SERP Feature
A SERP feature is anything on a search results page beyond the plain list of links, like a local map, a row of videos or a box of related questions. SERP stands for search engine results page. Google calls every part of the page, plain links included, a visual element, and says their look varies by device, country and language.
Source: Google Search Central, Visual Elements gallery of Google Search, checked October 29, 2026
What SERP Feature means for your business
Google's guide to these parts says which ones you can do something about. Some depend on your page and its code. The boxes of related questions and related searches don't: Google says you can't control what shows there, and suggests reading them for ideas on what to write. SERP feature is the name SEO tools use for all of this. Google's guides don't use it.
Top stories is one more: a row of news articles Google shows when a search is about something in the news. Google picks the articles automatically, and nobody applies to be in it. It matters to a business when you're in the news, because a local paper's story about you can appear there, above your own site, when people search your name.
We'd read the features on a search as Google's guess at what the searcher wants. A row of videos says people want to watch. A box of questions says they're still working out the problem. Before we build or rewrite a page, we search the phrases that matter to you and write down what shows up above the links, because that tells us what kind of page has a chance.
If the searches that bring you work now open with videos, question boxes and answers before any plain links, working out which of those spots your pages can fill is the first step we'd take.
Last reviewed October 29, 2026. All terms
How AI answers it today
On October 29, 2026, Google's AI Overview leaned on SEO tool blogs and agency posts, with no Google page among them, and counted AI Overviews as a feature. ChatGPT listed seven features with pictures from SEO blogs 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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