Search Engine Results Page (SERPs)

SERPs are the web pages that are displayed when you enter a query or a question in a search engine. When you ask a search engine about anything, it gives answers to your query and also shows other relevant content like videos, photos, blogs, etc. SERPs may include advertisements and knowledge graphs as well. Over time, search engines have worked to provide users with the best possible results to their questions.

The search queries can be classified into 3 categories. First is navigational queries, these are queries where the user does not know the exact URL and would have to look through multiple links and find desired results. Informational queries are one where the user wants to learn or know about a certain thing. Lastly, transactional queries are one where the users intend to make a purchase. 

Features of Search Engine Results Page (SERPs)

A few features of the search engine results page are listed below-

1. Organic results - These are the list of results that will solve your queries. These would not have an Ad label next to them and will be displayed in the order of relevance and their rankings. 
2. Sponsored results or Ads - These come on top of the search engine results page. These may not solve your queries but will come on the top as the companies would have paid for certain keywords. Users often skip these and look for organic results to fetch answers to their questions. 
3. Featured snippets - These are a part of information taken from a site and displayed in the form of a card because the information is quite helpful. You can click on the URL provided below to go to the site and check all the relevant information to your query. 
4. Knowledge cards - Knowledge cards have information that is mostly statistical data and comes at the top of SERPs. Similar to this is knowledge panels that contain information, pictures, dates, etc. related to the search queries. They appear on the right side of the search engine results page. 
5. Related questions - They are visible to the user in the middle of the SERP that is below 2-3 links. These are questions related to the users' query and provide more relevant content on a particular topic to the users. 
6. Reviews - Reviews are usually displayed below the title tag and the URL. These are star ratings and also have comments in some cases. 
7. Image packs and videos- Search engines display visual content related to the users' queries as a pack in a horizontal line which is either displayed on top or somewhere in the middle. 
8. Location-specific results - SERP displays location-specific results when a user enters a query. For example, when we search for petrol pumps near me, we get a list of petrol pumps with reviews and contact information. 
9. Shopping results - Shopping results are also paid highlights on the search engines. It highlights a little information about the product like a photo, price, seller’s information, etc. If a user clicks on the result, he/she is taken to that site where they can make their purchase. 
10. News results - If we search for a query that is related to some recent news or some event, then SERP will show you results at the top of the page under the head “Top stories” or “In the news”.