The search engine result page (also known as "SERPs" or "SERP") is the page shown by search engines like Google, Bing in response to a search query. They include organic search results, paid advertisement, features snippets, video results, and more.
When you type something in Google it will mainly show two types of results. One is paid search result where advertisers pay for showing results in SERPs and the other one is organic search result which is determined by relevancy using various automated AI algorithms.
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Why Are SERPs Important for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Today most of the searchers visit links that are shown on the first page of SERPs and rarely visit 2nd or 3rd page. Here comes the concept of SERP visibility.
What is SERP Visibility & How to calculate it?
SERP visibility refers to the average monthly traffic a website gets from organic search out of the total search volume of that query. You can calculate it through the ratio between monthly search volume and click-through rate [CTR].
This is why most SEOs and Bloggers try to get to the first page of Google or Bing. But it doesn't mean that you got tons of traffic from search engines even if you managed to get into the top 10 positions. There are several reasons for that.
First, you need to understand that most of the clicks [ around 75%] go to the first three results and the rest 25% is distributed among the rest pages. The second reason is that Google is now pushing lots of paid search results at the top and in some cases around 50 to 60% of search click goes to paid results.
The third factor that affects search traffic is the "no-click searches" which are basically due to SERP features like featured snippets. In this type of search, most of the users got their answers within the SERPs and there is no need to click on the result.
For example, in keywords like "when did Microsoft start" Google shows the answer as a featured snippet. Here Users will not click even if you are #1 in the search result as they got their answer without even clicking on the result.
What is SERP volatility?
SERP volatility refers to the constant changes in the ranking of a website on the search result page [up-down]. This is mainly because algorithmic changes occur in the search engine.
What are the basic elements of SERP?
There are three basic elements of SERPs and these are further divided into subcategories:
- Paid Results [ads]
- Organic results
- SERP features
1. Paid Results [Ads]
Almost every search engine shows paid ads in different keywords and it is the main source of earning to search engines like Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc. These can be shown above the organic search result or below it. In some cases, you will see 3 to 4 paid results above the fold. So, targeting such types of keywords won't get you any benefits.
Advertisers have to pay to search engines to show in the paid result and it works as a pay per click model [PPC]. It means advertisers have to pay per click a user makes in the search results.
2. Organic results
Organic results are those which are selected as the best relevant result for a particular query by the search engines. These are sorted on the basics of some ranking factors [ around 200] and indexed in the server of Google or Bing. These consist of a simple page headline and the meta description and sometimes it shows the date published, star rating, etc.
In Bing, you will see the Author's name in the search result. Here Google doesn't change the page title but sometimes it may change the meta description that shows on the organic results according to the search query and relevancy.
3. SERP features
These are basically the modified organic result that shows additional information for a better user experience. They are meant for generating extra revenue for search engines. If you search for any product-related queries then you will see some shopping links at the top.
These results also ruin the efforts of SEOs and site owners as users don't have to click on the result to get the answer. Google directly pulls that information and shows it directly in the search result.
List of SERP features
1. Featured snippets
A featured snippet shows a short summary of one of the top-ranking pages and displays it in a box-type format above the organic listing. You can see different types of featured snippets like Paragraph, Bullet List, Tables, and Videos.
How to optimize your content for a featured snippet?
Now Google uses AI and machine learning to understand the actual content written in the blog post. Follow these simple hacks:
- Focus on On-page SEO.
- Keep your paragraph short & simple.
- Focus on the organized structure of Headlines. [h2, h3 tags]
- Use numbered lists, bullet-pointed lists, tables, or graphs.
- Use a question in the headline.
- Use the Table of contents in the article.
- Follow the optimal word count [40-58 words].
- Add a Q&A page to your website.
2. Direct Answer Box
Now Google is showing more and more direct answers to frequently asked queries. Some others called it a Knowledge card. For example, when you search for "Age of Elon Musk", Google shows you the exact age in the Direct answer box.
3. Knowledge Panel
The knowledge panel is the section that Google shows in the right sidebar about the topic. These are generally pulled from trusted sites like Wikipedia, popular news websites, Google Maps, and local listings.
4. Local Result
Google and Bing show local results for terms like "Restaurants nearby", "cinema Hall nearby" etc. These are location-based searches and these data are pulled from Google Maps and Google My Business listings.
5. Top stories
Top stories are generally shown for news results, basically from recently published articles, blogs, and videos in a carousel format.
6. Image Pack
Google will show image packs for keywords where the image is more important. It features some images from the Google Images section at the top.
7. Video Results
Search engines are now showing video results in the SERPs as the video format is preferable to a normal blog post. Try to repurpose your blog posts into videos!
8. People Also Ask
This covers all related terms that are searched by the user. According to Moz, 58% of Google's results contain a People Also Ask SERP feature. Whenever you write a blog post, try to include all questions that Google shows in this section.
9. Shopping results
Now Google shows shopping results when you type something related to products. This is basically a new form of ads that are introduced by them to earn more revenue from it.
10. Twitter Results
Google shows Tweet Boxes in SERPs that contain recent tweets. It generally shows for brand keywords and famous personalities.
11. Site link
The links shown below some branded websites are called site links. These are specially meant to navigate easily to popular pages of that website. There is no manual way to add these; they are auto-generated by Google based on traffic and structure.
12. Q&A on Google
You can see Q&A sections on certain pages of Google where people can ask their questions and give answers to others' questions, similar to a forum.
13. FAQ results
If you implement FAQ schema on your website, it may show the FAQ section below your organic listing in SERPs.
Conclusion
There are more than 30 SERPs features that Google and other search engines show and being aware of it helps you better optimize for those. Now it's your turn. Out of which SERPs features you like the most and what's other new features are introduced recently, let me know in the comment section.
