What Does SERPs Stand For?

Seeing SERPs on your computer screen you may begin to think about your pension, but SERPs has two possible meanings and the other meaning is something that could hugely benefit a business’s online presence.

SERPs in this instance stands for Search Engine Results Page.

What Does SERPs Stand For?

If you have never heard of this before, don’t worry, you are about to learn everything a beginner needs to know about SERPs, including what it is, how it can benefit a business, and what you can do to rank higher within SERPs.

What Is SERPs?

A Search Engine Results Page is the page that loads on a search engine when a user submits a search query. If you input a search request into Google, Yahoo, or any other search engine the SERP page is what you will see next. 

Searches trigger a variety of different types of results, such as organic search results, paid search results, and pay-per-click (PPC) results. 

How search results rank on the search results page is thanks to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which is when keywords and search terms are incorporated into websites so that when a specific term is searched for by a user this triggers the website to be listed on the search engine results page which could be one page or multiple pages long. 

Where your business ranks is hugely important as most people will only choose from the top page of results. The ranking can be very competitive depending on your business and so it is important to know what you can do to better your SERPs ranking. 

Type Of Search Queries 

SERPs are triggered by a search query. For the most part, search queries will usually fall into one of three different categories, which are explained below. 

Informational Queries 

Informational queries would be when someone types a search query related to learning something, such as how to do a basic task or information about a time in history.

The point of this search isn’t to buy something but if you have your content properly curated then this could happen. 

For example, a hardware store could have a blog on the best type of nails to use to hang photo frames. If the user clicks into that blog and if you have products linked within your blog it is highly likely that the user may make a purchase. 

Having videos, infographics, downloadable guides, as well as blogs will also help your page to rank higher within the SERPs.

Transactional Queries 

Transactional queries are searches that will ultimately end in a customer making a transaction and purchasing a service or product.

While these searches will garner organic search results they are also the most popular searches for companies paying for pay-per-click spots on the page, which means they have paid to rank high within the SERPs.

Navigational Queries 

This is the search commonly used by people who are looking for a specific website but don’t know the URL that would lead them directly there.

Some companies will buy ads so that their business name or other keywords will help people to find their website.

What Does SERPs Stand For?

How SERPs Can Benefit Businesses? 

Improving your SERPs ranking can be hugely beneficial as you will be able to reach a wider net of potential customers or website visitors. 

If you manage to get your website listing within the top number of search results for relevant search queries you will notice that the traffic will increase on your website, more customers will become returning customers as your website will be easy to find, and you will also notice that you will be getting more sales. 

Businesses that buy ads for certain SERPs also reap the benefits as their ad will be placed high within the search results, making people more likely to click on it. 

Ensure that your adverts are relevant to your business rather than buying ads for anything and everything which will just lead to high expenses and very few transactions as you won’t be reaching your target audience.

Understanding the difference between paid ads and organic listings is useful as they look similar within SERPs. Both are also beneficial to boosting the amount of traffic reaching your site, so let’s take a look!

Paid Ads on most search engines are placed on the top of the SERPs. When ads get placed where means that certain factors are taken into consideration by the search engine, such as page quality, bid amount, ad quality, and relevance.

Websites that tick all of these factors will rank first on the SERPs.

Organic Listings

Organic listings take a bit more effort as they are given their place through the use of Search Engine Optimization (SEO.

For this, you need to stay up to date with search engine algorithms and adjust your content and keywords so you continue to rank high on the search results page.

How To Improve Your SERPs Ranking 

Here are ten suggestions that you can implement today that will help your website to rank higher within the SERPs.

  1. Ensure your website loads quickly to avoid loss of traffic due to impatience
  2. Make sure you only upload top-quality content
  3. Your links should be optimized 
  4. The website should be accessible on mobile devices
  5. Format each page on your website correctly 
  6. Implement appropriate keywords in your content
  7. Set up Google Business
  8. Create content that is shareable on social media
  9. All URLs should be focused and optimized so they are easy to remember
  10. Keep your website up to date

Final Thoughts

The more you educate yourself about SERPS you will be able to carefully tailor your content and website to enable your business’s website to rank higher within SERPs.

The best way to benefit your ranking is to stay up to date on Google’s policies and keep your website compliant with these. 

The amount of traffic that reaches your website when your SERPs ranking starts to get better will increase significantly. This will take some hard work but it will be worth it.

Justin Shaw