Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
A SERP is the page a search engine returns for a query, now filled with ads, snippets, AI overviews, and other features beyond plain links.
The search engine results page is what users see after they search. Once a simple list of ten blue links, today's SERP is crowded with paid ads, featured snippets, People Also Ask boxes, image and video carousels, local packs, and AI-generated overviews. Where you rank matters, but which SERP features you can win often matters more for actual clicks.
Understanding SERP layout is now central to strategy. An AI overview or featured snippet can answer the query before anyone scrolls, so the goal becomes earning the cited answer rather than just position one. Analyzing the SERP for each target query tells you what format to create — a concise definition, a comparison table, a step-by-step — to capture the visibility that exists.