What is Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)?

Search engine results pages (SERPs) is a web page that lists the results of a user’s search term made on search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo. The SERPs acts as a display board for search engines to serve the search query results from its data centers to the user in a simplified manner.

Types of Google SERPs

There are 5 types of Google SERPs:

1. Web SERP

The search results displayed on a SERP which are hyperlinked to webpages. The results on this page includes multiple SERP features such as, ads, knowledge graphs, knowledge panel, featured snippet and organic search results.

2. Image SERP

The search results displayed on a SERP are hyperlinked to images. This search page consists of images related to the searcher’s query and includes image filter options as per color, size, time, and license type.

3. Video SERP

The search results displayed on a SERP are hyperlinked to videos. A video search engine results page (V SERP) is a page that contains a list of links for videos that are relevant to your search query. The content of a video SERP is controlled by the search algorithm of the video search engine and varies from one search engine to another.

4. News SERP

A news search engine result page (SERP) is a SERP that returns results from news sites instead of or in addition to web pages. The content of a news SERP is controlled by the search algorithm of the news search engine and varies from one search engine to another.

5. Books SERP

A books search engine result page (SERP) is a SERP that returns results for books. This includes free and paid books as well as digital and hard copy versions of the books associated with the search term.

The content of a books SERP is controlled by the search algorithm of the video search engine and varies from one search engine to another.

SERP Features

Almost all search engines make use of a simple and common set of features in their SERP. These are the features displayed on most search engine results pages across the world in various types of devices. Let’s look ar top SERP features:

1. Search box: The most important feature in a SERP is the search box, which is where the users type in their search query.
2. Search button: The search button is a simple submit button that submits the search query.
3. Advanced search link: Most search engines display a small link (usually under the search box) with the label “advanced search” that opens a new page that contains more options to refine your searches.
4. Filters: A small link (usually under the advanced search link) with the label “filter results” that opens a new page that displays only those results that match selected criteria.
5. Time filter: The time filter is a small link (usually under the filters) with the label “past hour”, “past 24 hours”, “last week”, “past month”, “last year”, “all-time”.
6. Organic search results: Each page has 10 organic search results, top organic search results get the maximum impressions and clicks.
7. Refinement options: A set of options that let you refine your searches i.e. location, age, gender, language, photos, etc.
8. Ads: Most search engines use paid ads on their SERP to monetize their search services. These ads display at various positions in the SERP.
9. Featured Snippets: Featured snippets are a special search feature that displays a summarized result at the top of a SERP, usually with a link to the original source and context.
10. Knowledge Panel: Knowledge panels are information boxes that appear on Google when you search for entities (people, places, organizations, things) that are in the Knowledge Graph.
11. Videos/Images: Images and videos are displayed as a SERP feature for almost 86% of the search terms.