Anatomy of a Search Results Page and What It Means for Your Business

The format of the search results page from major search engines changes often. This is not a reference to the actual results returned. Rather, this is a reference to the fields of information included on the page.

As search results pages become more crowded, it becomes necessary to figure out what each part is and how it affects your placement on the page. On average, the first page of search results from Google contains nearly 1,900 words. This means that your business’s website could easily become lost on the first page, even if your website falls within the first few organic search results. Here is a brief description of the anatomy of a Google search page:

Pay Per Click (or PPC) Advertising

Google Ads, formerly Google AdWords, are how the “sponsored results” are chosen for the top of the search results page. In effect, advertisers purchase keywords or phrases. When these keywords or phrases are used in a search, the advertiser’s website is included in the sponsored results at the top of the search page.

The advertiser only pays when someone clicks on the advertiser’s website, hence the name “pay per click.” While Google provides tools for managing PPC ads, many businesses hire a digital marketing company to manage their PPC ads. Management of PPC ads involves using analytical tools to measure the success of the ad campaign and adjusting the keywords and search phrases to fine tune it.

Social Media and Video Results

A search results page from Google now includes tweets from Twitter that include the search phrase. This is good news for businesses because their tweets are not limited to their Twitter followers. Rather, any Google search can return their tweets. This allows a digital marketing company that offers social media services to reach both the search engine channels as well as social media channels with a single social media post.

Similarly, video results from many different platforms and sites can also be returned on a search results page. However, most video results come from YouTube. Again, this can be good news for businesses, since searchers do not need to specifically search for videos to see videos appear on the search results page.

Local Listings

Local listings collected through Google Maps and information from the defunct Google+ social media platform are displayed on the search results page. This highlights the importance of local listings and claiming your business profile on Google My Business. A digital marketing company can help claim your business profile and optimize it for local listing search results.

Local results lead into the Google Maps page and app. If you have not claimed your Google business profile, there will be a limited amount of information available. However, if you claim your Google business profile, you not only control the information available, but you also have a way to interact with customers by responding to reviews.

Organic Results

This is where search engine optimization (or SEO) comes into play. Organic results come from the search terms that have been entered in the search bar and the index created by the search engine’s algorithm. If your website has been indexed for the search terms entered, it will appear in the organic results. Where your website appears in the search results will depend on the relevance of the search term on your website.

The purpose of SEO is to influence how your website appears in the organic results. SEO can affect the searches in which your website appears and where your website appears in those results. SEO services in Knoxville TN can help to identify keywords for the searches you want to appear in, and place those keywords into the visible and invisible text of your website.

Related Searches

An underrated part of the search results is the “related searches” or “people also searched for” section at the bottom of the search results page. When choosing keywords for SEO, the related searches section can help you by identifying the terms and phrases people actually search for. Sometimes these are expected. Other times, these may reveal something about your customers that you might not know.

Digital marketing services can help your business in many ways to appear in the various areas of the search results page.

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