Search Engine Results Pages

Search engine results pages — SERPs — are the web pages that a search engine returns with the results of your search terms. The major search engines usually use a combination of three kinds of listings on their SERPs: organic listings, indexed listings, and sponsored listings.

An example of the possibilities inherent in each type of listing can be found on the Internet’s most popular search engine, Google. If we go to google.com and type in a general search term such as insurance, a number of listings will appear. At the top (in blue) and the side, you will see the sponsored listings. Placement here is paid for by advertisers.

Underneath the blue sponsored listings you will find the organic listings. Organic listings are those that have been indexed by a search engine’s spider and are found to be most relevant to the search terms entered. The intention of search engine optimization is to increase a web site’s ranking within these organic listings.

Indexed listings are those that have been indexed into a search engine’s directory by a human being. If we go back to google.com and click on the “more” button above its search bar, you will come to a list of Google services, one of them being the directory. If we again search for insurance, this section will show only indexed listings that have been approved by human reviewers.

For maximum success on the search engines, it is valuable to be in a combination of organic, sponsored and indexed listings.

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