Knowing How SERPs Affect Your SEO Strategy

All aspects about search engine optimisation (SEO) should be learned for the success of your internet marketing strategy. A factor that you should seriously consider learning is the search engine results page or SERP. To get a comprehensive idea on what a SERP truly is, you also have to look into how they are similar and different on the three top search engines. You have to know what to expect from Google, Yahoo and MSN, especially on how they show the results they come up for searches. This way, you will be able to refine your SEO techniques and know where to centre your optimisation efforts.

What Google Offers

Looking at Google, you will immediately see the diverse area where you should centre your focus. Because this SE holds half of the search market, it is known to be always centred on the search result itself. There is minimal interference in their SERP because they are not in the market to promote anything else, except the search. All Google wants is for you to go to their search page and find everything you need fast and easy with as few distractions as can be.

Yahoo’s Version

Yahoo is quite different from Google, especially when it comes to their focus. Although this SE is known to situate themselves as more of a portal for information, they do not just offer these during searches. They also offer news and media, among others. While you can get to see these in Google as well, they are not right there on the front page of their SERP. In Yahoo, you will be able to see advertisements that you will not normally see in Google because they also value selling ad space as well as providing information to web surfers.

Microsoft Live Mimics the Best

Because Google is known to be the cleanest of all search engines making it the strongest SE for all these years, you would expect others to try to imitate its success. This is what Microsoft Live is doing. They are mimicking what this prime search engine is doing by keeping their search page layout as minimal as possible.

Understanding SERPs

Understanding the layout and format of the SERPs of these top three search engines is essentially vital because this is where you will base your SEO tactics on. From this layout, you will see how search results are displayed.

You will see that the page title in the search results comes from a web page’s title tag. Because this is the first thing that web surfers will see, you have to make sure that it will speak explicitly about what could be found in your content. The next thing they are going to see is the snippet from your web page, which is essentially your article's description. This will give them a piece of information, which they will use to assess whether they should click through to your link or not. Your URL, which can be found directly underneath the snippet, is also extremely powerful. It should be memorable and descriptive of your web page. It should tell surfers where they will be going in case they will click on your link.

To be able to land on the top pages of SERPs, you have to be a brilliant writer and an exceptional marketer so you will be able to show your website in the best possible way. Also remember that Google will always consider your site if it has an excellent navigational structure. Usually search engines will do this by sending additional links your way. This will heighten your chances of getting high rankings. So, landing on SERPs is not all about knowing the technical aspects of SEO. It is also about harnessing your writing and organisational skills and knowing how to maximise your links for optimal site rankings.