The search engine results page (SERP) is of the highest importance for content creators. So it’s only natural that we finally came to the moment to cover the topic. The SERP provided by Google’s search engine is the most well-known one. It keeps changing and evolving by the day. As more data gets collected, the results get more dynamic and fluctuate more readily. So getting yourself familiar with a beginner’s SERP guide is the first step to understanding the topic.
Are you an affiliate marketer or any other content creator and SEO aficionado? Then this is a blog post you don’t want to miss.
SERP Definition
The search engine results page (SERP) displays search results for something on an internet search engine. Just imagine the ten blue links that get displayed on your screen when you google something – that’s SERP.
And did you know that each SERP is unique? That’s right – even when two users perform the exact search, they get different results. You can thank Google’s personalized search results for this. The search engine giant strives to offer results that are accustomed to each user.
General Types of SERP
We can categorize SERP in four ways:
- Sponsored results: You get these plastered over your screen when advertisers invest money in ads that pop up as sponsored results. Google clearly marks them as such, and they usually arrive as text ads and shopping results. While they are found most of the time at the top of the page, they can also be displayed at the bottom and in the Google Knowledge Graph.
- Organic listings: These are natural listings of website pages that Google crawled and saw as potential value for the search query. The more informative the page and the details found on it, the higher the webpage will rank. In short, these organic listings are the links that you go through, seeing them as website listings.
- Rich features: Thanks to these features, you get elements of the search result page displayed as carousels, featured snippets, and more. This way, SERP gets visual layers.
- Google knowledge panels: These are shown on the search result page’s right side, providing data to enhance search results. Their goal is to get you a quick overview of the searched information based on Google’s understanding of online content.
Why is SERP Important?
You want to strive for a great site rank on a SERP because it’s indicative of how easy users can find you when they search for the items or services you promote as an affiliate marketer. The better the rank of your website, the better chances of you striking a lucrative commission.
From personal experience (at least), you are probably aware that users don’t tend to look beyond the first SERP page when they perform a search query. If you’re not getting the results you think you should, you are more likely to rephrase your search term and perform another Google search.
That’s why it’s essential to discover a method of ranking your website in a way that’s optimized for search engines – and that’s why we always come to the all-important topic of SEO (search engine optimization).
What is SEO?
Search engine optimization is the act of ranking pages high in search engines. Traffic that comes through SEO is usually seen as organic search traffic, while paid search is called SEM (search engine marketing) and pay-per-click (PPC).
SEO is crucial for the sheer fact that it’s the primary way a lot of users navigate the internet.
Search results get shown in an ordered list, and the better your rank, the more traffic your website will get. The numbers speak for themselves: the first result in the list gets 40-60% of the overall traffic for that search. Meanwhile, the second and third results get substantially less traffic. Just 2-3% of users will go beyond the first page of their search results.
Many companies and entrepreneurs will try and outsmart the search results so that their website pops up high on the SERP.
Why You Should Learn SERP Analysis
SERP analysis should be a crucial part of your keyword research. Keyword research itself is a staple of content creation.
To put it briefly, SERP analysis aims to check the results you get after you search for relevant keywords and decide if you want to optimize for those keywords based on your chances of beating the competition.
Here are the two most significant parts of SERP analysis:
- Finding the right keywords – You will climb more easily up SERPs if you use keywords properly. To find the correct keywords to use in your affiliate marketing content, ask yourself a crucial question. What are clients going to type into Google when searching for a service they need?
- Get to know the competition – There are a lot of free tools that can help you analyze the competition. From KWFinder (a true pioneer in the field) to the SERPChecker, all the way to the MozBar Chrome extension, you can find plenty of information regarding your competition.
Conclusion
When creating content as an affiliate marketer, you will do yourself a disservice if you don’t engage with the basics of SERP and SEO. So, buckle up, perform proper SERP analysis and optimize your content to see those commissions skyrocket!
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