Back in December of 2021, Google launched a redesigned version of Top Stories[1] on desktop that got relatively little notice. At first glance, it appeared that Google introduced a two-column design, such as this Top Stories pack for “Nerf”:
Over time, SEOs spotted a rarer but more interesting variety, the 7-pack. Here’s one for “snow” (a topic very much on my mind in Chicago as I’m writing this post):
Beyond the redesign itself, this 7-pack occupies a huge amount of screen real-estate, especially compared to previous Top Stories lists and carousels that were limited to three stories.
Should we panic yet?
It’s easy to focus on the most extreme examples, but how often is this 7-pack variety actually occurring? Across the MozCast 10,000-keyword daily tracking set on February 3rd, we captured 2,121 page-one SERPs with Top Stories. Here’s the breakdown by story count:
In our data set, the 7-pack is pretty rare (<1%), with a bit under half (44%) of Top Stories packs containing four stories. Interestingly, there is a design break between three and four stories. Top Stories packs with three or fewer stories are presented in list format, like this one from a search for “dog breeds”:
Top Stories packs with four or more stories (on desktop) seem to switch to the newer, two-column format. While we don’t currently have data on the CTR impact, it will be interesting to see how the two formats impact CTRs and other searcher behaviors.
Is news a search intent?
While the 7-pack is still relatively rare, it represents a qualitatively different SERP — one where news is not just a SERP feature but looks more like a dominant intent for that search. Consider the fuller SERP context of my search for “snow”:
Sorry for the vertical scroll, but