So what is a SERP?
Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) are the pages displayed by search engines in response to a query by a searcher. Basically a keyword search result.
We’ve all seen these, a page of text blocks that list down the page, usually Google does a pretty good job of RANKING them for you, placing the most relevant ones near the top.
Near the top, that’s where everyone wants to be, so getting somewhere ‘up there’ is the main goal at hand. To do this we must stick to a few tried and true conventions to even be in the game.
Here are the 3 things that we must get right:
- A meaningful Title (Meta Title)
This appears as the main title and is a clickable link using less than 70 characters
- A sensible URL or site name
Usually your company name and sometimes followed by a ‘/‘ then a page name
- Meta Description
Contains a succinct keyword rich description using less than 160 characters
These can all be updated via the streamSWEET CMS admin of your website and can be tweaked and tested against popular keywords or phrases on a regular basis.
Look at these examples, you can see straight away, which ones work and which ones don’t. I used the search term "Panelbeater Auckland".
Example SERP 1
Meta Title
Good descriptive title that tells me what they do and includes their company name.
URL
Name matches the link and supports their brand.
Meta Description
Description gives me their general location and several important services that they offer:
- Free courtesy car
- Major collision repair
- Certified structural repairs
Most importantly, my keywords are included Auckland and panel beater. Could be improved by utilising the character count a bit better, there are a lot of spaces and dots/fullstops?
Example SERP 2
Meta Title
Just a pass mark here, at least the company name is prominent.
URL
Name matches the link and supports their brand.
Meta Description
Location is a strong point but some words are repeated which is a waste of the 160 characters available.
- Panel beating
- Spray Painting
- Body Kits
Most importantly, my keywords are included Auckland and panel beater.
Example SERP 3
Meta Title
Company name is there but very little else.
URL
Poor URL which contains a bunch of garbled letters which don’t make sense.
Meta Description
Not good at all, it’s unlikely that anyone would want to click on this SERP. Compared to the other two results, searchers will find this one hard to trust.
Conclusion
So with some very basic information we can make a huge difference to the experience of the searcher, we can at least give them the right information to sway their decision to click or tap. Of course this is only just scratching the surface of SEO, we must also get all of the other ingredients right on the page for it to even have an effect.