SERP features might seem to clutter the search results, but they also offer sites new opportunities to gain visibility beyond the traditional blue web links.
By embracing SERP features, you can boost your click-through rate, drive organic traffic, and enhance your brand visibility in innovative ways.
As informational queries increasingly lead to diverse content types, one standout example is the Buying Guides SERP feature. Alongside video carousels, popular products, and discussion forums, these guides are transforming the search landscape.
In this article, we'll dive into the impact of Google's Buying Guide SERP feature on the SERP and explore how you can leverage it to your advantage.
Around September 2022, Google launched the Buying Guide SERP feature in the U.S. with the goal of providing searchers with an easier shopping experience.
When a user searches for terms like "best [product type]" or "how to choose [product type]," Google may display a Buying Guide SERP feature at the top or in a prominent position on the search results page. This guide synthesizes information from various sources, including expert reviews, customer feedback, and detailed product specifications.
By providing comprehensive buying advice in one place, the Buying Guide SERP feature helps users easily compare different products and make more informed purchasing decisions.
Being included in a Buying Guide can increase product visibility, site traffic, and sales. It can also enhance a brand's reputation as a trusted provider in its category.
As such, it’s critical for E-commerce companies to understand how Buying Guides impact the SERP for different product categories.
In doing so, they can identify opportunities for Buying Guide content they should pursue.
Based on our extensive Research Grid dataset, the prevalence of Buying Guides for mobile searches in the U.S. increased steadily from February (204.5K) to July (218.7K). This marks a 7% increase in six months with little difference in prevalence on desktop.
However, from July 2024 to January 2025, the Buying Guide SERP feature experienced a 46.3% decline, signaling a major shift in Google's search strategy.
This rapid decrease in the second half of the year suggests Google is prioritizing other eCommerce-focused features, such as AI-driven product recommendations and Google Shopping integrations.
Example of a Google Shopping ad in the SERP.
Currently, buying guides still don't appear in UK searches. However, this could change at any moment and we will continue to monitor it.
The Buying Guide SERP feature is ideal for sites focused on consumer products and services such as e-commerce retailers, affiliate and review websites, and direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands looking to capture high-intent shoppers during the research phase.
It’s particularly valuable for businesses in industries where product comparisons and in-depth evaluations influence purchasing decisions, such as electronics, home goods, fitness gear, and B2B solutions.
SERP features like Buying Guides can inform your content creation strategy, highlighting areas to develop new content or enhance existing content.
But before investing resources into trying to get into the Buying Guide, make sure that the topic is important enough to you. In other words, make sure it aligns with your business goals and audience needs.
If it does, here are some steps that you can take to optimize your chances of being featured in the Buying Guide SERP feature.
To increase your chances of being included in the Buying Guide SERP feature for a particular query, ensure you cover the topic as comprehensively as possible.
This not only enhances your content's depth but also signals to Google that it is authoritative and valuable.
Action Steps:
Deciding whether to create a standalone page for a subtopic or include it within an existing piece hinges on your ability to produce high-quality, unique content. Avoid creating thin, redundant pages that add little value – Google doesn’t like these and neither do users.
Action Steps:
Always make sure to internally interlink the pages on your site that are about a related topic.
Doing so improves the user experience by guiding users through a logical flow of information, keeping them engaged longer. It also enhances the discoverability of your content by helping search engines understand the relationship between different pages.
Action Steps:
We hope our industry-specific research helps you understand how the Buying Guide SERP feature could impact your site’s visibility.
To find out how often the Buying Guide feature appears for your specific keywords, use seoClarity’s SERP Features capability and filter by "Buying Guides."
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