SERP features SERP features (cont.)

● eCommerce and Shopping ● Apps ● Organic expanded sitelinks

● Marketplace ● Featured ● Organic inline sitelinks
● Groceries ● Flights ● Organic sitelinks
● Restaurants and Delivery ● Hotels ● Paid expanded sitelinks
● Mental Health ● Images ● Paid inline sitelinks
● Nutrition Diets and Fitness ● Instant answers ● Paid sitelinks
● Jobs and Career ● Jobs ● PLAs
● Government ● Knowledge ● Popular products
● Beauty and Cosmetics ● Local pack ● Video
● Fashion and Apparel ● News
● News and Media
● Sports
● Travel and Tourism
● And more

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Some of the factors that influence a search behavior

Income, education, Gender

and health ● Male searchers tend to spend more time
examining the SERP and using filters
● These factor can influence how people (e.g. search settings or results in past
engage with technology hour etc)
● They will impact the types of products ● Female searchers tend to open more
people have browser tabs for more complex
● No impact on search engine use searches
● They tend to spend less time on SERPs,
but more time browsing result content

Location Age
● Location is used by engines to feature ● 18–60 year olds are very similar interactions
relevant results on the SERP
● Where the searcher is from doesn’t impact ● Older people spend more time on the SERP
their search behavior, just the types of
keywords they use

Sources:

● Belkin, N. J. (2000) Helping People Find What They Don't Know. The Human Element 43(8)
● Cole, M.J., Gwizdka, J., Liu, C., Bierig, R., Belkin, N.J., and Zhang, X. (2011) Task and user effects on reading patterns in information search. 23 23(2011)
● Singer, G., Norbisrath, U., Lewandowski, D. (no date) Impact of Gender and Age on performing Search Tasks Online. --

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SERP feature trends

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SERP feature growth

The number of keywords resulting in Percentage of keywords that trigger SERP features in the U.S.
SERP features has been rising since United States, Desktop and Mobile SERP features, Jan 2020–March 2021
the start of 2020.

Almost 125 million keywords trigger

SERP features to appear on Google
results pages.

As of January 2021, almost 20% of

keyword searches resulted in a SERP
feature on the results page.

That’s a 122% quarter-over-quarter

increase from Q1 2020 to 2021 for
desktop and mobile combined.

For mobile alone over the same

period, there was a 2528% increase
(2.9M keywords vs. 77M).

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SERP feature combinations

According to our research, SERP Percentage of SERP feature combinations in the U.S.
features seem to come in bunches. United States, Desktop and Mobile SERP features, Jan 2020–March 2021
We will dive into this later in the
report to illustrate which
combinations are most relevant to
different industries.

As seen in the chart, SERP feature

combinations, the appearance of
more than one SERP feature
appearing for a given search, have
grown considerably.

In Q1 2020, mobile had a total of

41 SERP feature combinations.
This has since grown to 4.3K.

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SERP features by keyword type
According to our research, branded
traffic terms generated a SERP feature Percentage of U.S. SERP features by keyword type
for ~12% of search terms, while Branded and Non-Branded Desktop and Mobile Traffic, Jan 2020 to Apr 2021
non-branded keywords had a SERP
feature appear ~18% of the time. Branded / Non-Branded Traffic
January 2020–January 2021, branded
traffic saw a ~700% increase in SERP
features appearing on the results page,
while non-branded keywords saw a
~800% increase.

For both types of keywords, we saw a

huge spike in SERP activity around
corona. While the two aren’t directly
Related, it’s interesting to see the
growth in online activity occurring at
the same time as SERP feature
prominence.

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Most popular SERP features

When analyzing SERP feature trends, Most popular U.S. SERP features
there are a handful of features that All industries, Branded and Non-Branded, Desktop, United States, Jan 2020 to Apr 2021
dominate the results page.

Over 50% of Google U.S. searches

had either related questions or
related searches appearing in the
results page, with related questions
appearing an astonishing 35% of the
time.

While this chart illustrates the total

appearances for SERP features, it’s
also important to understand which
features are growing in popularity.

This way, you can optimize your

strategy accordingly to become
category leaders.

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Annual growth rate of SERP features

Between Q1 2020 and Q1 2021, a U.S. SERP feature growth rate

Desktop & Mobile, Branded and Non-Branded, All industries, Jan 2020–Jan 2021
handful of SERP features exploded in
popularity in terms of absolute
numbers. But what about percentage
growth?

The two most popular features,

related question and related searches,
grew by 308% and 266% respectively.

Which categories grew the most in this

period of time?

Instant answers, which appears ~2%

of the time has grown by 317% in the
last year. Images which appear 14% of
the time grew 330% over the same
period. The apps features saw the
most dramatic growth, experiencing
a 1,234% increase in appearance on
SERPs.

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SERP features by industry

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SERP features by industry

Now that we have seen the aggregated SERP data, it’s safe to say that
SERP features are becoming increasingly important for building a
successful SEO strategy.

In order to make the information more actionable, we broke down the

data further to see what the most important SERP features are per
industry.

The next chart highlights the frequency in which any given SERP feature
appears from a search query in the specific industries we analyzed. You
can utilize this information, combined with our previous charts, to
optimize your strategy.

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Industry comparison of SERP features - U.S.

United States
Desktop, Branded and Non-branded, Jan 2020–April 2021

Related Related Featured Instant

questions searches Images Video snippets answers Jobs Knowledge Local pack News Paid PLA

Law and Government 19% 19% 20% 8% 8% 4% 1% 9% 5% 1% 7% 1%

Beauty and Cosmetics 20% 20% 18% 9% 8% 3% 0% 5% 4% 0% 7% 6%
Fashion 16% 16% 24% 10% 5% 3% 0% 5% 6% 1% 7% 8%
News and Media 18% 18% 20% 10% 8% 4% 0% 8% 4% 1% 6% 3%
Sports 17% 17% 23% 11% 5% 4% 0% 8% 4% 1% 5% 4%
eCommerce 15% 28% 20% 1% 5% 4% 0% 9% 5% 1% 8% 4%
eCommerce and Marketplace 15% 28% 19% 8% 5% 3% 0% 7% 4% 0% 6% 4%
Groceries 6% 11% 7% 4% 2% 9% 0% 19% 10% 1% 18% 13%
Restaurants and Delivery 11% 31% 21% 7% 3% 3% 1% 6% 6% 0% 6% 5%
Mental Health 20% 28% 14% 7% 10% 4% 0% 6% 3% 1% 6% 1%
Careers 13% 29% 17% 6% 4% 3% 1% 10% 8% 1% 8% 1%
Travel and Tourism 13% 29% 19% 8% 4% 3% 0% 10% 6% 1% 5% 1%

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SERP feature keyword research

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SERP features keyword research

SERP features are an integral part of any successful SEO

strategy.

Next, we’ll delve into some of the ways to use SERP data to
maximize your keyword research.

Remember, SERP feature trends are constantly changing.

Some features are growing in influence at a faster rate than
others, so using tools like Similarweb, that have the most up to
date data in the market, can enable you to outpace your
competitors.

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Conducting SERP feature keyword research

Similarweb allows you to identify

what SERP features are triggered Finding SERP features using keywords and core topics
for each keyword.

You can find this via:

1. Keyword Research
2. Analyze Keywords
3. [Insert keyword]

Look at the SERP feature

opportunities, highlighted on the
bottom of the screengrab on the
right hand side.

You want to create content for

keywords that are triggered on the
SERP. For example, if ‘how to tie
shoe laces’ triggers a video SERP
feature, you may be able to create
and optimize a relevant video for
that keyword.

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Conducting SERP feature keyword research

Find out what SERP features your

competitors are focusing on using
Finding SERP features using keyword gap
our Keyword Gap feature. analysis
You can find this via:

1. Keyword Research
2. Keyword Gap
3. [insert competitor
domains]

Look at the SERP Feature column

on the table below the Venn
Diagram.

You can then see what keywords

trigger SERP Feature, as well as,
which competitor is focusing on
which SERP Feature so you can
close the gap.

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Optimizing your SEO
strategy for SERP features

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Optimizing your SEO strategy for SERP features

Here we’ll breakdown 6 types of SERP feature optimizations

you can run to power you SEO strategy and reach more of your
audience.

This section was designed to take you through the most

popular SERP features and best practices to rank most
effectively for each.

While these suggestions don’t guarantee immediate success,

they can help you put your best foot forward to steal organic
competitor’s market share from new sources.

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Best practice tips for ‘related question’ optimization

Unique content Keyword generator

Enhance content with

Don’t use duplicate or
keywords related to
similar content on
topics that trigger
your domain
related questions

Featured snippets Content hubs

Create your content Become an authority

with instant answers on relevant,
in mind related topics

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Best practice tips for ‘instant answer’ optimization

Unique content Semantics

Utilize semantic
Don’t use any
keywords in your
duplicate, similar or
content and HTML
thin content issues
(e.g. H2s)

Quality content Topic focused

Focus on what you

Create quality content that specialize in so you
answers queries implicitly can link and create
or explicitly early on content hubs (e.g.
internal links)

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Best practice tips for ‘video’ optimization

Title and description Thumbnail

Write title to reflect Select an engaging

what the video is about thumbnail image

Video transcript Page mapping

Map one video to one

Add a transcript, make page to help get
your video accessible indexed for more
videos

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Best practice tips for ‘local 3-pack’ optimization

Places Analytics

Register and complete

Identify and prioritize
your Google My
stores based on their
Business and Bing
performance
Places profiles

Link and review signals Advanced on-page

Promote your local Write your content

businesses using using semantics, local
reviews from loyal language, and include
customers directions to the store

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Best practice tips for ‘app’ optimization

Approval Unique keyword strategy

Expand keyword research

Make sure your apps with autosuggest ideas.
meet the necessary App optimization requires a
criteria to rank different keyword approach
to regular search

Title and description Reviews

Avoid keyword Focus on getting

stuffing, focus on quality customer
relevance and value reviews

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Best practice tips for ‘PPC’ optimization

Relevance Use extensions

Provide additional
Optimize your ads, so
information and give
they only appear on
your ads more
relevant searches
prominence

Test Call-to-action

Perform A/B testing to

find out what works Use CTAs in your ads
best for you and your to drive more clicks
audience

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Best practice tips for ‘image’ optimization

Title ALT text

ALT, alternative, text

Succinctly name your
describes your image
image (e.g.
(e.g. a photo of a dog
london-eye)
on a snowy mountain)

Relevant content UX

Images need to be
Ensure your image
saved for the web and
matches the content
therefore load
on the URL
correctly on all devices

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Best practice tips for ‘knowledge panel’ optimization

Schema Wikipedia and Wikidata

Build your Wiki pages

Work with your web
as these are used as
developer to include
data sources to verify
Schema data
your topic

Social media My Business

If you have a physical
store, ensure your My
Social media can be
Business profiles have
embedded in Knowledge
been updated and you
Panels, be active on it
optimise your local store
directory pages

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 ● There are many SERP behaviors. SERP
features exist to help users find quality
information as quickly as possible.

Drive your SERP

feature presence ● SERP features require country-specific
content marketing strategies

● Identify what your top opportunities

are and apply best practice
optimization to succeed.

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data into your SEO strategy?

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