What is SERP?
Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is the page used by search engines to display the results of a user’s search. It’s the most important thing in SEO.
A SERP is a specific type of user interface. The major search engines like Google and Bing may change aspects of the interface according to user preference, and market research.
A search engine results page (SERP) is a webpage that shows up after a user-generated search on a search engine.
The resulting page displays the given results for a keyword search and the user selects the most relevant page or other desired option from a vertical list.
A SERP is the list of results that a search engine returns in response to a specific word or phrase query.
Each listing includes the linked webpage title, the linked page URL (Uniform Resource Locator), and a brief description of the page content.
There are different types of results on SERP pages that:-
- the search engine spider crawled and indexed
- manually added to the search engine’s directory
- appear as a result of paid inclusion
It allows you to see what and how websites are ranked for various keywords. It’s very good information to make an analysis of a given keyword.
SERP could help website owners to choose better keywords in writing similar content on a particular topic. You can compare their content with various results. You can make an analysis on how to improve ranking on their content.
Google SERP rankings are essential for a successful website, and website owners will always want to ensure that their pages appear high in SERP listings.
Because the majority of search clicks are distributed across the first 10 results listed for any keyword. It means the second Google search results page receives around 1 percent of the clicks.
Search results for SERPs are determined by search engine algorithms. It includes the quality of links pointing to other websites as well as the relevance and the quality of the page content.
SERPs may also personalize to reflect user location and recent search history. It’s possible to request that Google remove any results generated via such personal information.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is used to positively influence a website’s position in SERP listings because high ranking is important for website traffic.
What is Organic SERP –
Google bases its organic search results on the popularity of the website and the relevance to a user’s search.
The term organic refers to natural search results as opposed to paid ads like pay per click (PPC) you see at the top of the search results page. Organic SERP is earned by Relevance and Authority of your website to the search term.
Update on Google’s SERPs –
Google refines its search algorithms to offer its users more relevant search results via regular updates like Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird.
You must keep up to date and adapt the SEO strategies to reflect the latest Google updates. Google will also penalize any website that attempts to unfairly manipulate its search engine rankings like keyword stuffing.
It’ll negatively affect a website’s rankings and can lead to complete exclusion from the search index.
# On-Page SEO –On-Page SEO is search engine optimization, web design and code technique that gets search engines to rank you at the top of organic SERP.
Relevant content is words and content that is the best match for a search term. It includes the process of placing keywords in the page titles, Meta tags, anchor text links, image alt, and title tags and body text of a webpage.
It’s a formula to copywriting, image naming and tagging involving keyword placement that gets top SERP.
# Off-Page SEO – Off-Page SEO goes to Authority as in who’s linking to your website. It’s relevant to your subject or product. It’s the process of obtaining and pointing links o your website.
It’s also known as link building with using a mixture of one-way links, and reciprocal links.
It includes links to your relevant webpages when you post to your social media websites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube videos, etc.
It’s depending on your online competition, publishing blog entries regularly, issuing press releases or viral images and videos are another way to get quality links and traffic to your website.
The more traffic you get the more authority Google calculates you have and ranks your website higher. The on-topic comments to blogs, forums, and directories in your niche are great to get link juice to your website.
Components of SERP –
The main components of the SERP are the listing of results that are returned by the search engine in response to a keyword or phrase query. It’s mainly divided into different components:-
# Search Query – The search query is the keyword you have typed into the search engine. A search query known as user search string is the words that are typed by the user in the search bar of the search engine.
The search box is located on all major search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo! User type into the search box the desired topic based on the keywords or key phrase entered into the search engine.
# Organic Search Engine Results Page (SERP) – It’s an organic search result listing which is generated by search engines based on the search engine’s algorithm.
The search engine displays organic search results links on the SERPs after using a specific algorithm. Every search engine used its algorithm to calculate the most accurate, relevant and trustworthy list of links to show in the SERPs.
Google uses Hummingbird algorithm for deciding the ranking of various SERPs based on many factors such as website structure, the content of website, backlinks, news, social media presence, free ads, internal linking, targeted keywords, etc.
There are more than 200 factors on the basis of which search engine crawled websites to find the most relevant content.
Search engines go with the visibility of keywords in page title, heading, Meta description and URL of the website with search keywords query to generate an organic listing.
Each result displayed on the SERP normally includes a title, a link that points to the actual page on the web and a short description.
These are the website links that the search engine thinks is the most relevant to the audience. It ranks the most relevant one first and this is the link that is most clicked for the given keyword.
# Paid/Sponsored Search Engine Results Page (SERP) Listings – These are known as paid or sponsored results.
Many search engines accept paid listing which guarantees the visibility of a website on top in organic search results. In the paid listing, an advertiser pays for placing ads on top of organic search results.
The advertiser chooses what to display and pays for sponsored results. These are the paid links that are displayed by the search engine when a user types a keyword.
It’s displayed at the top of the page after the search box and is tagged as ads/sponsored. Google decides which ads to run based on which ads they think will get the most clicks.
Since the ads are pay-per-click (PPC), Google wants to make sure it’s only showing ads for a search that have a high chance of getting clicked.
It’s clear that Google ads work and are driving traffic to websites that use Google Advertising. Ad position depends on ad ranking.
Ad ranking is decided by Google AdWords keywords auction in which advertisers placed to bid for most searched keywords in order to increase website traffic through clickable ads.
Maximum bid times quality score decide which ads will be placed on top in search engine results.
How to Show-up Your Ad in Paid Search Results –
The different primary factors that Google uses to determine which ads to show at the top of the SERP and what order to show them in are:-
# Bid – The bid is the price that you are willing to pay for a click when your ads show for a specific keyword or keywords.
You can set your bid as high or low as you want, but you are competing against others that are bidding on the same keyword. The cost of the click depends on how many advertisers bidding on the same term.
# Quality and Relevance of the Ad – It has to do with how relevant your ad is to search. If someone is searching for a plumber, the ad for your pizza restaurant will not show up in search results.
Your ad needs to match the search term. People search for the products/services with the location and you can include your products/services information with a location.
# Landing Page Experience – Your ad needs to have a similar keyword as the advertisement on the landing page. It means that you should mention in the ad correspond to the content on the webpage that the ad is linking.
How Paid Search Results Work on Mobile –
The paid results on mobile work the same way as it does on a desktop. Google’s algorithm will decide which ads to show based on the bid, relevance, and landing page experience.
Your ad runs on desktop and mobile. You can also choose to run exclusively on mobile devices. You can also write the copy of your ad specifically for people using phones.
When running a mobile ad, it’s good to have ad extensions, which allow people to click to call and click for directions. Ad extensions don’t have an additional cost, and you’ll pay if someone clicks on the extension.
You can enable your ad extensions by logging into your account and navigating to the Ad extensions tab.
How Google’s Local Search Results Work –
Google’s local results are listed below the paid search results. Google chooses three local businesses to display based on how far each potential search result if from the location term used in a search.
If a user doesn’t specify a location in their search, Google will calculate distance based on the user’s location. It’s completely free to be listed, but you’ll need to compare a few key steps to ensure that your business shows up.
There are a few top factors Google uses to determine which businesses show up in the local results. These factors measure the relevancy, distance, and prominence of local results.
# Google My Business (GMB) – GMB is a free tool for businesses. It helps to find out the relevance and manage businesses online presence across Google.
You can list a category for your business, the products/services, and a description. Google will match the information on the GMB page against the search query.
You should make sure that your information on this page is accurate and that you have verified your business.
# Address and Location – Your address should be listed correctly on your GMB page and across directories. Your business should be listed correctly in directories, local chamber of commerce, and industry-specific directories.
If your business has multiple locations, you can list each address so that your business can show up in the local results for multiple locations.
# Citations – Citations will consist of your business name, address and phone number (NAP). Google uses citations to determine if a website is popular.
If many different well-known websites are citing your business, then Google will know that your business is prominent.
You should have a standard NAP and avoid abbreviations of your business name in directories, address, etc. Google doesn’t trust citations from low-quality websites.
# 5 Marketing Tools with SERP Features to Improve Your SEO –
# SE Ranking – It’s a great tool to check out the presence in the different SERP features. It provides very useful information about each keyword paired with your competitors’ pages which are displayed in the SERP feature.
This tool shows a detailed overview of your competitors’ merits and demerits. This tool uses Google’s SERPs to find the best=performing keywords and better organize keyword lists with search volume.
It’s helpful in eliminating the irrelevant keywords grouping, optimizing webpages for industry-related questions and improve chances of featuring.
# Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool – This tool checks markup validation and detects possible errors on your website. This tool works for many types of schema.
Structured data is essential for SEO and help to enhance rich results features in SERPs, increase online visibility and generate targeted traffic.
# Moz Pro – It’s a great tool which gives a detailed analysis of your keywords and competitor’s keywords.
This tool gathers data on 16 SERP features, but it’ll show you featured snippets, or image packs, local packs, review, in-depth articles, video, and website links.
This tool shows the URL, webpage title, and description for the competitors.
# PowerReviews – It’s an e-commerce tool which is integrated into platforms like Magento, Shopify, etc. You can easily organize and collect reviews about your products.
It includes those as part of your website’s content which will make your online business more visible on SERP.
Customers do pay very much attention to the star ratings, and Google reviews and online reviews affect your search engine rankings.
This tool integrates with Google product listing ads and you can group your star ratings to Google.
# STAT Search Analytics – It’s a great tool to explore a SERP feature strategy. It gives a clear signal of whether your SERP feature strategy is great for any of your keyword groups.
You can easily track the progress of features on the SERPs. This tool provides detailed reports and measures all your successes and failures in order to understand what works well and what doesn’t work.
Conclusion – Ranking on Google’s SERP is important for driving traffic to your business website and gaining new customers. SEO is an attempt to influence a website’s SERP ranking. SERPs have changed in response to Google updated. An SEO expert should know about the latest Google update and adapt the strategies accordingly. If you follow SEO best practices, you’ll be on the way to position zero.