Google is constantly testing new design elements, but over the past few months they've been testing a change that, while it might seem small on the surface, represents a major philosophical shift. The screenshots in this post were all captured on live SERPs but appear to be tests and have not rolled out permanently. Here's an example of the basic change:
Notice how each result (ads and organic) is wrapped in a container and visually separated on a gray background. These containers are called "cards" in Google's vernacular, and they're important, but we'll get to that. Why should we care about a few borders and a background?
Shift #1: Mobile-first design
We've known for over two years that Google was shifting to a mobile-first design philosophy. Earlier this year, Google removed ads from the right-hand column. While this change was partially due to performance, I believe that a big part of it was standardizing the ad environment across platforms (mobile, tablet, desktop, etc.). What's not obvious from the test above is that this card-based design is more than just boxes and backgrounds. Google is testing a serious move toward single-column SERPs. The removal of ads from the right-hand column was only the beginning.
Here's a SERP screenshot for "polar bear" in Google's current desktop design:
Below is the test design, captured back in May. The Knowledge Panel has been moved to the top-left, and the right-hand column is gone. This is not a Knowledge Card of the sort we typically see on the top-left. It is the traditionally right-hand desktop entity, moved and collapsed (with a "More about Polar bear" arrow):
Here's the same search on an Android phone. Notice the card-based format and Knowledge Panel at the top. Obviously, nothing is in the right-hand column, because mobile only has one column:
There are still display differences between mobile and the desktop test, of course, but you can clearly start to see the convergence between the test and the current mobile design.
How will it all fit on the left?
Getting everything on current desktop SERPs into one column poses significant challenges, and Google is experimenting with a few variations. Here's a SERP that has both a Knowledge Panel and a Knowledge Card, for example:
In this case, the Knowledge Card showing the support phone number appears above the Knowledge Panel, and both are above the first organic result. You'll notice some design differences on this example, which was captured in July. Here's another example, with a different, more interesting layout:
This SERP has a local 3-pack, which is at the top (like on current designs), followed by an organic result, and then followed by the Knowledge Panel. This pushes the Knowledge Panel down the page quite a bit, and the #2 organic result down well below the fold. In another example, we saw a Knowledge Panel below four ads and four organic results. So, the traditional top placement may become more flexible.
Here's an example with a Featured Video, followed by a Knowledge Panel, and then the first organic:
The bottom of this same SERP has another interesting feature: a set of three different related searches, each with their own card. On the current design, these live at the bottom of the Knowledge Panel, but here they've been split off from the panel and expanded:
Keep in mind that these are only variations in testing, and that this testing has been ongoing over a period of months. We can piece together Google's intent from looking at multiple tests, but we can't pin down what the final design will look like or when (or even if) it will launch.
Shift #2: Google Now
There's another reason I think the card-based design is potentially interesting. Google Now, Google's predictive search product, was built on the "card" concept. Here's an Android screenshot:
Here, I've got another news carousel (note its similarity to mobile search news carousels), and then an individual news story with its own card. Google Now shows that you can create a result using virtually no traditional organic results and mix multiple Knowledge Graphs, news, and other entities in a single, fluid experience.
What does it all mean?
Cards are much more than just a design philosophy. We're used to seeing SERPs in clusters: a column of organic results, a Knowledge Panel, a box of news results, a box of local results, etc. Prior to individually-labelled ads, even AdWords ads came in visually-delineated chunks. With cards, we have to start thinking of each individual information unit as a stand-alone result, and every SERP is a mix of the most relevant results across a wide variety of sources and types.
Viewing SERPs as collection of search information units (SIUs?) also allows Google to easily adapt across a wide range of displays, from desktop all the way down to wearables, which might only have screen space for a single card. Even voice search can be adapted to cards. Currently, if you run a voice search on Android that returns a Featured Snippet, for example, your mobile device will read that snippet back to you. Voice search is returning one card, a single unit of search information.
Cards give Google a great deal of flexibility, and will begin to break traditional design barriers and result groupings. We may see ads leaving top and bottom blocks and being dispersed between other results. We may see a mix of shopping results, say a single product card and a multi-product carousel on the same page. Similarly, we may see multiple news results or carousels across a single page. We may see multiple Knowledge Cards or personalized results, if a search merits that kind of personalization.
The era of cards is the final nail in the coffin of ten blue links. Ultimately, our definition of search engine optimization is going to have to expand beyond traditional results and into any information unit that can drive traffic.
Is it just me that feels Google is trying to keep users on their site vs. driving them to a 3rd party site that ranks? Things that I believe supports my assumption:
And I might be entirely wrong, and Google might be trying to do everything it could to send us more visits. It just doesn't look like it!
No, it's not just you. I definitely think that shift has happened. Google has links that go to new SERPs, they're creating content (in addition to the Olympics, there's the Medical Knowledge Panel), etc., just as you said. My personal opinion is that it's a response to Facebook - Google has a ton of traffic, but FB dominates on time-on-site. You go to Google to leave, but people spend hours on Facebook. I think they (Google) view that as a threat.
I think a bit different, in at least one point. Now-cards make me often visit sites more frequently. Because of these cards i am here. A small description isn't enaugh to explain a post like this, but it's enaugh to make me decide to visit this page. It's nearby to "an answer to a question i didn't know i wanted to ask" at that Moment. Guess i would have looked to Moz Blog sooner or later.
If a small summary in serps is enaugh for me, then i am not the visitor Wiki wanted to have for that queries.
And of course i don't want to go to a Sports site just to look how Munich played the last Match i missed. I prefer Google. Hard for some sites, but not interested in slow loading pages showing me ads and somewhere the result. Special with mobile. I have a Traffic Limit! It makes the Internet easier, faster and better.
Maybe i think different when it happens to my pages :) i am sure, but I can see pros for the users.
Google is definitely transitioning away from traditional SEO marketers.
These cards are great for businesses if you are the actual owner of the branded search term. But the reduction in real estate means its much harder to get listed for a high traffic search on organic questions people have.
It's a good time to be a web developer and SEO!
I only wish I'd chosen that career path a quarter-century ago!
I think you are right and Facebook is doing the exact same thing. They want to become the window from where you search the web. I can see them trying to rival Google in the future.
A good read. Google is also focusing on Accelerated Mobile Pags (amp) project, which they have launched much recently. It's still in early stages of development, however it's going to get momentum pretty soon.
Hi,
1) I saw the test “card design” a few weeks ago here in the Netherlands, but didn't notice the knowledge graph above the search results.
2) For ecommerce keywords I don't think the SERP will dramatically change for now. I am curious how Google will display ads for this new design (I would think above the knowledge graph?). This would push the organic results even further down.
For informational keywords this will be a huge deal for CTR, we already saw in the past that sites that displayed basic information (for example currency converters) received a huge hit in traffic. People now find what they are looking for right in the search results without clicking through to a website.
3) For local search and broader (ecommerce) terms this is going to be a new part of SEO. I think Schema markup will play an even bigger role because this gives Google more useful data to display on the SERP. I think optimizing for the Knowledge Graph and marking up content will be very important part of SEO in the future.
I think the change we may see for commercial queries is more and varied paid results. So, we could see a product carousel and also a single-product paid placement. Right now, Google is pretty particular about certain elements only occurring in certain positions and certain quantities, but I think this layout may give them new options to explore. Definitely agree, though, that informational queries are probably going to be hit the hardest at first.
It should be interesting to see how Google balances paid vs organic. After all, searchers still need the best result and in some cases, paid may or may not be the best. Assuming all things are equal, then paid wins, but if organic is truer to the searcher's real intent and desire, it'll be interesting to see how Google plays that out :-)
A couple of questions for the community that I'd love some feedback on:
(1) Have any of you seen these tests running on your own searches? Any folks outside the US?
(2) How do you think a move to a single-column SERP would impact CTRs for your major terms?
(3) How do you think you might change your tactics (if you change them)?
We've seen them running in the UK on some searches.
I have actually just seen it in Denmark - while reading this article. Googled via incognito.
Hi Peter,
First yes, I found that in Poland at the end of June. I couldn't resist and wrote a short review with screenshots https://www.linkedin.com/...-search-results-page-deszcz
Back then my conclusion was that Knowledge Panel is going to be most important element of SERPs. It was always on top of organic results. This may have biggest impact on desktop CTR since searchers will see only ads and Knowledge Panel above the fold. Small detail I noticed also was they removed number of results from design I was seeing. This can upset some SEO folks who use this to estimate difficulty or check site indexation base on these numbers.
What you wrote in this post gives me even more to think. If Google is going to make result pages more like Google Now style (more predictive and personalized) then it can be pretty difficult to fight for a position somewhere on the first page of result.
Great post, again!
--
Best regards,
Chris
Great to have more examples - thanks! Just shared on Twitter.
I am wondering if there is a design-shift here for websites? How can I use "cards" to make a single design that works on desktop of mobile? Maybe I could use css to make each <section> a card?
Yeah, I think the whole concept is interesting - how do you make your information modular such that it can adapt to any device? That's not to say cards are a good fit for everyone, and I can definitely see people overdoing it, but it's a valuable thought experiment as devices diverge.
Wikipedia articles would work well in cards. They have a separate section for each subtopic with any images floated to the right. The site looks like crap on desktop because the images are puny and the page spans the width of your monitor but I like it on mobile.
If you formatted images and text length nicely it would work well in cards and be beautiful on desktop or mobile.
I've seen some Featured Snippets where Google did a table or bulleted list that was a much better UX than the original site. What's the value of the source, if Google makes your site look and navigate better than you do? Definitely a wake-up call for some.
Have also seen some tables in Featured Snippets that are a terrible experience, and basically force the user to click through to the site - especially in the travel industry. That's the flip side, that Google can make your content look worse on first glance, unless you click through.
Yes, just seen in the UK for the search "track and field"
I have seen those in India. *After login into gmail.
1) Not in Brazil.
I have also seen here in India.
Hi Peter!
From Spain Google searches continue to be well, aligned to the left and some text related to the search to the right
It is clear that the reader's eyes tend to go to the left, seen in many studies CRO.
The future of google go towards that direction!
1) Saw the design a couple of times in germany (privavy mode only). It seems randomly, I never got the new design when logged in with my google acc.
2) It would mean, that the CTR (even for the first place) is going to collapse. It already happened when Google expanded the Ads (from ~70% to ~55%). Now they are going crazy with their rich cards. Some businesses (weather, movies, lyrics) are going to have a hard time ;)
3) Sure, if I can implement rich cards, i will.
I'm seen it in Spain just now, while reading your article.
Regards,
Czd
Hi Peter
this is really interesting and as you very well describe can have huge implications on everyonés business
1) I have not noticed this in Spain. I have run now a few queries you show and the pictures are on the right hand (Polar bear for instance). But I´ll pay much more attention from now on. I´ve paid attention recently to the clear change in ads, all 4 at the top, and will keep from now on a close look now at testing of cards as
2) With 4 ads instead of 3 we have not been impacted in organic traffic. Difficult to say though if this is due to an increase in rankings whilst the change has happened. One of the main problems for a small company is that good analysis takes time and if not big change happens then no need for big analysis....
I think a company should look at how well they perform in mobile search and if they are ok then I´d assume the change in desktop should not bring big changes
3) More than the actual chage to one single column, what I see as a potential big change is the use of cards and how that may impact the SERPs. As you describe it could bring a huge change. Google may decide a Serp for a given vertical is to be a mix of 1) pictures to illustrate the search, 2) a potential local player, 3) a video that explains, 4) 2-3 transactional sites with good offers and 5) 2-3 ads included there where more CTRs are generated.
Tactics (and probably overall strategy) may change depending on what Google believes the future SERP should be, or is it the user who has a different need of what a Serp should look like and Google is trying to understand that? Is this change driven by possible financial results? or user experience? or defensive against a possible new "answer machine"
Yeah, agreed - it's not so much the layout, but whether Google starts to decide that certain SERPs should have 2+ of certain elements, and the organic count keeps going down. We're already seeing a lot more flexibility and diversity in mobile SERPs.
What you say is the key point at the end: if the organic count as we know it keeps coming down then either bizz adapt and get high in other organic counts (local, pictures, etc.) or increase efforts in other channels.
The key question here is on the user: will a more attractive, diverse, cool, etc serp do the job it has done historically or not.... To the limit: would a serp with no organic count be accepted by the user (not in very short term, but in mid to long term?
Fascinating as usual Dr. Pete.
Do you think the move to KG results on all device views, to completely remove 3rd party results from the landing interface will only continue to affect informational queries (i.e. those with no commercial results and thus no ads) which actually begs another question - are there SERPs where you've seen KG results AND AdWords results?
Right now, I can only see SERPs captured in testing and can't go out looking for new ones, so the screenshots I have with AdWords ads are limited. I think Google is going to start getting more flexible in how they display paid results, and might have, for example, multiple PLA cards (maybe one multi-product and one single-product) on one SERP. They'll ease into this, though, most likely. I do think the impact on informational queries will be felt first.
The possible changes in Google do look really good and make everything far easier to separate and read. It won't change what I do for clients as such, but should open more opportunities.
1. Yes, I've seen these cards tests. It caught me off guard at first and then some co-workers were noticing them as well. Whenever I do see it, I try and do a search incognito to see if it pops up there as well.
2. I think moving to a single-column SERP is going to hurt our company's organic CTR. We already saw a dip in CTR when Google removed the side column of ads and put a 4th ad in the main column.
3. We are just going to have to make ourselves stand out even more as well as test, test, and do some more testing.
Great insights, thanks!
Hi Peter, as Luis said in a commentary just above, yes, here in Spain we have also seen this in some searches .
In my opinion the impact on how marketing and seo works is going to be huge.
Great info for the future( or present? )by the way
Hi,
It seems like another good move from Google as it pushes site owners to provide answers (and improve ranking) to specific questions vs. trying to rank for general terms. While general terms definitely have higher volumes, SERP real estate is reserved for super-relevant. On the good side voice search is rising and we'll start to see increase in longer queries' volume.
Hi Peter
I answer your questions
1) In Spain Google also it works well
2) Well, you have to think that the reader's eyes will secure a single point with options to increase the CTR increase. Furthermore this design (I personally seems quite likely to make many "clicks"
3) It may be interante include in our online strategy much aimed at Adwords ...
Hello Peter,
1) In India it also seems working.
2) CTR Surely will be impactful for the major terms as the card does represent a kind of curiosity user just love to visit. (Ex: Twitter Cards).
3) Let the experience to learn the tactics based on the SERP influence. What i believe !
Hi Peter,
In India, Google is switching between two type of results, was showing card based results in the morning but now (after 5 hours) it is showing traditional 10 blue links.
In my opinion, Single-column SERP would certainly impact CTR negatively. Organic rankings will further go down the page for a large number of queries.
There is hardly anything we can do in most cases, but we can try to occupy rich answers space (if google is showing that).
Thanks!
Hey Doc, again another great write up and insights. Since I've been tinkering with mobi apps and designs for some times, we (mobi devs) had known about Google experimenting with card designs for a while. What I like is the tidbits and nuggets of information that it gives you from your query. Good job!
Hi Peter, Thanks for sharing.
I noticed this change from Melbourne, Australia around Friday, 19 August 2016. However I have to say that I did notice this at random intervals a few months back and upon doing searches on different tablets the test didn't work.
So I did a little research and found that although Google is rolling these out you can change with meta tags some of the cards if you don't like the way Google is displaying your content.
For instance you can remove information that is taken from your posts and displayed in Google from their serps: https://support.google.com/websearch/troubleshooter/3111061?hl=en I don't know though if this effects Serps.
The other thing I am noticing is the design of the ad blocks. It looks like those cards are much less transparent now and looking much more like search results. This was rolled out a bit ago when the text for ads was increased by adwords. https://searchengineland.com/official-google-roll-expanded-text-ads-devices-250270
There are definitely some aspects of many of these entities you can control, but it varies with the type (organic vs. vertical vs. Knowledge Graph, etc.). "Cards" are essentially everything at this point, and each type of information will have its own rules.Be careful with any kind of blocking or removal, though, because it can have unintended consequences.
Hey Peter,
As always you and the rest of the Moz team have provided some great material to consider for the future of optimizing for search. I knew that Google has been heading towards a mobile-centric design and a cohesive experience across all devices for some time now, but I was not aware of just how varied the SERPS were. You've helped me remember to give a greater amount of thought to the types of content I create strategies for going forward. Thanks for the insights!
Hi,
To me as a costumer the changes in Google search results are an exciting news.. There are so many benefits, but as an SEO this seems like a whole new challenge. We will see what happens next.. :)
Crossing my fingers they add a toggle in search settings to remove the card view.
Hi pete, I also saw in Germany:
I think the First Test was going on in Germany to. Think it was may or June and a pretty short time. Of course is my Android search equal. I also saw the related in a movie search. Wanted to search for movies coming to the Cinemas and ended in trying out related links.
Now they have took away the bottom related searches blue links .. I only can see them inkognito in Google Chrome.
I believe in cards as serp futur and cant wait to push some answers away like I do in Google now.
I try to find some pics and send a Tweet :)
That simple to find the right answer from google
Hi Peter,
I already seen these cards earlier in Dubai also. Thanks for sharing such a nice article.
I like that this is getting all cleaned up - thanks Dr. Pete :-)
It's interesting to read how Google is getting ready for the next shift in its search strategy. The use of knowledge-based card could surely be the key for striking a higher SERP in the time to go.
But I'm sure it would not only be the one where everything would revolve around. Because this approach could be excellent in some cases but not for all.
As someone who uses google a lot, this was a great read. Interesting to see what they are doing. Thanks for the share!
The title of this article seems well chosen. "Google's Future is in the Cards". Today we use the Google Search Console Rich Card Report more than ever as many structured data errors have moved to this location. I am re-reading your article 4 months later and still gaining insights from it.
I found that there are differences between snapshots you used. I found that the results are IP Based. In Iran, There is no changes. But when I used a Proxy, it changes.
I'm still trying to figure out how useable Cards, and Schema, and AMP, are for education and informational pieces, as well as non-profits, who aren't selling stuff for money. Any ideas?
I should note that "Cards" in the post is a very wide term applying to any search unit (even organic listings and ads). If you're thinking about "Rich Cards", that's pretty narrow right now. If you've got a solid mobile audience, AMP may have some opportunities, and Google Posts may also as it expands. Featured Snippets are probably a good bet, as they're organic-like. There aren't a lot of schema-driven SERP features in your space right now.
Insightful content and couple of important points are noted form here. I have always been a great fan of structured data, especially Schema. Now this newest development at Google, makes it more interesting and obviously it needs more good articles/ documentations like this one. Thanks for sharing this here with us.
Badra Malik
[link removed by editor]
Hello Peter
Now it's time to test this Knowledge Card for our clients services. Thanks for this Awesome Article.
Nice Breakthrough.
Also, I would like to add to the story that Google where recently published RICH CARD's experience for recipes pages and planning to deploy the same on other properties like videos, articles and so on.
So your points about future moves..are so certain.
We totally get their philosophy and what we'd like to see is a limit to how many results one company/entity can have on display. Google needs to improve relevancy by preventing what we call "hijacking SERPs." Sometimes you will see that one company has 2, 3 and 4 entries out of 10 on the first page; other relevant results are then relegated to page 2.
Insightful content and couple of important points are noted form here. Now this newest development at Google, makes it more interesting and obviously it needs more good articles/ documentations like this one. Thanks for sharing this here with us.
Great article Dr. Peter. Cards are useful to keep focus on results but we will see Google last decision. I agree with Krinal. Google will give all info in his own page. It started with news and now even lyrics. Google will be a market place of info.
I haven't seen the local first design in practice yet, but will be on the lookout! It's quite exciting Google is constantly tweaking things, albeit frustrating if it does not benefit your search results.
I have seen these test and in a different format. I caught a glimpse of all the the search results in their own box individually. Each ad was wrapped.
hey it's old one i have seen in some serp results & dummy searches too! But how it was implemented newly in future? How it should useful local serp changes & nearby searches?
Hi Peter, Thanks for sharing such great insights about the differences that Google is about to take up in the future trend. It is much more informative and helpful.
This information was very useful. I don't like cards.