SERPs stands for Search Engine Results Page; they are the results that appear on the search engine page; it’s that easy.
When we talk about a page being in SERPs 4, it means that in the search that a user has carried out, a specific web page has appeared in the fourth position in the search results.
Digital marketers and search engine optimization specialists compete for a prominent position in SERPs fiercely.
Each small technological advance and optimization for an SEO positioning of the web page can mean climbing one or several positions on the search results page. Achieving each position gained transforms into better conversion results, ROI, and CTR.
This article will delve into what SERPs are, how a search works, and how to optimize it to maximize visibility in search engines.
How does the SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) work?
It is important to understand what SERPs are and that each SERP is unique and depends on very different factors:
The geolocation of the person performing the search will determine the SERP result, so an identical search may have different results if we do it in Bihar or Patna. Have you noticed that your location appears at the bottom of the results page?
The keywords that the user writes in the search bar are definitive when it comes to the SERP since using a synonym or another will determine that a web page appears in the best positions of the SERP ranking or on page 2 or 3.
The user also determines the SERP since, to improve and personalize the experience in search engines, each of them provides a different result based on previous searches, browsing history, and preferences stored as cookies :
After a more detailed analysis, subtle differences are often found that are determined by this search personalization objective in two SERP results that seem identical at first glance.
Another great determinant is the search engines themselves and their innovation and experimentation systems.
In the great war of search engines to provide the user with more personalized experiences and SERP results closer to the tastes and preferences of their customers, search engines like Google or Bing innovate and carry out internal A/B tests to determine the better SERP results.
SERP Types?
When we talk about SERPs, it is important to know what SERPs are, but we also usually talk about organic results, but it is important to know that paid results also determine SERPs.
Organic SERPs: A SERP that contains the organic results of a search, determined by the search engine’s internal algorithms.
Paid SERPS: These are the results offered by paid ads for a specific search, also in a particular order.
Structure of a SERP in Google
When doing a typical search on Google, a default structure is populated with our search terms and results. Thus, every time a user searches, they obtain a series of common elements directly affecting the SERP.
Search box
It is the box where the words of the search we want to perform are written. These words will determine the SERP results.
Vertical navigation
This is how the tabs that appear under the search box are known and that allows the user to filter the search based on the type of format they are looking for: news, images, videos.
In addition, this vertical navigation usually includes an extra filter for each tab with customization options listed as “Tools.” An example of this is when we perform a search like “dog,” we filter in the images tab, and we also use the Tools filters to limit the size or color of the image we want to see.
In this way, there are different types of SERP depending on the format in which the user is interested.
Result information
This is the number of pages returned in a search. The number of pages that a result returns is usually inversely proportional to how specific the inquiry is and directly proportional to the popularity of the topic being searched for.
The best SERP ranking will be when our website appears among the first 10 results.
Ads – Advertising
They are always in the first position, marked as “announcement,” and they are results for which the company that appears in the SERP will be paying. They can also be placed at the bottom of the page.
This type of result provides us with valuable information, such as the keywords for which a company is bidding or the competition for a specific keyword.
Organic Results
These are the organic results processed by the search engine and are the SERPs that interest us the most since it is the most common and most used.
Result Pages
The number of pages sorts SERP results. The more we advance in the results pages, the pages’ relevance, quality, and SEO and SERP optimization decrease.
Other SERPs that will help your business
From the user’s point of view, the SERP makes it easier to find what they are looking for, but from the company’s point of view, the SERP improves and shortens the number of clicks that a user makes until a conversion occurs on the web page. Hence the importance of knowing what SERPs are.
With the great competition that exists today to appear in SERP searches, it is necessary to know that there are other types of SERPs. Our business may find it easier and more comfortable to position itself.
Knowledge Graphs
It is an element that appears to the right of the SERP search and whose objective is to show structured results that are highly relevant to the user’s search.
In addition, and automatically, it shows links to relevant websites. An example would be when performing a search with the word “The Beatles” since the knowledge graph will show links to YouTube and Spotify in a way that adds value to that user’s search.
Local packages in SERP
A local pack is an item that represents 3 local results and shows you the business name, address, and ratings within Google Maps. These results are obtained when the user performs a local search such as “coffee shop” or “food shop.”
SERP will help you attract more real customers if your company appears among these 3 local packages since you will be in the top ranking in the search engine. The information provided to the user will have a qualitative added value with stars and reviews from satisfied customers.
And how to do it? Optimizing your website to appear in local searches, creating and optimizing a Google My Business page, and registering our website in local and national agendas are some useful ideas to get in the first positions of SERP of local packages.
Related Searches
The main objective of a good SERP strategy is to avoid related searches as they reveal excessive advertising, long loading times, or a lack of quality in the content displayed.
Related Questions
This is a great opportunity for any business since you can achieve greater visibility in the first SERP results by answering frequently asked questions on specific topics.
Rich Snippets in SERP
A small code is added to the HTML documents that tell Google how to catalog that site based on the author, user ratings of the service, upcoming events, etc.
This code offers extra, valuable, and qualitative information about our business, as the local packages.
Featured Snippets in SERP
The common name for featured snippets is the answer box. The objective of these boxes is for the user to find the information they are looking for without visiting any web page since it is the SERP itself that gives them the answer.
These answer boxes appear even before the SERP results, hence the strength and importance.
EYE! Let’s differentiate between a rich snippet and a featured snippet: a rich snippet is an enhanced organic search result. A featured snippet responds to a query that appears above the organic search results in position zero.
Google selects the shortest and most precise answer from among the best-positioned pages that resolve the user’s query. And although the exact criteria have not yet been revealed, we know that texts between 50-300 words rank better, adding an <h1> after the answer or putting the solution followed by an <h2>.