The more popular a search engine like Google is, the more website owners compete to create content that can attract users. A popular strategy to increase engagement with content on the internet is to apply SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
If we discuss and study SEO, we will come across the term SERP. However, few people are familiar with SERPs and how they work. Therefore, we will discuss SERP in this article.
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What is SERP?
SERP is an acronym for search engine results page; it is a page displayed on Google and other search engines to show the results of their users' searches.
More uniquely, even when using the same keywords, the appearance of the SERP can vary between users. Google will display search results based on various factors relevant to the current users. For example, where users live, previous search history, social media usage, and other settings.
As a result, search engine users in Nigeria and America may have different SERPs even though they use the same keywords.
How to Make Websites Appear on Google SERP
SERP consists of three components: paid advertising, organic results, and the SERP feature. Therefore, your website can appear in Google SERP in three ways:
1. Using Paid Ads
The practice of showing a website in the SERP with paid advertising is called Search Engine Marketing (SEM). You must win the bid for your ad to be placed at the top of the SERP.
The model used for this advertisement is Pay Per Click (PPC), where you only have to pay for the ad when someone clicks on it. So, you have to prepare a special budget for the ad.
2. Using SEO for Organic Search
To appear in organic searches, you must pay attention to the Meta Tag, which consists of the meta title, URL slug, and meta description. These three concepts are explained briefly below:
- Meta title: the title that will appear at the top of the search results. Its purpose is to inform visitors about the contents of your article.
- URL slug: the part of the URL or permalink on your website that identifies the specific page or post.
- Meta description: a summary of website content that will appear in search results so that visitors can get an overview of your content.
The organic search results on the SERP will all be taken from a database containing billions of websites called the Google Index. This means that your website must enter the Google Index first to appear organically on the SERP or search engine results page.
3. Using the Features in the SERP
There are lots of SERP features that you can use to make your website appear organically on Google pages, such as:
- Knowledge Panel: SERP feature that can display the main information of a keyword. It will appear at the top of the search results on a mobile device, while on a computer or laptop, it will appear on the right side of the screen on the browser.
- Top Stories: this feature displays the most recent news based on related search keywords. Google will also display thumbnail images, news titles, website addresses and when the news was updated.
- Rich Snippets: a feature that appears more prominent on the search page because there is a rating with a star image and can make people who are searching more interested in clicking on the website.
- Featured Snippets: a feature that can display snippets of content from a website related to certain keywords. Usually, Featured Snippets will always be positioned at the top position or often referred to as ranking #0 on the search engine results page.
- Image Collection: a feature that can display image packs or a collection of images from thumbnails that match the keywords typed into the search engine. This feature can also be displayed at the top of Google search results. In addition to the SERP features above, Google search engine will also display other features such as Shopping Results, People Also Asking, SiteLinks, Twitter Contacts, and Video Search Results.
- Knowledge Cards: a feature that will display short answers based on keywords entered into the search engine. These answers will appear in two formats: one that does not require users to enter a website first and another that does.
Benefits of SERP for a Website
So it can be concluded that applying the abovementioned techniques will create opportunities for your website to occupy the top position on the search page. It can also make the possibility of people clicking on the website much higher. With a higher chance of people clicking on your website on the search page, the number of visitors to your website will increase dramatically.
Conclusion
If SEO is important for increasing visitors to your content or article, then SERP is equally important. This is because SERP and SEO are inextricably linked.
SERP is a webpage that appears when users search for specific keywords on search engines such as Google.
The search results in the SERP are classified into two types: organic and paid results. In addition, SERP also has several main features that can be used, including knowledge cards, knowledge graphs, rich snippets, featured snippets, image packs, top stories, people also ask, and site links.
To get your website to the top of Google SERP, you need to do keyword research, understand search intent, write content and articles with more than 1000 words, place keywords in the URL, title, and also article paragraphs, use meta titles and descriptions, and provide backlinks to articles.