Google has become the Yellow Pages of the 21st Century. It’s the go-to for anyone wanting to do research about a particular topic or find the contact details of a specific company. It’s a goal of most companies to be top of their Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for their particular keywords. However, the question must be asked: Why is this?
What are SERPs?
Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) are the results that Google returns once you’ve typed in a query. These results could answer your question directly or could provide more information that will help you answer your query.
If Google answers your question directly, there have probably been a lot of other people who have made similar requests and selected the same result that the search engine has served up. This means that when you make the same query, you will be served with the same answer that others have clicked on before because Google looks at it as being popular and meeting searchers’ needs.
On the other hand, if Google merely gives you a bit of information about your search topic or question, this means that not a lot of people have made the same query. Thus, Google returns results that it thinks may be of use, however, it relies on you to let it know if what it gives you is useful.
Top of mind, top of wallet
Think of your own Google search habits. How often do you venture past the first or second page of the SERPs before deciding on a website that you feel will answer your query or rather going for another search?
The truth is that not many people venture deep into the SERPs. If they are SEO specialists – who have done a great SEO course to get them where they are – they may go to pages five or six. However, the average, pressed-for-time consumer won’t do massive research to find what they are looking for.
This means that to get in front of the target audience that you want, you’ll need to get as far up the SERPs as possible. Why? Because if you’re top of the SERPs – and thus are top of mind for consumers – it will be more likely that they will buy from you as opposed to a company that they can’t reach.