A search engine results page (abbreviated to SERP) is the listing of results returned by a search engine in response to a query for a keyword or phrase.
Search engines, like Google and Bing, will return many pages of content results for a given search term.
Years ago a SERP was simply paid and non-paid listings. Things have changes and there is a lot more going on in today’s world of SEO.
A search engine results page can have a variety of data presented. This includes but are not limited to:
- Organic results driven by SEO
- Paid ads drive by pay per click advertising
- Local listings
- Knowledge graph content
- News articles
- Images
- Videos
- Products for purchase
- Suggestion for search
There is a massive amount of content available on the internet, but none is more important to website owners and marketers than search engine results pages (SERPs). Website owners all want their content to be placed at the top of page one of search results. This is because very few website searches ever go beyond page one of results.
In many cases, the higher you are on page one the more traffic you will receive. The farther down your content is positioned on the page of results, the fewer people will click on your content listing and visit your website.
In some industries, I have seen a drastic fall off of clicks once someone gets past the first few listings. But this isn’t for all industries or searches. The more complex the search term is, the more willing users are to explore search listings beyond the first few positions.
The search engine results page can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. The more you educate yourself on SEO, the more power you have to land where you want in SERP and obtain quality traffic to your website or blog.