What is SERP?

What is SERP? A Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is the listing of websites returned when you enter a query into a search engine. The results might include a list of websites with different titles, a link to the page as well as a brief description displaying where the keywords have matched content within said page. A SERP can refer to a single page of links returned, or to the set of all links returned for a specific search query.

The most common way for a search engine to display results is with a search engine results page, or SERP. These are long lists of websites that provide potential matches based on the keywords that the user is searching for. A great example of this would be the standard page that a person sees after typing something into Google. The list of sites that are produced is a powerful tool for savvy individuals that want to increase the amount of traffic that their site receives.

Top SERP Position is Prime Virtual Real Estate

More importantly, think of a SERP as being very similar to both real estate and a billboard. The results produced by a SERP greatly affect the way that people browse the Internet. Users want to find the best resource that they can as quickly as possible, and they will most often click the first few results in the page before all else. If they find what they’re looking for, they will most likely discontinue their searching.

This is what creates the similarity between a SERP and real estate. The ideal location for a page to be ranked is as close to the top as possible, with the first result being the best piece of real estate. It is like a space that is extremely prone to foot traffic or a street corner that is great for a gas station. While it is possible to succeed in some lower positions, it is more likely that those situations will occur with very competitive keywords and keyword phrases. This is because if a site is getting an abundance of traffic while still ranked very low, it is likely that the keywords receive a high volume of searches per month. Even in this case, it would be better to have the exact same site ranked higher in the same SERP. This is a constant, and a SERP will always follow this rule. In the event that a lower-ranked site is receiving more traffic then high-ranking sites, is much more likely that the high-ranking site is poorly constructed or a bad match for the specific keyword, rather than the natural flow of the SERP being fundamentally out of order.

High SERP Placement is the New Billboard

A search engine result page is like a billboard in that it can be an extremely valuable tool for advertising and generating new customers. If 30,000 real people are searching for a word or phrase per month, there is a very likely chance that some of these people are perfectly willing to buy something that suits their wants or needs. Capitalizing on this is a matter of the real estate aspect of the SERP, because the best location is far more likely to receive a larger chunk of the 30,000 overall people. Even if only 50% of these people clicked on the first page of the SERP, that page is still receiving 15,000 visitors that all share a common thread. How a site benefits from these visitors is a matter of the webmaster’s approach to marketing.