Is one of your marketing SMART goals to increase organic website traffic? If so, our Omaha SEO agency experts recommend using SEO and SERPs. This kind of digital marketing strategy is a powerful tool because 49% of marketers report that organic search has the best ROI of any digital marketing channel. Our Omaha SEO agency team has created this helpful guide to help you understand what SEO and SERPs are and how they integrate into all business types. 

What is SEO?

SEO is short for search engine optimization. This digital marketing strategy is about improving a website’s visibility on search engine results pages. The overall goal of SEO is to increase a website’s organic traffic.

What is a SERP?

SERP is short for a search engine results page. It is the page that Google displays to a user after they conduct a search. Typically, Google and other major search engines display seven to ten links of web pages that relate to the search the user made. 

The two different types of SERPs

Organic SERPs

The first type of SERP is organic. Organic results are the ones that show up naturally on result pages. They are the results provided by the search engine simply because they match what the user was searching for. How this content is ranked depends on Google’s over 200 ranking factors. The overall goal is to get your content on the first page, where users are most likely to click on your link.

Paid SERPs

The second type of SERP is paid. As the name suggests, these are paid and are displayed at the top of search engine result pages. How they work is that advertisers will pay for every click that the ad receives. 

SERP features

Google has various SERP features that can make your website stand out from the crowd. Here are some of the features you should take advantage of for SEO purposes. 

Rich snippets

The rich snippet is a feature of an enhanced search result. It has additional data displayed that comes from the page’s HTML. 

Universal results 

The universal results are images, videos, local businesses or rich snips that show up around the text-based results. 

Google Shopping

Google Shopping displays products from a website. It includes pricing, product names, store names and even pictures. 

Knowledge graph

A knowledge graph displays pieces of information in a card or panel format. These panels will usually appear on the right side of the page and include any simple and relevant information. One example is the short bio and collection of information Google presents when you search for a historical figure like Thomas Jefferson. 

How do SEO & SERPs integrate into all business types

Knowing what SEO and SERPs are, it is time to understand why both of these are important for all businesses. They are both strong forces that can drive people to your website. It does not matter what your industry is; most website traffic starts on search engines. In fact, 68% of all online experiences start with a search engine. 

From there, SEO and SERPs work together to bring your target audience onto your web page. SEO is the digital marketing strategy that helps your website rank higher in the results, and then SERPs are what make people want to click on your website listing. SERPs are the first thing a potential customer sees, and they are what draws people onto your page. 

Just ranking on the first page of Google is not enough. You also need to make sure that SERPs display the correct information regarding your business, so people are more likely to click on your website rather than a competitor’s. You want people to click on your link and go to your website. The reason this is so important is that 51% of all searches end without a click, so there is a lot of competition for the clicks that do happen. You can increase the likelihood of someone clicking on your website by:

• Optimizing your featured snippets

• Writing captivating headlines

• Using descriptive meta descriptions and URLs

Hire an Omaha SEO agency to help you optimize your website!

At Omaha Media Group, our team of SEO experts continues to stay on top of the latest trends and use cutting-edge processes to help our clients reach the top of SERPs. Contact us today to learn all about our SEO services.