How the SERP feature filter works:
There are 4 ways to use this filter:
On SERP: See only keywords that have the selected SERP features in their SERP
Not on SERP: See only keywords that don’t have the selected SERP features in their SERP.
Where target ranks: See only keywords where your target's top position ranks in one of the selected SERP features.
Where target doesn't rank: See only keywords where your target's top position doesn't rank in the selected SERP features.
You will notice that some SERP features will gray out when either Where target ranks or Where target doesn't rank is selected. This is because we don't track positions in SERP for all SERP features.
To know the entire list of SERP features that we track or do not track, check out our article on it.
Rank Tracker
The "SERP Features" filter can be found in the top bar alongside the other filter options:
We display SERP features in Rank Tracker with two main colours:
1. Grayed out SERP icon
A grayed out SERP feature beside your keyword tells you that a SERP feature is present for that particular keyword BUT you do not rank for it.
To find out what type of SERP feature it is, simply hover your mouse over it:
In this example, a SERP feature ("Top Stories") exists for the keyword "backlink checker" but unfortunately, our website (https://ahrefs.com/) is not ranking for it.
2. Blue SERP icon
On the contrary, if the SERP feature is in blue, that means that you are ranking for that SERP feature for that particular keyword. In the above example, we (https://ahrefs.com/) are ranking for a "Image Pack" SERP feature for the keyword "keyword research".
Back to the SERP features filter.
You will see that there are two types of features - tracked features and non-tracked features.
1. Tracked Features
Tracked means that Ahrefs is able to determine if the target domain/URLs are in these features.
2. Non-tracked Features
Non-tracked features means Ahrefs identifies that SERP feature existing in the SERP, but cannot identify the target domain/URLs within that SERP feature.
Now that you've understood all the different technical terms for the SERP features filter, it's time to play around.
Here's an example of what you can potentially do. First, check "You Don't Rank" for all the tracked features.
This filter allows you to see all your tracked keywords that:
Have a SERP feature on Google
You're not ranking for
This knowledge is important because you can potentially optimize your pages to attempt to rank for these SERP features. For an in-depth discussion on how to rank for a featured snippet, read this article: https://ahrefs.com/blog/find-featured-snippets/
Feel free to toggle around the SERP features filter and find different ways to optimize your site for these important features.
Site Explorer
You can also find a similar SERP features filter in Site Explorer to discover whether your site (or your competitors) are ranking for any important SERP features.
Go to Site Explorer > Enter Domain/URL > Organic Keywords > SERP features:
Site Explorer also shows:
The type of SERP features found for a particular keyword
Whether you rank for it
Exporting this report will only show the SERP features you rank for (and not the total number of SERP features present):
