Don’t you just love acronyms and industry jargon? SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page and is the results page you get when you type in a keyword into a search engine. So unless you are involved in the marketing industry, you probably get lost in the terminology, don’t fully understand it or just ignore it altogether.
Let’s get the first thing out of the way. Your inner voice is saying, “why in the world do I want to know what SERP is?” Let’s just say that it’s important for your business if you expect to generate any leads from your website.
It will be assumed that you have a general idea of what a search engine is (i.e., Google, Yahoo, Safari, etc.) and what it does. You have something you want to look for, and you search it. A pretty simple concept, right?
Simple in how easy it is to get results, but complicated by the fact that there is a very powerful algorithm behind it that is driving those results. Algorithm is just a fancy term for a series of criteria (a formula) that the search engine uses to rank information. It essentially determines what shows up and why. This algorithm ultimately controls what search results you get on the results page, the RP of SERP, and where they fall on that page.
In the world of digital marketing and lead generation, where you fall on that page is key. The stats are very clear: 90% of the search results on the first page get clicked on. This means that if your business or webpage is not showing up on page one of a search engine, your chances of getting website hits goes down after each page. We also all play a part in how those things are ranked, among 200+ other core authority signals.
Google pretty much dominates the search world and keeps pretty tight-lipped on what factors play into the effectiveness of rankings. Now exactly how influential is Google? Well, pretty damn influential. Per the July 2016 comScore report: Explicit Core Search Share Report (for desktop), 66.4% of all searches are done through Google over other search engines. If you want to become a nerd on the subject, just take a look at this article Why links are still the core authority signal in Google’s algorithm by Jayson DeMers.
What does SERP mean for me?
A lot of companies and people spend a lot of time talking about SEO (search engine optimization) and how important it is to their company. SEO are the sets of actions you take to ensure that your website shows up in the SERP. This is exactly why digital strategies exist and are key in marketing. A digital strategy will set the foundation and help you understand which actions will get you the biggest bang for your buck.
If your website isn’t showing up in the SERP for a particular keyword that you type into a search engine, chances are, your website isn’t yet optimized for that particular keyword.
A good understanding of both SERP and SEO are key to driving visitors to your website, as well as having a comprehensive digital marketing strategy that encompasses both inbound and outbound marketing tactics if you want to generate online leads.
Hopefully, you feel more comfortable on what SERP means and hopefully didn’t nod off too much! We are here for you if you have any additional questions on anything marketing related. Just give us a shout on Twitter or send us an email!
