For years, SEO reporting was fairly predictable. At the end of each month, you might have looked at organic sessions, keyword rankings, leads or sales, then compared them with the previous month/year. 

And, that worked for a long time. But over the last year or two, I’ve found myself explaining something slightly different in our client progress calls. 

“Why?”, you may ask…

The search results page you see today bears little resemblance to the Google SERPs of just two years ago. There are not only traditional organic listings but also  Featured Snippets, Knowledge Panels, People Also Ask (PAA), Local Packs, Image/Video carousels, and Shopping results. These elements, alongside Google Ads, AI Mode and AI Overviews, have shifted the way we define success, and ultimately reporting. 

Organic traffic still matters. But as a standalone KPI in 2026, it tells a much smaller part of the story than it used to.

What do search results look like in 2026?  

Just two years ago, when search results were simple(r), you typed in a query and Google returned ten blue links. Maybe a few ads at the top or a People Also Ask feature, but otherwise it was a fairly clean environment. Ranking well almost guaranteed visibility and clicks.

That landscape has gradually changed. Modern search result pages now include a wide range of features competing for attention:

• AI Overviews summarising answers
• Google’s AI Mode
• Featured snippets
• “People Also Ask” expansions
• Video results
• Forum discussions
• Product modules
• Knowledge panels
• Local packs
• Image carousels
• Shopping features
• Google Ads

Well, there are over 40 of those but who is counting?! Here is a great example from Semrush.

Learn more about all major SERP features > 

In some SERPs, the traditional organic results don’t even appear until halfway down the page!!!

And that fundamentally changes the dynamic between rankings and traffic. A page can technically rank in position three while still being visually buried beneath multiple SERP features.

But it’s important to know why we see them on SERPs. Most of them are designed to directly answer specific, immediate questions (how tos etc), making them highly relevant to users looking for fast solutions. And your customers want fast answers. The average time spent on a single screen has dropped from 2.5 minutes in 2004 to roughly 47 seconds in 2025.

So while rankings and organic traffic remain important, they’re no longer the straightforward indicator of success they once were.

Visibility has become more fragmented. And that fragmentation is exactly why SEO measurement needs to be broader.

Whenever I present this shift in reporting or explain how SERPs are evolving, the same question usually comes up.

If organic results are getting pushed further down the page…
If AI answers reduce clicks…
If SERP features take up more space…

Does that mean Google is basically forcing businesses to pay for visibility?

It’s a fair question.

And honestly, I can see why it feels that way sometimes.

Google Ads often occupy the very top of the search results. In competitive industries you might see the below before the first traditional organic result even appears.

• several paid ads
• an AI Overview
• a People Also Ask box
• product listings
  

From a visibility perspective, ads can absolutely help businesses secure immediate placement at the top of the page.

But that doesn’t mean SEO has become irrelevant. In fact, the two channels now complement each other more than ever.

If you want to appear at the top of results tomorrow for a commercial keyword, advertising can make that happen. But the trade-off is obvious.

The moment you stop paying, the visibility disappears. SEO works very differently. It focuses on building long-term visibility across the SERP features that are present in 2026 making your business future-proof. 

Now let’s dig deeper into some of the SERP features.

Featured snippets

Featured snippets are the highlighted answers that appear at the top of the results page. They usually extract a short piece of content from a webpage and display it directly in the SERP.

These snippets often appear for informational queries such as:

• definitions
• step-by-step instructions
• quick comparisons
• FAQs
  

From a user perspective they provide a fast answer. However, they also contribute to zero-click behaviour because users may not need to visit the page after reading the snippet. They are still important whether the user clicks or not, mainly due to the brand awareness benefit. The more the users see your brand, the more likely they are to visit your site later. 

How to measure snippet visibility?

The below tools can track when your page owns a featured snippet.

• Semrush
• Ahrefs
• SERP monitoring tools

Here is an example:

You can also check in Search Console for queries where impressions increase but CTR drops, which can sometimes indicate snippet appearances.

When Google selects your content for a featured snippet, it effectively positions your brand as the most authoritative answer to the query. Even if the user doesn’t click through, that visibility reinforces trust and keeps your brand front of mind.

People Also Ask (PAA)

The People Also Ask box contains a list of related questions that expand to reveal answers.

These boxes are particularly powerful because they encourage users to explore related queries.

For SEO this means:

• one search can lead to multiple content discoveries
• your content can appear multiple times in a single SERP

Appearing in PAA boxes is often a sign that Google sees your content as authoritative on a topic.

How to measure People Also Ask appearances?

Look for:

• long-tail query impressions rising
• new question-based queries appearing in Search Console
• increased visibility across informational topics

You can also look in Semrush which will provide a list of relevant queries. 

Optimising FAQ sections and structured data (schema) can increase the chances of appearing in PAA results. You can rank in a PAA box even if you are not in the top 10 organic results, and consistently providing answers to user questions can help establish your brand as an authority in your niche

Bonus: Schema is not only useful for increasing visibility for the People Also Ask boxes, but also AI Visibility. Find out more in my blog on AI optimisation> 

Knowledge panels

Knowledge panels typically appear on the right-hand side of desktop results or prominently on mobile.

They contain summarised information about:

• brands
• organisations
• public figures
• locations
• products
  

These panels often pull information from trusted sources such as Wikipedia, structured data and Google’s knowledge graph.

While they don’t always drive direct clicks, they play an important role in brand authority. 

It’s important to note that Knowledge Panels can’t be created manually. They are generated automatically when Google has accumulated enough trusted information about your brand from multiple sources across the web. This is where authority building comes into play. It’s all about showcasing your expertise and transparency. 

How can I measure Knowledge Panel visibility?

Look for increases in:

• branded search impressions
• branded clicks
• brand-related queries
  

These signals often indicate that knowledge panel visibility is reinforcing brand awareness.

If branded search is becoming more important, what happens if you’re not a well-known brand yet? Should you still focus on product or service keywords?

The reality is you need both.

Product and service keywords capture users who already know what they want. Searches like “SEO agency Nottingham” or “best CRM software” still drive high-intent traffic and remain critical for SEO.

But brand visibility is becoming more important in how users choose between options.

Someone might see your content in a featured snippet, a People Also Ask answer, or an AI summary during their research. They may not click immediately, but they often return later with a branded search.

So even if you don’t think you “have a brand”, SEO today is partly about building that recognition through consistent visibility.

In other words, product keywords capture demand, while brand visibility helps convert it.

In Search Console, go to Performance and filter by query. You can include your brand name there and compare it to the preceding period as an example. 

Find out more about branded queries in Search Console >

Local packs

Local packs appear for location-based searches such as:

• “coffee shop near me”
• “SEO agency Peterborough”
• “Vegan restaurants near me”

They usually display a map and three local business listings.

For local businesses, these results often generate more engagement than traditional organic listings. To optimise for the Google Local Pack, claim and verify your Google Business Profile, ensuring your Name, Address, and Phone number are consistent across all web citations. 

How to measure Local Pack visibility? 

Use Google Business Profile Insights to monitor:

• calls
• direction requests
• website visits
• map interactions

Google My Business is a free tool allowing you to appear across Search and Maps with details such as hours, location, photos, and services. 

Here is a screenshot from Quibble’s profile:

These actions represent real business outcomes that traditional SEO reporting might overlook. You can check whether users are clicking to your website from there or making calls as well. 

Video results

As of Q1 2024, online videos had an audience reach of 92.3%, and as a result video content is becoming increasingly prominent in search results.

Google often displays video and YouTube results for queries that benefit from visual explanations.

Examples include:

• tutorials
• product demonstrations

Appearing in video results can significantly increase visibility even if the page itself isn’t ranking highly.

How to measure video visibility?

Track:

• YouTube impressions
• YouTube search traffic
• video referral traffic in GA4
  

In GA4, go to Traffic Acquisition and narrow down your search – look for Organic Video. 

If you navigate to Engagements – Landing Pages and add an extra dimension for Session Primary Default channel and look for Organic Video, you will end up with a list of video pages which feature on SERP. 

This helps identify whether video content contributes to search discovery.

Image packs

Image carousels often appear for visually oriented searches such as:

• product searches
• design inspiration
• fashion queries
• travel destinations

Optimising images with descriptive filenames, alt text and structured data can help capture these placements.

How to measure image visibility? 

In Search Console you can filter by Image Search to analyse the below which provides insight into visual search visibility.

• image impressions
• image clicks
• image CTR
  

AI Overviews

AI Overviews represent one of the most significant recent changes to the SERP. These summaries provide a generated answer at the top of the results page, often combining information from multiple sources.

Users can then expand the response, explore follow-up questions or click cited links.

From an SEO perspective, appearing as a cited source can provide strong visibility. However, many users may consume the information without clicking.

How to measure AI Overviews visibility? 

AI visibility may influence:

• branded search demand
• follow-up searches
• direct traffic later in the journey
  

This means the impact may appear in indirect metrics rather than immediate clicks. Tools like Semrush allow you to identify keywords that trigger AI Overviews, along with the corresponding pages.

As an exercise, you can check your GA4 report on landing pages and see whether those pages are getting any traffic and engagement. If so, you can put a plan together to ensure that you are maximising this engagement. 

As an example, you can introduce pop ups, encourage users to sign up to a newsletter etc.

Has AI Search further shifted how website visibility is measured? 

The introduction of AI Search into search has added another layer to this shift. AI-generated answers, summaries and assistants are changing how users explore topics.

Instead of clicking through several links, users can now:

• read a summarised answer
• ask follow-up questions
• explore related topics
• refine their search journey
  

And often, without leaving the search interface. I talked about it in more detail in my blog on the evolution on AI In SEO > 

For example, I’m increasingly seeing patterns where:

• A user discovers a brand through an AI summary.
• Later searches for the brand name.
• Then, eventually visits the website through a branded query or doesn’t visit the site at all

I’ve booked a restaurant in Centre Parcs purely based on my AI Mode research. From there, I went to use their app and made a direct booking. 

Even if a user comes back organically via a branded search, if you only measure the final organic click, you miss the earlier discovery stage entirely.

Which is why the classic “traffic equals success” model is becoming less reliable.

What are the signs that your reporting needs to change?

A gap between impressions and clicks 

One trend I’ve noticed consistently over the last 12–18 months is the widening gap between impressions and clicks.

In Search Console data, impressions often continue to grow steadily while clicks decrease. 

This is happening now. In 2024, around 60% of searches in the US ended with no click. With the appearance of AI Overviews that figure jumps up to 83%, and in Google’s AI Mode, 93% of sessions end without a website visit. 

This is often referred to as zero-click search behaviour, where users find their answer directly on the results page. Examples include:

• definitions
• quick answers
• calculations
• weather
• sports scores
• product information
• how-to queries

AI Overviews are accelerating this behaviour by summarising answers at the top of the results. And now when you ask follow up questions, you are immediately taken to AI Mode. 

That doesn’t necessarily mean your content has lost visibility. But it does mean the click is no longer the only meaningful interaction.

Rankings improve but traffic stays flat

This used to be rare. If rankings improved, traffic almost always followed.

But now it’s increasingly common to see a keyword move from position eight to position three and still produce very little additional traffic.

Why?

Because the top of the SERP might now be occupied by:

• AI Overviews
• Google Ads
• Featured snippets
• People Also Ask 
• Videos or forum discussions
  

In other words, the visual ranking on the page no longer matches the numerical ranking in tools.

Your page may technically be ranking well but still sits several scrolls below the fold. That makes position-based reporting less reliable than it once was.

Branded search demand is increasing

Something else I’ve noticed in several accounts is rising branded search demand even when organic traffic is stable.

This often happens when visibility increases across multiple touchpoints:

• AI answers
• comparison content
• PR mentions
• review platforms
• Reddit or forum discussions
  

Users see the brand repeatedly, but instead of clicking immediately they return later with a branded search.

If you only measure the final click, the earlier discovery stages remain invisible.

But branded demand growth is often one of the clearest indicators that SEO visibility is working.

Referral sources are becoming more diverse

Historically most organic discoveries happened through Google. Now the landscape is far more fragmented.

Users may discover content through:

• AI assistants
• YouTube
• Reddit
• TikTok search
• Google Discover
• forum discussions

This creates a more complex discovery journey where search still plays a role but may not always deliver the final click.

That means SEO reporting needs to look beyond traditional organic sessions.

Your social media traffic is increasing

Platforms like TikTok, Reddit, YouTube and even Instagram are increasingly used for discovery. Users aren’t just scrolling anymore, they’re actively searching for things like product reviews, travel recommendations or tutorials.

For example, someone researching a product today might:

• search Google for comparisons
• check Reddit for real user opinions
• watch reviews on YouTube
• search TikTok for quick demonstrations

Google itself has even started surfacing content from forums and social platforms more prominently in search results.

For SEO reporting, that means paying closer attention to signals like referral traffic, brand mentions and community discussions, not just traditional organic search clicks.

What SEO KPIs shall I prioritise in 2026?

When I build SEO reports now, I still include organic traffic. But it’s only one metric within a broader set of indicators. Here are the KPIs I focus on most often.

Organic conversions and revenue

The most important SEO metric is still the simplest one. Look at your organic traffic and its contribution to business outcomes.

This might include:

• enquiries
• demo requests
• product purchases
• Sign-ups
• downloads
• revenue

Traffic without outcomes is just noise.

How to measure your organic traffic?

I keep mentioning Google Analytics 4 because this is an underused platform. It’s free and gives you a complete understanding of your visibility across various channels such as organic, referral, social etc. 

In Google Analytics 4, navigate to: Reports – Acquisition – Traffic acquisition

Then filter by: Session default channel group = Organic Search

Add metrics such as:

• key events
• Revenue
• engagement rate
  

This immediately shows the real contribution of organic traffic. If you need help with GA4, here is our guide > 

Search visibility and impressions

Impressions have become one of the most useful signals for understanding SEO visibility. They show how often your content appears in search results, regardless of whether users click.

That visibility matters more now because SERPs contain many elements competing for attention.

How to measure your visibility in Search Console? 

Open Google Search Console – Go to Performance – Search results

Enable:

• clicks
• Impressions
• CTR
• average position
  

Compare time periods such as:

• last 28 days vs previous 28 days
• quarter vs previous quarter
• year-on-year

If impressions increase significantly, it means Google is showing your content more frequently.

Even if clicks remain stable. That indicates improved visibility.

No Search Console? Set up your account here or speak to Quibble to set it up for you along with the bespoke reporting dashboard. 

Branded search demand

One metric that often gets overlooked in SEO reporting is branded search growth.

When users repeatedly encounter a brand in search results, content, or AI-generated responses, they often return later with a branded search.

Examples include:

• searching the company name
• searching “[brand] reviews”
• searching “[brand] pricing”

This behaviour is a strong indicator of growing awareness and trust.

How to measure branded visibility? 

In Search Console, go to Performance – Queries

Filter queries containing your brand name.

Track changes in:

• impressions
• Clicks
• CTR

Rising branded search demand often signals successful visibility across multiple channels.

CTR on high-intent queries

Not all keywords behave the same way.

Informational queries often produce lower click-through rates because users find answers directly in the SERP.

But commercial queries usually maintain stronger engagement.

That’s why I look specifically at CTR for high-intent keywords.

How to measure CTR on commercial keywords?

In Search Console, go to Performance → Queries

Filter queries that include commercial intent terms such as:

• Pricing
• software
• services
• best
• Comparison

Then monitor:

• Impressions
• CTR
• average position
  

If impressions grow but CTR falls, it may indicate stronger competition from SERP features.

AI referral traffic

It’s still early, but traffic from platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Copilot is gradually increasing. Tracking this helps identify whether your content is being discovered outside traditional search.

How to measure AI traffic? 

In Google Analytics 4, navigate to Reports – Acquisition – Traffic acquisition

Switch the dimension to: Session source / medium

Look for sources such as:

• chatgpt
• openai
• perplexity
• copilot
• Gemini

Creating a custom channel group for AI tools can make this easier to monitor over time.

SERP feature visibility

Modern search results contain many elements beyond traditional listings. These features often dominate attention on the page.

Appearing in these features can dramatically increase visibility.

How to monitor SERP features?

I discussed some individual search page features above, but there is an additional way, namely the manual SERP checks.

Look for keywords where competitors appear in features that you do not currently occupy.

Optimising content structure can often help capture these placements.

Engagement after the click

Once users reach your site, engagement metrics help determine whether the experience meets expectations. High visibility means little if users immediately leave.

How to measure engagement on the site? 

Microsoft Clarity is a free user behavior analytics tool that helps you understand how users are interacting with your website through session replays and heatmaps.

Clarity provides additional insights through:

• Heatmaps – you can visualise which areas of a page are most engaging.
• session recordings – watch real user sessions to see exactly where they get stuck, confused, or frustrated.
• click behaviour – you can identify areas where users repeatedly click in frustration, indicating broken elements or confusing design features.
  

Improving these elements can significantly increase the value of existing traffic.

Final thoughts

SEO has changed dramatically. Search is no longer a simple pathway from query to click.

Users might discover a brand through AI, revisit through a branded search, read external content, and only later arrive on the website.

If we measure success purely through organic traffic, we miss most of that journey.

And that’s why SEO KPIs need to evolve. Not because traffic no longer matters. But because it’s no longer the only metric that tells the story.

If you need help with KPI tracking, we can set up a bespoke dashboard for your business needs.