Universal Result Type FAQs

Here are some frequently asked questions about reporting on universal result types in Conductor.

Universal Result Type Basics

What are universal result types?

Universal search results provide content that go beyond standard results, including other forms of digital content. In Conductor, True Rank aggregates these different types of results to provide a holistic sense of how your content ranks, beyond standard rank.

The location and device associated with a keyword play a fundamental role in what results appear on a search engine results page. In searches on a tablet, very few organic results are visible before scrolling. Likewise, SERP real estate is at such a premium for smartphone results, video results are sometimes the only organic results visible without scrolling.

Also, keep in mind that Conductor does not take paid results into consideration when reporting on universal search results.

What is Universal Rank?

Universal rank reflects the rank of a particular result within a set of ranking universal results for a keyword. Consider the following examples:

• You might have a Carousel result appear with a True rank of 3. But each result within the Carousel has a Universal rank within it. Its first result on the left being 1, the next 2, and so on.
• You might have 3 image results in the top 100 results, with True ranks of 4, 15, and 26. Their Universal ranks would be 1, 2, and 3, respectively.

Universal Result Types

Below are the different types of results you'll see in Conductor's universal search reporting. Click the link to jump down and see an example for each.

AI Overview

Icon	Search Engines	Included in Standard Rank	URL Reported?	Title Reported?
	Google	No	Yes	Yes

What are AI Overview results?

AI Overview results reflect Google's generative AI answers to queries. These result types include the titles and URLs for linked Reference Content detected in the result.

Note that Google considers AI Overviews to be an experimental feature. The way they are published on Google's SERPs is subject to change and, thus, may affect Conductor's ability to publish result type information.

Why don't I see AI Overview results for a keyword I track?

AI Overview results appear on a small percentage of search engine results pages.

Additionally, the way Google currently publishes AI Overview results prevents Conductor from collecting them at scale with the fidelity and data-richness we demand for all our tracked keywords. However, we can detect AI Overview results for certain keywords. We don't want to hold data for these results back, so you may see AI Overview results for these—but not for all—keywords that include AI Overview results.

Answer box 

Icon	Search Engines	Included in Standard Rank	URL Reported?	Title Reported?
	Google	Yes	Sometimes	Always

What are Answer Box results?

Answer boxes are a universal result type on search engine results pages. (Google calls these Featured Snippets.) Answer boxes:

• Appear above all other organic results.
• Provide a direct answer to the query posed by a search.
• Usually appear for sites that have:
  • More words per page and in-depth content.
  • Larger, more authoritative, and relevant link profiles.

How can I report on answer boxes in Conductor?

• Result Types lets you see which of your tracked keywords include an answer box result.
• Keywords, Market Share, and Rank Comparisons include a filter to show keywords that included an answer box result.

Refer to Conductor's tips for winning answer box results on our blog to learn more.

App 

Icon	Search Engines	Included in Standard Rank	URL Reported?	Title Reported?
	Google	No	Always	Always

What are App results?

Google displays results from app stores with rating information, a description, and a link to the app.

Baidu Forum 

Icon	Search Engines	Included in Standard Rank	URL Reported?	Title Reported?
	Baidu	No	n/a	n/a

What are Baidu Forum results?

Baidu shows user-generated content from its Zhidao and Tieba platforms.

Baidu Encyclopedia 

Icon	Search Engines	Included in Standard Rank	URL Reported?	Title Reported?
	Baidu	No	n/a	n/a

What are Baidu Encyclopedia results?

Baidu shows Baidu-owned content from their Baike and Wenku platforms, which provide informational content based on the keyword.

Carousel

Icon	Search Engines	Included in Standard Rank	URL Reported?	Title Reported?
	Google	No	Sometimes	Yes

What are Carousel results?

Google Carousel results appear for a number of different types of queries. They may appear as News Carousels, Video Carousels, or Product results, which Conductor identifies separately—though any other will appear simply as a Carousel.

Note that Conductor cannot currently parse some carousel results, and so cannot assign ownership to the individual items that appear in the carousel.

Google Carousel results also appear for certain historical results data in Conductor, where Google displayed lists to answer certain queries. Consider this example with U.S. presidents:

Events 

Icon	Search Engines	Included in Standard Rank	URL Reported?	Title Reported?
	Google	No	Sometimes	Yes

What are Events results?

Google shows event results for event-related keywords in a vertical box. Google gathers these results from individually-hosted ticket listings as well as third-party event management and ticketing websites.

To determine which web property ranks for each Event that appears in the Events result type, Conductor uses only the first link that appears in the Information and Tickets section of the Events result that appears after opening an Event.

Image 

Icon	Search Engines	Included in Standard Rank	URL Reported?	Title Reported?
	Google	No	Yes	Sometimes

What are Image results?

Image results appear in various formats based on keyword.

Why don't title tags appear for my highest-ranked image results in the Keywords report?

Google pulls image results from a particular URL, but they don't pull the whole HTML attribution, including elements like title tags. This means that Conductor attribute only the URL where the image is found, but no addition data. As a result, the Keywords report includes only the URL and shows "<No Title>" for it.

In-Depth Article 

Icon	Search Engines	Included in Standard Rank	URL Reported?	Title Reported?
	Google	No	n/a	n/a

What are In-Depth Article results?

Google In-Depth Article results appear in certain historical results data in Conductor. Google no longer uses this result type.

Jobs 

Icon	Search Engines	Included in Standard Rank	URL Reported?	Title Reported?
	Google	No	No	Yes

What are Jobs results?

Job result types reflect the results appearing in Google for Jobs boxes on SERPs. Google draws these results from job aggregators and job posting sites—such as Indeed.com or Monster.com—as well as from brands' internal hiring sites.

You can use this result type to find which job sites appear most frequently for your vertical or industry, so your internal teams know which aggregator on which they should post opening—or whether they should be posted on your company's own hiring page.

Local and Local 3 Pack 

Icon	Search Engines	Included in Standard Rank	URL Reported?	Title Reported?
	Google	Sometimes	Sometimes	Yes

Google shows local results to people who search for businesses and places near their location. Depending on the specific items that appear in these local results, Conductor labels them as either Local Pack or Local 3 Pack.

What are Local and Local 3 Pack results?

What is the difference between Local and Local 3 Pack results?

The difference depends on whether Conductor can identify who owns the content linked in the local results:

• Local Pack results
  Conductor labels results as Local Pack when it can identify a URL—and therefore a web property—to associate with the results.
• Local 3 Pack results
  Conductor labels results as Local 3 Pack when it cannot identify a URL—and therefore cannot identify a web property—to associate with the results.

Whether Conductor identifies a URL for a local result depends on the content Google is serving for the result.

Identifying URLs in Local Results

When Conductor evaluates a SERP and finds local results, it will attempt to identify a URL based on the content Google provides when a user clicks the result. Often this content is a Google Maps page with information about the result.

If Conductor can identify a relevant URL from that content, it reports those results as it does for any other result. These results are then labeled as Local Pack results in the platform.

If Conductor cannot identify a relevant URL from that content, it does not report a URL. These results are then labeled as Local 3 Pack results in the platform.

In Market Share

This situation also affects how Conductor communicates Market Share data. When local results include only links for which Conductor cannot identify URLs ("Local 3 Pack results"), those results appear in Market Share reports as “Local 3 Pack” because Conductor cannot associate the results with a specific web property.

News 

Icon	Search Engines	Included in Standard Rank	URL Reported?	Title Reported?
	Google, Yahoo	No	Yes	Yes

What are News results?

News results appear for breaking news or trending stories pertaining to a keyword.

News Carousel 

Icon	Search Engines	Included in Standard Rank	URL Reported?	Title Reported?
	Google	No	Yes	Yes

What are News Carousel results?

News results sometimes appear in carousel-style blocks.

People Also Ask 

Icon	Search Engines	Included in Standard Rank	URL Reported?	Title Reported?
	Google	No	Yes	Yes

What are People Also Ask results?

When you perform a search on Google, some results pages include a "People Also Ask" result. This result includes a menu of questions, each of which can be opened to view an answer that Google provides directly from a piece of content. Researching these questions can help you:

• Understand how your audience poses questions about the phrase you entered.
• Get visibility into the content—yours or your competitors—that rank for these questions.
• Investigate the pages that rank for each question to research the content and technical markup of the page.
• Decide the topics for which you can optimize content to compete.

When available for a keyword:

• Reports that include universal result type data (such as Result Types and Keywords) include "People Also Ask" results.
• Topic reports in Explorer include a "People Also Ask" section, so you can find out what related questions appear in Google for your explored phrase.

Why doesn't Conductor always include the web property that owns each question result within a People Also Ask result?

Conductor's collection process cannot currently determine a URL for every question result within People Also Ask results because Google's formatting of these results is inconsistent.

Product

Icon	Search Engines	Included in Standard Rank	URL Reported?	Title Reported?
	Google	No	Sometimes	Yes

What are Product results?

Google includes Product results like "Popular products" or "Deals" for many retail-related queries.

Recipes 

Icon	Search Engines	Included in Standard Rank	URL Reported?	Title Reported?
	Google	Yes	Yes	Yes

What are Recipes results?

Many food-related keywords generate Recipes results, which provide different recipes from publishers, food blogs, and other sites.

Twitter 

Icon	Search Engines	Included in Standard Rank	URL Reported?	Title Reported?
	Google	No	Yes	Yes

What are Twitter results?

Google shows a menu of questions—based on the keyword—each of which can be opened to view an answer that Google provides directly from a piece of content.

Videos 

Icon	Search Engines	Included in Standard Rank	URL Reported?	Title Reported?
	Google, Yahoo	Sometimes	Yes	Yes

What are Videos results?

Engines shows suggested clips, how-to videos, music videos, and other content based on a keyword. These results appear together with other videos in the SERP or at times in the featured position at the top of the SERP, if they are hosted on YouTube and the searcher is using Google.

Video Carousel

Icon	Search Engines	Included in Standard Rank	URL Reported?	Title Reported?
	Google	No	Yes	Yes

What are Video Carousel results?

Google shows suggested clips, how-to videos, music videos, and other content based on a keyword in a carousel-style block.