Focus on multiple types of search results and improve your visitor numbers
With 95% of all online queries in Belgium, Google is the undisputed market leader in search engines. CTR research has shown that the websites that rank on the first page of Google Search Results, take up over 75% of all user clicks.
This is why it’s so important to know exactly what type of search result you should optimise your website for. Because aside from your website’s ranking, the amount of space that your result takes up is just as important.
What Is SERP?
SERP, short for search engine results page, is the web page that search engines take their users to after entering a query. The SERP is made up out of 2 parts:
- Your query
- Y Search results
A list of web pages curated by search engines when someone enters a query. Each result includes a URL that links to the actual web page, a title, and a short description. Some results can also include visual elements like ratings, videos, or images. - Sponsored results
Sponsored results are paid search results. They can be displayed either above or below organic search results. Google ranks them based on relevance, CPC, click frequency, and competition.
- Y Organic results
These search results are not paid, and are displayed below the first paid results. They are ranked by the Google algorithm based on their relevance to the query.
- Y SERP features
SERP features are additional features displayed alongside paid and organic search results. We’ll explain these features in more detail below.
We can split search results into 3 categories:
Paid Results
Call-Only Ads
Call-only ads, a type of text ad, are adverts that clearly display your company’s phone number. They are positioned where regular text ads would be, but only on mobile devices. So by clicking the ad, people can call you straight away, perfect to quickly draw in hot leads!
Google Shopping Ads
Google Shopping Ads are product adverts which are displayed either at the top, or in the top right corner on SERPs. This type of ad is displayed when users search for a brand or product with keywords that have commercial intent.
In order to discern Google Shopping Ads from organic search results, they are labelled as ‘sponsored’.
Text Ads
Basic Google adverts are text ads. These ads are displayed either above or right below the first organic results, the exact position depends on both the quality of your advert and your budget.
So, with the right Google Ads strategy that smartly combines multiple types of adverts, you can be visible in the top of SERPs at all times!
Organic Results
Basic Organic Results
Basic organic search results are the regular, unpaid search results. Their rankings are determined by the Google algorithm. The algorithm uses about 250 factors to decide on a website’s ranking, the most important of which have to do with your website’s authority and page’s relevance.
SERP Features
Rich Snippets
Rich Snippets are relevant, additional information or visually appealing elements in search results. This can be a phone number, address, or prices. Google uses rich snippets in an attempt to improve SERPs, user experience and provide additional information that is relevant to the query. In that sense, rich snippets are add-ons to regular search results, and stand out more to improve click through rate.
AMP, short for Accelerated Mobile Pages, is a project supported by Google that aims to improve web pages’ performance and efficiency on mobile devices. You can recognise AMP results by the lighting bold pictogram.
While AMP is no direct ranking factor, page speed is an essential one for mobile search results. By implementing the correct AMP scheme in your web pages, your chances of ranking in mobile search results, rich results, and carrousels will improve.
That being said, there are two downsides to AMP:
Google can add promotional content and change your page’s layout, like excluding subscription forms for mailing lists.
AMP diverts users away from your website. Users who click on AMP results, are taken to a page on a different server.
Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs appear in SERPs as an add-on to the basic search results. The purpose is to illustrate your website’s structure and page hierarchy by including the page titles, separated by special symbols.
Search Box
Google can sometimes add a search box in between the meta description and recommended site links. With this, users can search through a website’s content without leaving the SERP, and the search box will only display results from that website.
Site Links
Site links are additional hyperlinks, titles, and meta descriptions that are included with your search results in SERPs. They refer to relevant pages on your website, usually main pages, but Google can also choose to display blogs and relevant categories. There is nothing you can do to influence whether or not you get any site links, and which pages they refer to.
Site links are very useful if you want to lead your organic traffic to more than one page, because they enable visitors to navigate to various pages straight from the SERP.
Reviews & Ratings
The reviews and ratings are added in between the page title and meta description. This additional element contains the average rating, the number of reviews that have been left, and sometimes a short overview of one of them.
Reviews and ratings improve your website’s credibility, which will in turn increase your click through rate. Only reviews from credited, external platforms like Trustpilot and Trustedshops are eligible to be included in SERPs.
Rich Results
Rich results are everything you see on an SERP outside of the regular search results. The most well-known example is the Google Maps element, showing related places nearby. Google changes the number and structure of these SERP features often, but we’ll name some of the most popular and useful ones.
Featured Snippets
You will have seen plenty of featured snippets already. With these elements, Google tries to formulate a response to your questions, usually taken from a high-ranking website, and displays that response all the way at the top of search results.
Generally, featured snippets include a part of your web page, the page title, URL, and sometimes an image. They usually appear for queries with informational intent.
Google Knowledge Panel
The Google Knowledge Panel contains information about the subject of queries and is triggered when people search for one specific brand, location, celebrity, book, film, painting, etc. This information is pulled from the Knowledge Graph, a database that Google uses to collect details about businesses, people, locations, and more. Most information about businesses originates from their Google Business Profile, the rest is taken from various credible websites.
Because the knowledge panel takes up a large part of the first search result page, it holds a lot of value for your company. Aside from your address, business hours, and contact details, the knowledge panel will also include reviews and ratings.
It goes without saying that positive reviews will increase your business’ credibility, which encourages more people to get in touch with you.
Local Pack
The local pack is triggered when a query revolves around a local establishment, like a public swimming pool or a barber shop. The local pack always appears at the top of SERPs, and contains a Google Maps element mentioning 3 local businesses.
The map contain pins that locate each business, their name, address, phone number and website URL.
Which businesses you’ll be shown is entirely dependent on your location. The local pack displays businesses near you, and even sorts them based on distance.
Local Teaser Pack
Basic local packs trigger for most local establishments, think bakeries, hair salons, gyms, museums, and more. But for a few types of businesses, Google will display a more advanced local pack, the local teaser pack. They contain additional elements. For example, the option to book a table at a restaurant straight from the SERP, or book a flight with an airline. For hotels you’ll often see the price per night for certain rooms. Not surprising that this rich result holds a lot of value for businesses.
Direct Answer Results
For some questions, Google will provide a short answer, highlighted in a grey box. These results, also known as rich, quick, or instant answers, immediately answer basic questions about the weather, sports results, nutritional value in food, etc. the information used is generally part of the public domain, but can also be pulled from the Google Knowledge Graph or partner websites.
Google Image Pack
The Google Image pack triggers for queries where visual input might be useful. It can be displayed as a carrousel with relevant images, and can appear anywhere on the search result page. Another possibility is that images are displayed in 2 or 3 rows at the top of search results.
If you click on an image, you’re taken to the Google Images section, from where you can navigate to the website that owns that image.
Google News Stories
The Google News feature shows recent news articles that are related to a query. Three or more articles are displayed alongside each other, with their title and an image. This feature is reserved for articles from larger, well-known news platforms.
People Also Ask
The people also ask feature displays commonly asked questions related to your query, alongside answers pulled from high-ranking websites. This feature appears to be an endless list of questions, as soon as you click on one question, new related questions appear.
Seeing as this feature aims to answer questions, you’ll have higher chances of making the cut if you rank high for several long tail keywords (keywords consisting of multiple words). The key thing to remember here is that both the question and answer need to be clearly displayed on your page.
Video List
This SERP feature consists of a vertical list of up to 4 videos related to the query, displayed above the organic search results but below advertisements. These videos are usually taken from YouTube, but they can also be pulled from other platforms, like Facebook, Vimeo, Dailymotion, or even your own website.
The video list is triggered when someone searches for a film, trailer, or DIY subject. At the bottom of the list, you can click through to more related videos.
Most modern video platforms provide plenty of options to optimise your video for search engines so you stand a chance at making the video list. Write a clear title and add relevant tags to illustrate to search engines what the subject of your video is.
Recipe Cards
When you’re looking for a particular recipe, Google will show a few suggestions right below the paid search results. These suggestions, the so-called “recipe cards”, consist of an image, title, page URL, and potentially a short introduction.
If you want your website to be displayed in this feature, you’ll need to include structured data in your page to tell Google what the ingredients are, how long it takes to prepare, what the reviews are, and more.
Structured data is integrated into your website’s code, which is possible in most website building platforms. If you find that you can’t add structured data to your website, get in touch with your developer to make those changes for you.
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