Quick quiz: What is the most valuable real estate on the Internet?
Answer: Google’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP), the screen you get from a searching on Google.
A lot of people do get rich selling on Amazon, but that is specifically for retail products. Half of all online sales in the U.S. are made on Amazon.
But today we are talking about Google. Success with Google is all about showing up well in SERPs. Anyone seeking to market online should have a basic understanding of SERPs. Even if you hire someone to do the work, you need to know enough to judge whether they are doing their job.
Everyone knows you need top rankings. But what does that even mean? The Google SERP has become a complex beast displaying information from several different Google services. Results are dependent on what is being searched for, where the searcher is located, and other factors.
Once upon a time, say 2001, this was not true. A SERP was a simple thing. The Internet was new, making money off the Internet was still rather new, and hordes of criminals and marketers – all with dollar signs in their eyes – hadn’t yet descended on the Internet in overwhelming numbers.
As over the years more and more money became involved, Google responded by finding more and more ways to make money themselves. The result is what you see today when you do a search.
And it is constantly evolving. The latest thing is AI (Artificial Intelligence) and you’ll see this now often in search results.
In 2001 you got a single screen listing website results and ads. Today when you search you may get some or all of the following, in addition to Google Ads, and Organic Search Results (top ten rankings):
Shopping results (Google’s answer to Amazon)
Google Business Profile (local search results)
Google Maps (usually with top 3 local listings and a link to see more)
Featured Snippets (what Google feels is a particularly relevant website excerpt)
AI Overview (a summary answer generated by Artificial Intelligence that may include quotes and links to websites)
Images
Videos
The original organic search results get pushed way down the page. It used to be getting a number one ranking meant getting a large share of the searchers coming to your site, maybe 1/3. It’s still high in most cases, but the hunt now is for the coveted “position 0” – a featured snipped or even better an AI Overview.
With search results dependent not just on search term but location and “personalization” (you get different results because Google knows your search history), what does search ranking even mean?
With such a complex scene, it is too much to expect the average business owner to fully understand the nuances. But the business owner knows whether his phone is ringing or not.
