SERP
A SERP, short for search engine results page, is the page a search engine shows after you type a search. Google calls the pieces of its results page visual elements: text results, rich results, images, videos and features for exploring further. Each result has parts of its own, like a title link, a snippet and sitelinks.
Source: Google Search Central, Visual elements gallery of Google Search, checked October 29, 2026
What SERP means for your business
You'll also see generative SERP or generative engine results. Those are industry names for a results page with an AI-written answer at the top, like Google's AI Overviews. Google's help page on its AI search tools says traffic from them shows up in Search Console under the Web search type, mixed in with your other search traffic.
A rank number on its own doesn't tell you much. Third place on a page of plain links and third place under ads, a map and an AI Overview are very different spots. We'd read every rank report next to the results page it came from.
Those AI answers link to pages Google already has in its results, which is why old-school SEO stays part of our work. If your pages show up in the plain links but never in the answer above them, getting your pages into that answer is what our answer engine work goes after.
Last reviewed October 29, 2026. All terms
How AI answers it today
On October 29, 2026, Google's AI Overview gave the search meaning from a university page, Wikipedia and SEO tool blogs, then added the retirement plan meaning, and every result under it was about executive retirement plans. ChatGPT gave only the search meaning and cited nothing.
Our run through ChatGPT and Google's AI Overview, October 29, 2026. A sample, not what every buyer sees.
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