For the next few weeks, my blog posts will primarily consist of re-authoring and re-building the Beginner's Guide to Search Engine Optimization, section by section. You can read more about this project here.
Understanding the Visuals of Search Results Pages
In order to gain a full understanding of how search engines and searchers interact, it's critical to take a look at the pages the engines return to fulfill a query. In the search marketing field, we call them 'SERPs' for Search Engine Results Pages. Each engine returns results in a slightly different format and will include vertical results (specific content targeted to a query based on certain triggers in the query, which we'll illustrate below).
Currently the world's most popular search engine, Google's simple interface has changed little over the years.
Yahoo! has a similar layout, but they organize things a bit differently and include an additional section:
MSN/Live (Microsoft's search engine) is very similar to Yahoo!
Each of the unique sections represents a snippet of information provided by the engines. I've listed them below with definitions of what each piece is meant to provide:
- Vertical Navigation
Each of the engines offer the option to search different verticals like images, news, video, or maps. Following these links will perform your query in a more limited index - in our example above, we might be able to see news items above stuffed animals or videos featuring stuffed animals. - Search Query Box
The engines all show the query you've performed and allow you to edit or re-enter a new query from the search results page. They also offer links to the advanced search page, the features of which we'll discuss later on in the guide. - Results Information
This section provides a small amount of meta information about the results that you're viewing, including an estimate of the number of pages relevant to that particular query (note that these numbers can and frequently are wildly inaccurate, and should only be used as a rough comparative measure). - Paid Search Advertising
The "Sponsored Results," to use the engines' terms, are text ads purchased by companies who use the various search ad platforms - Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, & MSN AdCenter. The results are ordered by a variety of factors, including relevance (of which click-through rate and conversion rates can be both be a factor) and bid amount (the ads require a maximum bid, which is then compared against other advertisers' bids). - Organic/Algorithmic Results
These results are pulled from the search engines' primary indices of the web and ranked in order of relevance and popularity according to their complex algorithms. This section of the results is the primary focus of this guide. - Query Refinement Suggestions
A relatively recent feature, query refinements are offered currently by both Yahoo! and Microsoft (and on occasion by Google as well, depending on the search). The goals of these links is to let users search with a more specific and possibly more relevant query that will satisfy their intent.
Be aware that the SERPs are always changing as the engines test new formats and new layouts. Thus, the images above may only be accurate for a few weeks or months until Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft shift to new formats.
These "standard" results, however, are certainly not all that the engines have to offer. For many types of queries, search engines show "vertical" results and include more than just links to other sites to help answer a user's questions. Below, I've illustrated a few of these:
Above - a search for my favorite local Greek restaurants brings back a direct map with an address and the option to get directions.
It looks like New Yorkers are in for some unseasonably warm weather (as I search, it's October 17, 2007), and via a Google search for weather plus a city name, the engine returns a direct answer.
A Google search for the famous painter, Edward Hopper, returns image results of some of his most memorable works.
This Yahoo! search result for Green Bay Packers quarterback, Brett Favre, shows not only query refinement options, but a slough of information on the infamous gunslinger.
A query on Yahoo! for Chicago Restaurants brings back a list of popular dining establishments from Yahoo!'s local portal, including cuisine choices, neighborhoods, and top-reviewed establishments.
Searching Yahoo! to find the number of pounds in a ton brings back an instant answer of 2000 pounds.
Asking Live.com (Microsoft's search engine) for the Republican presidential candidate, Ron Paul, returns news results that center around the politician's recent activity.
When querying Live for the famous early 20th-century actor, Charlie Chaplin, we're presented with a "celebrity rank" (Live's own calculation of a celebrity's relative popularity) along with a set of images.
A "digital cameras" search at Live brings back popular products, along with prices, star ratings, and links to Live product search results, as well as a list of guides & reviews.
As you can see, the vast variety of vertical integration into search results means that for many popular queries, the standard set of 10 links to external pages is no longer the rule. Engines are competing by providing more relevant results and more targeted responses to queries that they feel are best answered by vertical, rather than web results.
As a direct consequence, site owners and web marketers must take into account how this "vertical creep" (as it's frequently referred to in the industry) may impact their rankings and traffic. For many of the searches above, a high ranking, even in position #1 or #2 in the algorithmic/organic results, may produce far less traffic and referrals than placement in search results where vertical options like these are not presented. The vertical results also signify opportunity, as listings are available in services from images to local search to news and products. Inclusion in these results will be covered later on in this guide.
As a send off, observe what Ask.com has done with their search results:
Ask has gone beyond the other engines to display vertical and refinement options of all kinds on the sidebars of the organic results in the center. This forward-thinking display functionality has been dubbed "Ask 3D," and represents one potential of how the future of search results might look.
As always, comments and feedback are strongly encouraged and appreciated. Thanks for being patient while I put this together.
Rand,
Great post.
On first glance I have only one suggestion:
I feel that the differences in SERPS for Yahoo and MSN/Live vs. Google doesn't warrant 2 new screenshots. I would just write something along the lines of "Yahoo and MSN/Live have almost identical layouts except for a "query refinement suggestions box" that often appears above the organic results [show image of the section]".
I am sure a bunch of mozzers are going to disagree with me and reply that more screenshots makes it clearer and 'people love pictures' however I feel that short and to the point is better (especially keeping in mind how long this guide seems likely to become) and makes it more likely that beginners will read the section carefully.
I always like to employ the wisdom of Mark Twain who once aplologized for a less than perfect correspondance, "If I had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter".
Just my opinion,
-Jay
Probably the best "chunk" so far of this revised content. This is not only great content for beginners, but a nice, clear refresher for everyone else. A couple of minor things:
hi rand
well, while explaining the SERPS basics you could use a goggle SERP that shows anummber one sitelinks/breakout results (and name them). most of the companies i talk with, say "i want one of those thingies-with-links-under-my-ranking" so there is deffintly a consulting need.
I'm enjoying this and finding it very useful and comprehensible. Thought you might like feedback from an actual beginner.
I was also heartened to see the discussion about possessive markers, since there is a widespread belief that tech-savvy individuals such as yourselves are destroying, or at least making obsolete, things like punctuation.
Hey Rand,
Great guide this is, I never really read it before but it's really helpfull to me because I was less far then I thought with SEO (58% SEOmoz Quiz) and I've got to use it a lot in this project.
I've got one point though, isn't it "beginners guide" instead of "beginner's guide". Because it's a guide for beginners and not a beginner his guide (If I remember my grammar correctly :)). I was copying the title when I wanted to mail it to a colleague and I felt quite strange typing that. If I'm wrong please forgive me :)
I could be wrong here, as I'm no grammar expert, but I think the guide is for the "beginner" and hence, the posessive tense of "beginner's" guide is proper. It would be like the "Information Worker's Guide to the Windows SBS Network."
Rebecca's our resident grammatical guru, so hopefully she'll chip in here.
Although it is a "guide for beginners", that's grammatically a different construct. The apostrophe in "beginner's guide" is actually a replacement for "for", indicating possession. Although, in that case, you could make the argument that "beginners' guide" is also correct, since it's aimed at the entire group of beginners (plural).
Ok, I just triple-checked this. Writing comments about grammar makes me extremely paranoid, much like I hate spelling "misspell" :)
Yeah - I was going to argue for beginners' guide, but beginner's guide works for me too :)
Could be beginners' guide because there is more than one of us :)
Agree with all the fellas here--either "Beginner's Guide" to denote "a beginner" or "Beginners' Guide" to mean that this guide belongs to all you noobs out there. Either way, it denotes posession, so an apostrophe is required.
postscript: naturally I misspell a word in my comment while getting all Grammar Nazi...oh, the irony.
Hi Rand
I totally agree on your comments about Ask.com, Even though, Google´s popularity is huge and most of the worldwide searches are made in this engine, we should take a closer look at the great work these guys of ask.com are doing when it comes to make the user experience easier every day.
Kind Regards
Hey Rand,Be sure you update this when Google replaces it SERP's with Universal Search (in November?). The page you have outlined now could be ancient history very soon, eh? From what it looks like, the landscape will be changing significantly on their end, at which time the social aspect is going to be weighed even more heavily than it is today.
Thanks Rand,
You have done good work. This information is very useful for every bigginer SEO and it is very easy for understanding.
Thanks for doing this Rand - its also good for us that are expeienced at this to go back to the basics and do a "refresher".
Thanks for the breakdown Rand, I am going to share this post with my class (teaching Realtors about marketing their websites) in the upcoming week so they can have a good understanding on how they all work :)
Hey, I was wondering if Google is going to resort to encrypted links in their search results, similar to Yahoo when Microsoft comes out with their analytics, code named Gatineau.
Sneak peak of what they look like here https://www.directoryjunction.com/forums/showthread.php?t=549
I was surprised reading the fact that their gonna use passport & msn messenger data to provide gender, age group, demographics and all that stuff to their users.
I'm assuming, the folks at redmond have their stakes up high on this analytics thing that's coming out.
click-through rate and conversion rates can be both be a factor
are you sure conversion rate is a factor? I do not see this anywhere in Google Help Centre unless it comes under 'Other relevance factors'.
My understanding is that these both figure prominently into quality score, but I'm not an AdWords expert - I'm merely puppeting what others far more knowledgable than I (like this guy) in this field have said.
I've been a committed Google user right from the beginning, so I'm a little lazy about checking out the other engines except to compare results. You've renewed my interest in Ask.com. Maybe it is worth calling in there for different types of results.
Slightly off subject but not sure where to post to ask you guys: Do you guys think Ask will gain some ground as the results of the serps? I really dislike how much stuff Google is cramming onto the results page. I personally prefer to have video, book or image suggestions on the site, easy to access when needed. Or is that just because us seo look at serps different then your average consumer that is wanting all the info in one place? I think I'll be testing the use of Ask for a while. Never really have used it.
Good summary Rand. I'm using these posts at the moment to teach a friend and it is making my job a lot easier.
Hi Rand
I have to do a presentation to a bunch of new sales reps this week on the basics of Search Engines and SEO. The diagrams boxing off the various page elements will help greatly in their understanding... especially for highlighting the different options and layouts on Yahoo, MSN and Ask which I sometimes wonder if any of them have ever actually seen.
When training new starters I always ask what Search Engine thay use at home and only 1 (out of about 70 reps over the years) has admitted to using anything other than Google as their default Search Engine...though when pressed, most don't know why.
Thanks Rand - we had a new-starter begin yesterday and his first task is to plough through your beginner's guide.
Whilst this is great stuff, I do think that it would have made more sense to have the advice on how to utilise the opportunities of vertical search at the same time as details of what they look like.
I do appreciate though that this is a mammoth task, and not one I envy you!
Good use of photos. The color coded outlines helped.
SEO Question: How useful are the Query Refinement Suggestions for SEO. For example, if I type in a keyword and the search engines give suggestions, can I assume that those suggested words and phrases are popular keywords that I might want to optimize my site for?
Rand,
OMG....I am speechless, sure I knew some of this already BUT my god, What a great post,
The screenshots are a excellent part as well.
This helps me recap some of the stuff, I just fogot about,
I love to always go back to the basics and refresh my memory,
I am going to start having some of my friends read this series so they can understand why I sit in front of this pc for 18 hours a day :)
Thanks for "refeshing me"
Nothing to add to this one - I think you've cracked the right level for an intro to this subject. As industry people, I think we often think this is obvious, but it's really not to many people...
Thanks for including Ask, which is my first choice when searching.
I've found the quick 'narrow' or 'expand' to be very useful even when I think I've done my Booliean best. I also find their layout to be very easy to use. It will be interesting to see how this influences the other engines.
Very comprehensive, good one.
Ironically, the parts of a Google SERPs page is one of my favourite question when interviewing people I mean to hire ;-)
Rand,
Thanks for providing the great beginner content and for the update to it. It really cuts through the fog in trying to get up and running on SEO.
Well written Professor Fishkin... I've often found authoring to be 1 part writing, 95 parts rewriting, and some random dashes of formatting, of course... So to see you re-beginning the beginner's guide is welcome. I appreciate the effort.
I'll pass this link on to acquaintances and family members who still don't understand what the heck I work on day in and day out. Keep up the progress.
And as an aside, like the usage of Favre, Ron Paul, Chicago Restaurants and Chaplin...
Great article Rand! I am going to use this in client and new team member education. I don't think I could explain this better myself. Keep em coming.
rand I think you forgot your audience from some time. now i'm reading seomoz for visual beginners guides?