If you’re wondering what is SERP? It stands for search engine results page. SERP is the web pages you will see once you’ve search something in a search engine. Search engine optimization (SEO) specialists do all they can so that their contents end up on top of the SERP.
How They Work and What They Are
When users search for something online such as in Google, the search engine results page (SERP) pops up. Usually, users encode their search queries with specific phrases and terms called ‘keywords’.
All SERPs have their own uniqueness. This is due to search engines trying to personalize the experience for their users by presenting a SERP based on their search query patterns, their location, browsing history, and personal account settings. However, SERPs appear to be identical to each other, but if you’ll look closer, you’ll notice some subtle changes.
Trials and experiments conducted by search engines such as Bing, Google, Yahoo, and other search engine providers resulted in constant changes in the appearance of results pages. In addition, the constant changes are caused by search space technologies’ rapid developments and an influx of newly published contents.
SERPs’ Two Types of Content
SERPs usually contain two types of content namely: organic results and paid results.
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Organic Results
Organic results are the most common results that will appear in a SERP. It contains the site’s name, the site’s link, the title of the link, and other information before a user enters it. In 2012, Google introduced the Knowledge Graph which is another form of organic result. What it does is that it gathers information about a commonly-searched topic from reliable sources across the web and pieces them together. The Knowledge Graph appears on the right side of the SERP. This commonly occurs if a user searches for famous people, famous places, and historical world events.
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Paid Results
Paid results, on the other hand, are results that were paid by advertisers to be displayed on SERP. It usually has an ‘Ad’ yellow icon beside its link. They often appear when a user searches for facts and queries about a certain product. For instance, the user searches for “How to choose the best lawn mower”; the SERP will then contain ads about a lawn mower by online shopping sites.
Conclusion
Now that you know what is SERP. You probably realize by now why SEO specialists work so hard for their contents to be discovered by users who might need them, including you.
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