The Anatomy of a Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs)

This post will give a detailed overview of the various parts of a search engine results page, the function of each section and how to leverage SEO to maximize your exposure.

Paid Ads - Google Ads (PPC) 

Google paid ads utilize the Google Ads tool to bid on keywords and pay to be shown at the top of search results. This tactic is highly effective in competitive markets and can be a good marketing strategy to implement alongside SEO.

Local Search Results - Local SEO

Search results from a Google my Business listing will be shown when Google identifies that a local result will satisfy the users request better than normal organic results. When someone is searching for a business nearby, google identifies the search as a local request and will utilize Google my Business listings to populate the top of search results. The number one factor in local search is the address of your business in your Google my Business account, as this address will be used to determine if you are close enough to the user to be displayed. Next Google will look at other factors such as keywords, number of reviews and ratings among other things.

Organic Search Results

The next portion of the SERP is the organic results. This section is reserved for websites that have provided rich content to google which can be used to satisfy the search request. If you succeeded in provided Google the world’s best content, it will reward you by displaying your website organically above all the rest, driving you more traffic. To become a top level content authority in your marketplace, it often takes a combination of 3 integrated steps; Content, Technology and Skilled Resources. Once these 3 key components have been set up correctly, secondary SEO tactics such as on page SEO, off page SEO and technical SEO can be used to further distinguish your business in the marketplace.

Social Media Search Results

Social media is an extremely powerful SEO tactic that is often underutilized. Social platforms like LinkedIn are treated similar to a webpage by Google, and will be crawled, indexed and given the opportunity to show up in the organic search results. This is the same with Pinterest, Twitter, FAQ sites like Quora and also employment sites. The SEO benefit of applying your keyword and content strategy to social media platforms is these sites have very strong authority with Google, giving you an extra SEO boost that you don’t have to work for; all you have to do is provide the rich content value.

Image Search Results

The image section of SERP pages is often ignored by companies and digital marketers, however it can be an amazing opportunity to increase brand awareness, generate interest and traffic. Applying SEO to images requires some technical knowledge and software such as Photoshop which allows you to add meta data before uploading them to your SEO optimized content management system for indexation by google. Apart from appearing on the organic SERP pages, images also have a separate search engine result page, giving you the opportunity to appear multiple times for one search, depending on the searchers intent. 

Video Search Results

After Google purchased YouTube, video SEO became a relevant ranking factor, allowing keyword strategies in the meta description and titles of videos. This enabled digital marketers to bring keyword and content strategies into video search and compete for first page ranking. Google aims to provide searchers the best results for their request, and part of that is providing a variety of results, which is why videos have become an important SEO factor for businesses trying to dominate their marketplace. 

Product Search Results

Getting your products on the first page of Google doesn’t only involve your website and product pages, Google Merchant Center along with Google Shopping are two great ways of getting your products in front of potential buyers and dominating the 1st SERP page.

Rich Snippets

Googles aim is to provide searchers the best quality results in the most convenient way possible. To do this Google has implemented various rich snippet results that can provide information in a faster and more structured way. These results require you to apply “Schema Markup” or “Structure Data” to your webpages which allows Google to better understand your information and structure it better for searchers. By doing this you show Google you are making an effort to provide valuable content and increase your chances of being featured in a Rich Snippet which often have better click through rate than basic search results. Some Rich Snippets examples are as follows:

• People Also Ask Results
• Related Searches
• Featured Snippets
• FAQ Answers
• Knowledge Graph

How to Dominate the SERP Page

It’s always useful to keep in mind that all of these sections are affected by SEO and PPC in different ways. Understanding the 3 key component of Content, Technology and Skilled Resources can help your business attain 1st page ranking of SERPs and dominate your marketplace!