Rich media and rich results in the SERPs are significant entities and points of entry for discovery in the customer journey. Rich media usually take more effort to create, but sites that do create it and mark it up effectively with structured data face less competition in those media categories and are able to increase visibility and traffic.

1. Rich Results in the SERPs
Analyzed By Industry
https://go.milestoneinternet.com/audit
408-200-2211 sales@milestoneinternet.com

2. Overview of Industry Data and Findings
Rich media and rich results in the SERPsare significant entities and points of entry
for discovery in the customer journey.Rich media usually take more effort to create,
but sites that do create it and mark it up effectively with structured data face less
competition in those media categories and are able to increase visibility and traffic.
Rich results findings overview
1. Rich results proportions vary dramatically by industry
2. Rich results visibility generally follows E-A-Tguidelines:
• Reviews growingin most industries (Trust)
• FAQs and People Also Ask also growing (Authority)
• Significant gains were seen in the Knowledge Panel and Site Links
visibility (Expertise)
3. Industries that are likely to be more knowledge-seeking saw larger gains in
FAQs and People Also Ask
https://go.milestoneinternet.com/audit 408-200-2211 sales@milestoneinternet.com
Methodologyand Data Collection
The dataset coversa cross-section ofindustries: Healthcare,Hotels, Insurance,
Restaurants,Food,Security,and FinServ, covering 420 companies, typically the
largest in the industry,and billionsof visits over 12 monthsfrom October 2020 to
September 2021. The data was sourced from SEMrush.

3. This dataset covers a cross-section of industries: Healthcare, Hotels, Insurance, Restaurants, Food,
Security, and FinServ
These chartsrepresent the proportional frequency ofinclusion of these major
elementsin the SERPs and are not exclusive,meaning that SERPscan contain
multiple elements and therefore contribute more than one element to the mix
and count from one SERP observation.
Cross-industry findings:
Four categories are driven by question content with 38.4% representation:
FAQs, People Also Ask, Rich Snippets, and Knowledge Panel. Milestone finds
that question content is very aligned with the fundamental purpose of search
engines providing answers to search queries. Reviews had significant visibility,
showing up in 32% of SERPs in September 2021. Image Pack shows a
declining trend throughout the year, droppingfrom 20% to 12% in September.
Other elementsare relatively stable throughoutthe observation period.
https://go.milestoneinternet.com/audit 408-200-2211 sales@milestoneinternet.com
Rich Media Plays Major Role in All Industry SERPs

4. https://go.milestoneinternet.com/audit 408-200-2211 sales@milestoneinternet.com
This data set coversonly hotel properties.
The question content elements have very high representation in the hotel
industry with 52.9% of SERPs. FAQs at 19.9% are more visible than People
Also Ask at 18.4%, which is unique among industries studied. This
underscores the tremendous opportunity for hotels to identify and answer the
specific questionspeople are asking about their propertiesand more generally
about the sites and attractionssurroundingtheir properties.
It also showsa growingtrend for Site Links, which allow for deep linksbelow
the main SERP listing show significant growth 14.5% to 23.3% or 60% growth
during the observation period.SERPsin this industry favor Image Pack over
individual images.
Hotel SERPs Have Very High Question Content Visibility

5. https://go.milestoneinternet.com/audit 408-200-2211 sales@milestoneinternet.com
This data set covers only finserv sites.
The question content elementshave very high representation in the finserv
industry with 48.2% of SERPs. FAQs at 10.9% are less visible than People Also
Ask at 23.7% and Rich Snippets at 3.9%, which suggests the search engine is
working to answer more information-seeking and generic knowledge questions.
Finserv providersshould address both generic and specific branded questions.
It also showsstrongvisibility for the Local Pack, so finserv companies should
optimize and complete Google My Business for each location.
Finserv SERPs Have High Question Content and Local Visibility

6. https://go.milestoneinternet.com/audit 408-200-2211 sales@milestoneinternet.com
This data set covers only healthcare sites.
The dominance of the Reviews element is striking and somewhat surprising. 41% of
healthcare SERPs include Reviews or Rating stars. People Also Ask is also very
visible at 25%. Healthcare providers need to actively manage reviews and ratings of
facilities and doctors asthe elements are highly visible in SERPs.
Healthcare SERPs Have High Question Content and Local Visibility
If we remove the Reviews and People Also Ask elements, we can better see the next
tier of SERP elements. We can see a fairly balanced distribution amongImages, FAQs,
and growth in Local and a decline in Image Pack.

7. https://go.milestoneinternet.com/audit 408-200-2211 sales@milestoneinternet.com
This data set covers only food and food distributor sites.
The dominance of the Images element is striking and the second-most dominant
share in any industry reviewed at 65%. The search engine appearsto have found
that images are expected and effective in this category.FAQ rich resultselements
were not found. This shows that FAQs are used on an industry-by-industry basis.
Food SERPs Have Incredibly High Image Visibility
If we remove the Images and Image Pack elements, we can better see the next tier
of SERP elements. In this context,Reviews is dominant 46.8% and trending up
significantly from 26.6%.

8. https://go.milestoneinternet.com/audit 408-200-2211 sales@milestoneinternet.com
This data set covers only retail sites.
The dominance of the Reviews element is strikingand the most dominant share in
any industry reviewed at 66%. Retail sites are dominated by product pages, most of
which include reviews and ratings. The data in this sector is so skewed and the sites
were so large that this sector was excluded from the industry rollup on page 3.
Retail Has Incredibly High Reviews Visibility
If we remove the Reviews and Image Pack elements, we can better see the next
tier of SERP elements. In this context,Site Links are highly visible followed by
People Also Ask. FAQs are growing substantiallyup from 0.25% to 6% in the
observation period,a 24X increase. Video visibility grew by 30%.

9. https://go.milestoneinternet.com/audit 408-200-2211 sales@milestoneinternet.com
This data set covers only restaurant sites.
Restaurantsshow a fairly balanced distribution of elementswith Images highest at
29.5% and Image Pack at 19.9%, which suggests that people want to see the food
and potential experience to make a reservation booking decision.Knowledge Panel
showssome growth from15.5% to 17.8% over the observation period.
Restaurant SERPs Have Significant Image Visibility

10. 1. Understand the dominant rich media types in your industry.
2. Plan to create more rich media content.
3. Use structured data,schema markup, to propel your rich media into top
positionsin the SERPs.
4. Invest in the platformsand reportingnecessary to track rich media
appearance and performance.
5. Consult with a provider with deep understanding and proven
experience saturatingthe SERPs with rich media.
https://go.milestoneinternet.com/audit 408-200-2211 sales@milestoneinternet.com
Strategic Takeaways for Rich Media for 2022
About Milestone: Milestone is a digital marketing agency that helps companies create, organize,
and amplify digital information to enhance their digital presence and make their information more
accurate, consistent, and visible. Milestone does this with its digital presence platform and adds
service as you need to grow your results. With headquarters in Santa Clara, Milestone also has
offices in Washington, DC, Bangalore and Ahmedebad India. Milestone has been recognized for
consecutive years as one of the fastest-growing companies in Silicon Valley.
Conclusion
The rich media opportunities in the SERPs continue to be significant. This research
shows the complexities and differences by industry and the need to understand,
benchmark,and execute effectively on rich media to drive visibility and traffic.