Ask for a book in a library without specifying which one is specific. There are so many books more than 129,864,880 to be exact that the friendly librarian would likely ask you dozens of questions after a few perplexed glances to try to identify the particular one. The conversation is remarkably similar to what we see on Twitter when people are attempting to find a way to discuss a certain search function or user interface aspect of a search results page: what are those stars called? And how can I make them show up on my website?
Although there aren’t more than 129,864,880 elements on Google Search result pages, it can be difficult to find the one you’re looking for. The elements can be remarkably similar to one another, occasionally entirely mysterious, and other times they have some slang names that don’t always make sense. With this, we aim to assist.
The Visual Elements Gallery is now available.
The newly created Visual Elements Gallery was created to make it easier for you to recognize the most prevalent and effective visual components on a search results page. It includes the following 22 visual components that are most likely to show up on search result pages and are important to website owners and SEOs:
Wow, a new guide from Google naming all the different types of search features you might see on Google. Seems like another effort to help standardize the way we refer to things in the SEO space (similar to "systems" instead of "updates" last month) https://t.co/DFoAeWeRRv pic.twitter.com/tpK64BnnfJ
— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) December 13, 2022
- Attribution: The elements that aid users in rapidly identifying the source of the search result using visual cues such as the site’s name, URL, and favicon.
- Text results: Text results are the components that have been with us since 1995 when we were still known as Backrub. They’ve also been referred to in the past as “10 blue links” and “web results.” We think that “text results” more accurately convey the basis for the results, which is the textual content of the indexed sites.
- Video and image results: The video and image results, formerly known as “image and video universal results,” are based on the corresponding media indexed in the context of their corresponding landing pages.
- Exploration features: These visual elements referred to as “People Also Ask”—help consumers extend their search processes.
With labels indicating what each element is called and where you can get additional information about how you could influence or enable it for your website, each element group is accompanied by an abstract depiction of what the visual element might appear like on the search result page. Additionally, the abstracted design aids in maintaining the consistency of the manual throughout the 18 languages that Search Central supports.
Future of the Visual Elements
That is our plan: if a visual element gains popularity on search result pages, we may add it to the gallery. Our new setup makes it easier for us to add new visual elements to the gallery without exerting too much work on our part. However, we only want to include the components that are useful to website owners and SEOs.
This new gallery was created to make it simpler to discuss and understand the components that can be found on the search results page. Leave a remark on Twitter or in the Search Central Help forums if you wish to talk to us about them. By clicking the Send Feedback icon on the documentation page itself, you can also submit feedback.
