Nothing frustrates me more than acronyms. You can make them up whenever you want to, and they can stand for anything and you’d never know. IHTP. What does that even mean? I have to pee? Igloos have terrible posture? Infamous hummingbirds take precedent? See? Could be anything I want it to be. That’s what I felt like when I first started working with content and SEO.

1. What the heck is SEO? Search Engine Optimization.
2. What is SERP? And why does it keep coming up?

SERP stands for Search Engine Results Pages, and to a business, that is the most important page on the internet. Other than their own website of course. The search engine results pages are the pages of results that you get after typing in a search phrase on a search engine, like Google or Bing. Pfft. I got that, I know what that is. Why is that so difficult? Well, when you’re a business or you have a website of any kind, you want to be at the top of that page right? You want anyone searching in your niche to come to you for advice. But how do you get to the top of that page? That…is a whole different thing.

How do SERP’s work?

Well, as stated, this is the results page that web users receive upon searching keywords or phrases into the search engine. Your listing may not show up for someone in Arizona if your business is based in Maine. This is because the artificial intelligence behind all search engines tailor the SERP’s for users based on different things. There are some factors that you can’t change such as physical location, or the user’s browser history, or the social settings surrounding the user. As the “a.i.” behind the engine changes, the factors for the SERP’s change. That means your keywords may make you appear further down or even higher up on the page. So you need to do regular check ins.

Types of Results

Yes, that never ending supply of suggestions based off your two word Google search has more than one kind of result. It’s not a right or a wrong. It’s more a question of how did they get there? Was it natural? Or did someone pay somebody for a favor? No, seriously. There is an option to pay for that prime real estate at the top of the results page. If you have the budget for it, it doesn’t hurt.

Organic searches are totally free! This involves a lot of SEO to optimize the visibility of your site on that search results page. But it’s not always foolproof. You could have the best SEO team member your company has ever seen, but that competitor of yours hired someone to do their SEO professionally and keeps coming in above you. If you’re really tired of playing cat and mouse in these organic searches, you can pay to win. Your call.

Types of Searches

There’s just one right? Type in the keyword and and get results. Well, that’s the process, but the different types of searches drastically change the types of results that a user will get.

Informational searches are just that. A search for information. Say you wanted to search for information on a historical writer: Shakespeare. It wouldn’t do a company much good to pay to have ads on this SERP, “William Shakespeare” isn’t usually a search that will provoke much commercial follow through. It isn’t intended to be a search to buy anything, the search is only looking for information.

Navigational searches aren’t necessarily related to location, though it does work somewhat like a compass. This is the search that we all know well. You remember seeing that one book somewhere, but you can’t remember who wrote it, and you don’t remember where you saw it. Was it something you saw on the local bookstore page? No, it didn’t show up on their website search, time to go to Google (or whatever search engine you prefer). “Undercurrent book” That type of search will pull up a ton of results right? (I tried, there are a ton of results.) But where is that one website that jogs your memory? There it is! The one result the user couldn’t think of without a little help from the all knowing SERP.

Transactional search, sounds promising right? That’s because if you’re a business trying to do online business, this is the type of search you need to focus on. Yes, organic searches will pop up on the results page, but paid results will also do great here. These are the searches that have commercial intent, aka, intent to buy. (Buy being a strong keyword in this branch of SERP.)

With me so far? This is a lot to take in, so let’s take a quick break and answer some questions.

1. What does SERP mean? – It means Search Engine Results Page. You know, the one that links anything remotely close to what you searched.
2. Does one time SEO last forever? – NO. You have to keep doing it. Over and over. Until your niche either stops changing, or becomes obsolete.
3. Are you an organic result? Or can you drop some coin to get that penthouse results spot?
4. What type of search are you? 411, Compass, or the Dolla Dolla Bill?

Questions? Ask me through the contact page. Want more info on the SERP’s? Join me on Sunday, February 28th, at 10:00 am EST to find out HOW all of this determines the order of the results.