A SERP or Search Engine Results Page, is the web page presented to a user when they search a query into a search engine. Every SERP is unique, based on the searcher’s location, their browsing history, and their settings.
Why Are SERPS Important For SEO?
SERPs are important because results are indexed based on ranking signals which determine where a website appears on the results page.
Ranking poorly on SERPs means less exposure, less clicks, less traffic and less revenue. This is why websites put so much effort is put into SEO.
Types of SERPS
SERPs contain two main types of content, organic and paid.
Paid SERPS are paid for by advertisers, and usually appear at the top of SERPs. While previously these types of SERPs were primarily text-based, now they can come with images attached too. Paid results are also a SERP feature.
What Is a SERP Feature?
A SERP feature is any result that is not organic. Some SERP features include:
Local SERPs are the results that appear when a searcher enters a local-based query. These results are based on the searcher’s geographical location.
An example of local SERPs would be the results produced by the following query: “italian restaurants near me”.
How Can You Achieve SERP Success?
There are lots of strategies that website creators can use to improve how they rank in SERPs.
1. Keep Content Fresh
Relevancy is a key determinant in a website’s ranking factor on SERPs, so make sure your website’s content isn’t old and neglected. Consistently add new content.
2. Quality Content
Along with keeping it fresh, your content should also be compelling and high quality. Get rid of duplicated content, check your site for spelling and grammar errors, conduct keyword research and utilise it in your content.
This will increase dwell time, which will also help you rank highly in SERPS.
3. Improve Your Load Time
Since 2010, Google has been rewarding pages with faster load speeds by ranking them higher in SERPs. So, make sure everything on your page loads quickly, and don’t forget the mobile friendly versions too.
4. Links Are Key
Links are essential for high ranking in SERPs. So, whether it's fixing broken links, disavowing dodgy links, adding internal links, or finding quality backlinks, keep on top of it.
Tools with SERP Analysis Features
Here are some top SEO tools that will give your team everything needed to put your business on page one, where it belongs.
Mangools provides a tool that analyses your website’s performance on search engine results pages (SERP). SERPChecker measures the SEO authority of your site, and offers recommendations to help you outrank your competitors based on over 45 different optimisation metrics.
There are also features for improving local SEO techniques, evaluating the impact of rich snippets on click-through rates (CTR), and identifying ways to increase SERP engagement.
This software’s database leverages over 30 million results pages across 52,000 locations worldwide for its analysis.
AccuRanker uses a Google Grump rating tool to measure the rates at which the rankings of websites are fluctuating. There are four levels of grumpiness, from Chilled to Cautious, Grumpy, and Furious.
Each level notifies the user when rankings are stable or start to fluctuate. Increased activity in search engine results page (SERP) ranking may indicate that a Google algorithm update has taken place, and your site may lose its position on Google.
AccuRanker’s software uses 30,000 randomly selected keywords (split between desktop and mobile) to conduct its analysis.
SEMRush has three SERP (search engine results page) tracking tools. Position Ranking tracks your keywords, domains, and competitors. Subsequently, users can measure campaign progress, spot and fix errors, and optimise ranking efforts.
The Sensor tool tracks activity levels on Google and Baidu, looking for signs of a new algorithm update or changes in an industry's SEO approach. The final tool, Ranks, pinpoints domains with the most organic visibility.
You can also see which domains have the most paid keywords and traffic, along with their estimated paid traffic budget.
Other tools include: SpyFu SERP Analysis, SERPWoo, Ahrefs Keyword Explorer, SEO Quote SERP Overlay, etc.
What Should You Watch out For?
You might be looking to quickly and cheaply improve your SERP ranking, however the following black hat techniques will see you penalised and fall further in SERPs.
Feeling overwhelmed by the sheer scope of what’s to come? We don’t blame you. Why not get in touch with us today and we could offer you a free strategy session with us in the near future.
If you like what you see, we’ll then pair you with an awesome marketing team to implement it!
If you’re not prepared to spend that kind of money yet then you could always head over to our training courses that are filled with current and foolproof SEO techniques to get you off to a great start.
