Components of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
– Organic search results
– Advertisements
– Enhanced results (rich snippets, images, maps, definitions, answer boxes, videos)
– Diverse elements and features on SERP
Search Query and Search Engine
– Search query (also known as user search string)
– Typed in the search bar of search engines
– Indicates the desired topic
– Located on major search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, Petal, Sogou
Organic Results
– Natural listings generated by search engines
– Sorted based on relevance score
– Metrics considered: quality, relevance, expertise, trustworthiness, user experience, backlinks
– Presented as visual elements with attribution, title link, and snippet
– Users tend to view only the first results on the first page
Sponsored Results
– Offered by major search engines
– Companies pay to have their products or services appear above other search hits
– Bidding system determines top result
– Consumers tend to avoid sponsored results
– Less expectation of relevance
Rich Snippets and SERP Features
– Rich snippets displayed by Google in search results
– Content in structured data markup
– Helps Google algorithm index and understand content
– Supports various data types (products, recipes, reviews, events, news articles, job postings)
– SERP features are additional elements displayed on search engine results pages
– Examples include featured snippets, knowledge panels, image carousels, and local packs
– SERP features can improve user experience and increase click-through rates
This article needs additional citations for verification. (May 2012) |
Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) are the pages displayed by search engines in response to a query by a user. The main component of the SERP is the listing of results that are returned by the search engine in response to a keyword query.
The results are of two general types :
- organic search: retrieved by the search engine's algorithm
- sponsored search: advertisements.
The results are normally ranked by relevance to the query. Each result displayed on the SERP normally includes a title, a link that points to the actual page on the Web, and a short description showing where the keywords have matched content within the page for organic results. For sponsored results, the advertiser chooses what to display.
With the vast amount of content available online, it's no surprise that a single search query can yield countless pages of results. However, in order to avoid overwhelming users, search engines and personal preferences often limit the number of results displayed per page. As a result, subsequent pages may not be as relevant or ranked as highly as the first. Just like the world of traditional print media and its advertising, this enables competitive pricing for page real estate, but is complicated by the dynamics of consumer expectations and intent— unlike static print media where the content and the advertising on every page is the same all of the time for all viewers, despite such hard copy being localized to some degree, usually geographic, like state, metro-area, city, or neighbourhood, search engine results can vary based on individual factors such as browsing habits.
