Types of Google search results

The days of Google search results being only textual content are long gone. For years, Google has been trying to maximize the presentation of content by introducing more and more new solutions, thanks to which the user will get the answer to the question asked in a visually interesting way. 

Today there are many types of search results, and the number continues to grow. Let’s take a look at the ones we can now find in Google search. 

Pictures

Pictures and graphics appear in not only Google Graphics, but also in search results above text results, but also between them or at the bottom of the page. They usually appear for queries that are easier to answer graphically. Those labeled “product” are from an online store, where you can purchase the item that appears on them.

Right-box-knowledge-graph

This is a way of presenting answers to queries about famous people, concepts, definitions, places, organizations or historical events. Here we have the most important information presented in an abbreviated way, without having to visit any website. The information we find here usually comes from and links to Wikipedia. Images also appear in the knowledge graph, along with a link to Google Graphics and related search results that may also be of interest to us.

Maps

Maps appear as a response to a query suggesting that we are looking for something to which local results will be the answer. Presenting the answer in the form of a map is supposed to speed up finding the place we are asking about. In addition, Google automatically adjusts the results presented to us to our current location, so after typing in a very general phrase such as “restaurant” we will not get results for an area other than where we are currently located. 

Direct answers

Very often, for phrases entered by a user that constitute questions, Google will return a box at the top of the search results with information from the website that it believes has the best answer to that question, this type of result is referred to as a direct answer.

Google Ads

Paid Google search results from Google Ads campaigns run by various companies appear above and below organic search results. They are always related to the query we typed in. 

Google News

Google News results appear in response to queries about current events. They link to the latest related information on news portals. 

Video in search results

Video as a search result most often appears for music queries, when Google guesses that the phrase we typed in was about a particular piece of music.

Science articles

Search results linking to specific scientific articles and to Google Scholar appear when you type a phrase related to an issue researched by specialists/scientists into the search engine. It will appear above other search results.

Top-bar 

These are the search results that appear above the others in the form of a horizontal right-scrolling list. You will see them if you type phrases for which the answer will be the entire list, where each item can become a separate query. They most often appear, for example, when you type a query about the work of a particular artist (paintings by painters, books by a particular author, discography of a band, etc.), the cast of a movie or TV series, or members of a band. 

PLA – Product Listing Ad

These are results that represent ads from Google Merchant Center, a platform for advertising products. These are paid results presenting a specific product related to the phrase we typed in, along with its price. Such results can appear above, beside or below the organic search results. 

Business card

In response to a query about a specific company, its business card will appear in the search results, provided, of course, that it has been created in the Google My Business panel. The business card always appears on the right side of the search results.

Rich snippets

Meaning a richer version of the classic search result. To get this type of search result for your site, you need to add the appropriate structured data in its code. Rich snippets in search results include, but are not limited to: faq, star ratings or product images.

Links-to-subpages/expanded search results

This type of search results appears only for the first result for a given query. In addition to a link to the main page of a given site, we also see links to various subpages. Sometimes an additional search engine also appears in such a result, which allows us to search for a subpage directly on a given site, without going to it.

Travel-related search results – top attractions of a particular city/region, hotel booking, flight comparison

When you type “what to visit + city name” into the search engine, you get a list of top attractions in response. After clicking on one of them, we are sent back to Google Travel, where we can see more attractions in a given place their map, knowledge graph and information on flights and hotels.

Hotel listings appearing in the search results have been further enhanced by the ability to book through booking portals.

Another interesting result related to travel is the flight search engine; after typing in a query related to a specific air route, Google will show us a search engine for flights, the airlines operating them, the duration and price ceilings.

Math-calculator

After typing a mathematical operation into the search engine, its result is obtained in the form of a calculator view, on which we can conduct further calculations.

Time-in-the-world

When we query Time in the World as a response from Google, we will get a result appearing above the rest of the organic results, representing a direct answer to our question.

Converter of currencies and units

The currency converter also appears in the organic results. If we ask Google to convert an amount from one currency to another we will get our answer and a currency calculator along with the history of their rate. The result for unit conversion looks similar.

Weather forecast

For queries related to the weather in a particular location, Google presents us not only with information that responds to our query, but also with a forecast for the next few days.

As we can see, the types of search results are really many. We can get the answers to our questions directly in their view without having to go to different websites. With such solutions, Google is trying to reduce as much as possible the time needed by the user to get the specific information he needs at a given moment.