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Any individual or company who offer their services or content on an online basis should know that it is quite important for their website’s name to appear at the top of the search result or on the first page of the Google search results. They need to have a good SERP or Search Engine Results Page ranking.
What is SERP?
SERP is nothing but a search list which appears when we search for something on Google. The list generally contains items on a descending basis of relevancy. The ranking is processed on numerous factors like traffic, reach, visibility, keywords used, and more. We must always keep a check on our Google ranking with specialized SERP tools such as WMS SERP API.
According to the rankings, the organization should be able to come up with effective and efficient SEO techniques which would help them increase their rankings along with the visibility and traffic of the website.
In order to attract more users to your site, you need to properly optimize your site. To optimize your site, you need to be aware of the various SERP features. SERP features are often used to smoothen the browsing experience of a user.
The best SERP Features
Following is a list of SERP features which you can inculcate on your site to gain more traffic and better rankings:
Images
Images or pictures are one of the most effective ways to grab a user’s attention. But for proper optimization of the image, you must keep certain things in mind. You must have a creative and innovative file name.
An alt tag is a short description of the particular image and hence should be applied appropriately to an image. Also, make sure that the image is not huge in size, as it will directly affect the loading speed of your site.
Videos
Videos are yet another tool to grab a user’s attention instantly. You can add and optimize videos on your site to acquire a better SERP. Your video must have an appropriate video transcript, which will easily get you many users as well as certain bots.
Also, add appropriate and creative title and description to your videos by emphasizing on the relevant and trending keywords.
Local Pack
A local pack is nothing but a brief description of your company’s name, time of opening/closing, contact number, and customer reviews.
To appear on the local pack on Google, you must register with GMB or Google My Business. After registering, you can optimize your site by adding local citations, reviews, and a list of areas that you serve.
Tweets
For this SERP feature, you need to have an active twitter account. In this feature, whenever your site is searched, the Google results will show some of your top tweets to the user.
Top Stories
In order to get featured on the first page of Google, like many top news stories, you need to have a very strong SEO driven and optimized site.
You must apply all the relevant keywords and arrange them in a coherent manner on your site. It is one of the hardest yet the most effective way to increase traffic as well as your Google rankings.
Knowledge Card and Knowledge Graph
A knowledge card is a type of answer which comes at the top of the Google search results whenever a user asks a question. Similarly, a knowledge graph is brief information regarding the user’s search.
It can consist of a description of a person, thing, location, or business.
Podcasts
In order for your podcasts to feature on the top of the search results, you need to apply the same methods that you applied for images and videos. Also, according to the query of the user, Google would automatically highlight a certain part of the podcast. This is the part that addresses the query. For this, you need to properly optimize your podcasts.
Google Ads
This is one of the most common methods to achieve higher SERP by appearing at the very top of the search results. However, this is not considered to be a very organic way to attain traffic.
For this, you need to register yourself with Google Ads and then run a campaign accordingly. Also, the content of the site must match the theme of the ad.
Featured stories
This is one of the most common and extensively used SERP as of now. When a user searches for a query, it directly shows them the solution to their query without actually showing them the actual article.
You need to have proper keyword optimization and should be able to use various SEO techniques efficiently.
‘People also search for.’
In this feature, whenever a user searches for a query, they will always get your site in the ‘people also search for’ section. This is quite a useful SERP feature as a user will always get to see your site in the recommendations if you optimize your keywords around a certain theme.
SERP features are updated almost every year with the motive to enhance a user’s browsing experience, as well as to increase the traffic and rankings of your site.
