A simple guide to Google’s Search Results Page.
“How do I get my business to show up in Google when people search for my products?”
One of my most asked questions from clients 👆🏼 and the answer is… content, keywords and consistency. By building content into your website plan on a weekly or monthly basis, you and Google will start to build a blossoming friendship, and this, my friends, is where SEO thrives.
Once Google realises your content is interesting and worth paying attention to, it will start to show you off to all it’s users in lots of different ways. Depending on what you’re selling, a product or service, you might want to start paying attention to how you’re showing up ie. through organic snippets, site links or images for example, so you can start to use Google to your advantage.
Here’s a simple guide on how Google might display your website and content and how you can influence each feature.
Organic Results
These are results on a Google Search page which have been calculated strictly by Google’s algorithm. Organic search results are not influenced by paid ads / PPC but in terms of ranking they do come in underneath, and therefore will be pushed down the page, where an ad is displayed.
How to - the only way to influence organic results is to create valuable, clear and accessible content and information on your website. Ask yourself all the questions your customer would ask you about your product or service, and then answer them all on your website.
Sitelinks
Sitelinks are website links that show directly underneath organic results. Google can show up to 10 links in total and they are deeper level internal links of a website. For example a basic organic result might be beckieeisner.com but a sitelink would be something like About Me, Contact or My Services. Sitelinks will usually only appear for branded search queries ie. if someone searched for ‘Beckie Eisner’ or ‘The Dotcom Consultant’.
How to - Ensure that your website menu/navigation is clear and every page has a clear url or slug structure. A basic SEO tip is to make sure important pages are linked from your menu or from your homepage - this will help Google to understand your site structure and read the key info your customer needs to know.
Paid Ad results
Paid Search Ads / PPC are search results that appear at the top or bottom of a SERP and can be clear recognised by the ‘Ad’ directly next to them. Paid ads are displayed against a list of customer specifics and work on a bidding system.
Generally speaking, the more popular the keyword or search term, the more bids you are up against and the more you will have to pay for your website to show first. My tip here is if you are going to try paid ads, to be as specific and as niche as possible with your keywords. For example, a generic term like ‘table’ is almost pointless to bid on as the competition is just too vast, where as ‘vintage marble glass table’ will narrow it down - this is where your unique selling point works wonders for you!
How to - Set up a ‘Google Ads’ account, and have a play around with keywords and budget. To see some reliable data, I advise keeping an ad live for a minimum of a month and then try something else and compare performance.
Rich snippets
All basic search results (organic and paid) include a title, description and a link for the user to click on. But Google can also read prices, ratings, reviews and stock levels on websites that are setup specifically to offer this info to search engines - these are referred to as rich snippets.
How to - Add a type of backend coding, called Schema markup, to your website to allow Google to read below surface level content. This is a relatively advanced form of technical SEO and is advised mainly for websites that already have a substantial organic SEO plan in place.
Featured snippets & Knowledge Graphs
Similarly to rich snippets, featured snippets and knowledge graphs are recognised by Google as rich and valuable content, but are identified as complete chunks of information, facts or answers about something or someone specific ie. events, famous people or calculations. Features snippets appear as paragraphs inside boxes at the very top of a search results page (SERP). Knowledge graphs appear at the top or to the right of the search results page and act as factual summary ‘card’ of the person or place being queried with information being pulled from multiple credible sources.
How to - Add short, factual and practical content to your site, which directly relate to your customer’s keywords and questions ie. having an FAQs page or using a Q&A format on your web pages.
Videos
Videos are displayed on a search page when Google decides this content format is the best way to answer the user’s query or search term. For example terms like ‘review’ or ‘how to’ can indicate to Google to return video results. Most videos ranked by Google are from YouTube (now owned by Google) but this isn’t always the case.
How to - Ensure your video is optimised for youtube when uploaded to the platform ie. Title format, correct tags, video quality and length. You will also benefit from adding advanced coding, called Schema Markup, to your website to allow Google to read deeper level content.
Image packs
Pretty self explanatory, image packs are the rows of images Google returns in it’s main search results (a small summary of the images SERP). Clicking on an image in this area will take you to the images SERP, where you can click through to the website. In this instance, an image has been returned instead of text as it has offered more visual value to previous customer searches ie. searches for ‘blue’, or ‘grass’.
How to - Make sure your image has alt text and captions which include your keywords and are relevant to their content. You can also ensure the file name of the image uploaded to the website is also optimised.
Local packs
Specifically for search terms which include locations, Google will display a local pack that’s nearest to and most relevant to a users search query. A local pack includes a snippet of google maps and a list of up to three businesses, events or addresses underneath.
How to - For your business to feature in a Google local pack, the requirements are very similar to your Google Business page. My advice is set up your Google Business page and let Google do the rest.
If you would like some help setting up and/or understanding Google Search Results and SEO for your website, please get in touch. I offer bespoke support and a ready-made package for small businesses looking to improve their organic search strategy.
