What is SERP?

As in any discipline, in SEO there are certain words or phrases that appear over and over again. Such is the case of the term SERP, one of the favorites among ecommerce experts. And that, as you know, refers to the results pages of Google or any other search engine.

It is such an essential concept that we could not talk about it without it coming up. We take it for granted without going any deeper. SERP is the results page, period. Why talk about it anymore if we all know what it means?

But this is a mistake. Behind such a simple idea there is, in fact, a whole science: SEO! And the fact is that gainingagoodposition in the SERPs turns out to be the main goal of search engine optimization

Therefore, to master this discipline you should know what SERPs are precisely, as well as the characteristics of the SERPs of Google, the most popular search engine.

Clarifying definitions: what are SERPs exactly?

SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page. This means that Google SERPs are not the only ones, since we are dealing here with a concept that concerns all search engines. From the well-known Bing and Yahoo! Search, to other not so popular but equally useful Ask, Yandex, DuckDuckGo, Blippex, Gibiru, Dogpile, IxQuick, etc.

Now, it is logical that we omit the phrase “Google’s” when we talk about Google’s results pages, since this search engine is almost always our target. And, apparently, what works for Google SERPs works for the others. But being mindful of the subtle differences can enlighten you at key moments in your SEO campaign and get you higher rankings in the SERPs.

SERP Features

Let’s now talk about the main characteristics of SERPs:

The results of a SERP point directly to the pages with the information we are looking for, not necessarily the home page of the website.
The position in a SERP depends exclusively on the page authority, which in Google SERPs is the Page Rank. However, sponsored links appear in special places such as at the top or on the sides, even if they are then repeated as another result.
The elements of a Googleresults page do not necessarily match the searched keyword. Sometimes the keyword is not available as is and the search engine has to resort to synonyms, similar terms or simply shows results for part of the keyword.
Search suggestions: you will almost always see in a SERP suggestions related to the search term, either while typing it or after the results appear.
Advanced search options: in addition to the normal search box, Google and other search result pages offer options to return specific results. For example, by type (any result, images, videos, news), by date, language, and so on.

If you carefully examine an example of any SERP, you will realize that Google has many similarities with other search engines, but also its peculiarities. The most obvious ones are the related queries box or the way it suggests similar queries. Exploiting such details can significantly improve the way your content is displayed on the Internet.