The Different Types of Google Search Results (What is Google SERP)
Greetings and welcome to my post about the different types of Google Search Results (Google SERPs) you can acquaint yourself with and claim several types of organic listings for the keywords you target in your niche of interest.
This is Joanna Vaiou and I am an Luxury SEO Services Specialist. In this article, I will focus on the Google Universal platform, meaning, I will present you with the type of listings you can see when searching Google.com, Google.gr, or a different country’s national Google search engine.
What is Google SERP?
Contents
Google SERP is the acronym for “Search Engine Results Page” and it is the page you see after typing a keyword into the Google search box. Google is the most popular search engine apart from China and Russia, taking up more than 80% of the market share space.
The Diverse Types of Google SERP (Google Search Results Pages)
What is Google SERPs definition – the different types of Google Search Results – Joanna Vaiou
What are Google Search Results called?
Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) are the pages that search engines display after a user performs a keyword query in Google’s search box and completes it. The main component of the SERP is the listing of several types of web results that Google search engine returns, after each keyword query.
Google Ads Results
Google Ads are the custom ads that users (or advertisers) who sign up for the Google AdWords program create to appear for specific keywords (or keyphrases) on the top page of Google. The advertisers pay per click that their custom-created ads get from the users who search Google, by typing keywords in their search box.
These days, Google Ads usually appear at the top of a SERP (search engine results page), occupy a large space of “web real estate”, and have a distinctive “Ad” on the left side as I have highlighted in red below. This is an example of 3 blue links advertisements.
There are subcategories of Google Ads according to different niches like:
- Google Shopping Ads (if you have an eCommerce business)
- Google Travel Ads (if your business is in the tourism industry)
- Google Hotel Ads (if you run an accommodation business)
What distinguishes Google Ads from all the other types of results in Google Search is the prerequisite of having to pay Google to appear on the top page of Google. All the other search results types belong to a wide category that is called “Organic” or “Natural” listings, which you get by applying Search Engine Optimization strategies on the several web properties you own or manage.
Google My Business/Local/Maps Listings
A very prominent type of Google Search Result that occupies a large web real estate at the top page of Google for specific searches users perform on Google Universal with local or even national intent is the GMB (Google My Business) or Local/Google Maps.
It looks like the one below. In my example, I typed the keyword “SEO” and got the following.
The majority of searches typed in Google in niches that there are local businesses offering products or services, you can see this type of results, also named “The 3-pack of Local Results” as these days you usually see 3 individual results and sometimes 2. This is the fastest way to gain organic visibility if you are just starting.
I highly recommend that you treat your GMB as a second website, a different stand-alone web property that you can take advantage of for free, by Google itself. Follow this guide on SEMrush and start your Google My Business page the right way to establish yourself and your business in this vertical of the Google search engine. You don’t even need a website to be there. This should be your priority.
Featured Snippets Listings (or Position 0)
Position 0 (Zero) listings or “Featured Snippets” are the search results that appear at the very top of a Google search result page.
These days, Position ZERO listings are displayed in few different formats:
- Text Paragraph or Definition Featured Snippet
- Bulleted Featured Snippet
- Numbered Featured Snippet
- Table Featured Snippet
Featured snippets are in and out of fashion for reasons that fall under the explanation of why Google always changes its ways of ranking websites online. After testing several things, I managed to get this text paragraph/definition snippet on Google for the topic “How to dominate Google search results“.
I did two things to get this featured snippet listing:
1) I made sure the paragraph is a standalone answer meaning, a complete answer to the specific question in place
2) I wrote the text in a simple plain style as we would write for an encyclopedia (plain tone – no character added or personalization – To get a featured snippet in Google search engine, make sure you avoid showing your colorful personality – if you can’t, make it “vanilla” color)
Google Domination with multiple organic search listing types Video
YouTube Video Featured Snippet
Google owns YouTube which is the second-largest search engine after Google which is specifically for video content. It is imperative if you are in any business to have a YouTube channel that will represent you in this highly important Search vertical that Google owns. You should be willing to create video content, optimize it for YouTube Search, and upload it to your YouTube channel.
This is not only important for your branding and trust-building with your audience on the internet but also for your Search Engine Optimization efforts on Google Universal. Many times in Google Universal you see YouTube videos or Video carousels ranking at the top page of Google for the keyword you typed in the search box.
If you treat your videos like separate web entities like an additional website that needs its On-page SEO and Off-page SEO, then you can claim extra relevant “web real estate” at the top page of Google for your target keywords by ranking with your videos.
Please note: If you also rank with your website or your Google My Business page there for the same keyword, you give additional opportunities for your ideal target audiences to notice you.
Whatever vertical or opportunity Google offers right now that you can take advantage of and be present and active on, you should undeniably get your business on there.
Especially the free ones.
There is no excuse.
If you rank on the top page of Google with more than one search result type, let’s suppose you lose the click to your website once, users will see your business again through your video or your GMP listing that ranks, and so forth.
You can dominate Google Universal search for the important keywords in your niche through multimedia content creation, optimization, and marketing by applying Search Engine Optimization strategies to the properties you own.
Videos usually rank on Google Universal for recipes and generally the how-to type of searches, “step by-step” guides, and so forth. An example of a video search result you can see next:
Image Packs Featured Listings
In niches where the visual element is very important (very common in eCommerce businesses), a series of images or packs of images rank on the first page of Google organically.
This is an extra opportunity for businesses to attract additional organic relevant traffic back to their websites through the images that rank on Google Universal and of course the specified search engine vertical of Google for image content: “Google Images”.
I am sharing an example next, for the “home decor” keyphrase (translated in Greek).
Access a guide next on how to optimize your images for users and Google by Search Engine Journal. Organic traffic coming in from images that rank on Google can bring significant additional traffic to eCommerce shops. You can’t afford to ignore it.
Google Related Searches & Google Autocomplete Search Results Types
Two uncommon ways to rank on the top Google Universal SERP are the following:
- As a “Google Prediction” in the Google Autocomplete drop-down list of searches
- As a “Related Search” at the bottom of the search results page
I have elaborated on this type of Search Results in my article “How to appear in Google Search in 2 uncommon ways – related searches and autocomplete” and also uploaded a video on my YouTube channel next:
“Related Questions” or “People Also Ask” Search Result Type
Webpages sometimes rank under the ‘People also ask” search snippet with a summary in the form of a stand-alone answer to a question. The best practices to rank in these snippets are to use text that includes stand-alone questions and answers that are articulated in simple words and formatted with bold, italic, bullets, headings, and short sentences that provide a full meaning/reply to the question in place.
Conclusion – Key Take-Away
These are just 9 ways that you can rank on Google Universal search engine’s top page for your industry’s target keywords. There are more like Google News, Google Books, and sometimes even Social Network pages rank for some keywords, so my key take-away is to take advantage of as many opportunities Google presents to you and create content and specifically optimize for these verticals so you can get the most out of your organic exposure and establish your brand as the go-to expert in your niche.
Thank you for your time. Any questions?
~ Joanna Vaiou: Organic SEO Expert
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