SERP influences how your website is rendered on the first page within Google. Users should be provided with relevant information as much as possible, while maintaining a good user experience.
Usually there is a drop in clicks on results rendered after page two or even to page three onwards, in comparison to the first page. This is why SERPs are quite important. The higher the ranking the higher the increase in website traffic.
However, ranking on the first page doesn’t always equate to more website traffic. An example of these scenarios include:
1. Paid Results Often push Organic Results down on the SERP
Taking for example our previous search query “best hosting providers”, you will notice that the first results are paid ads and the organic search results are displayed way down the page as illustrated below.
This would mean that even if you manage to have your site on the first page, you aren’t going to receive as many clicks as possible.
On the contrary, if a search is carried out on “keyword research”, you will notice quite a number of organic results are rendered.
This would mean that if your site is rendered within this page, then you are likely to receive more clicks.
2. No-click searches
These are searches whereby the user gets the answer to the search, without necessarily having to click on a link.
For example, when a user searches for “when did facebook start”, the answer is rendered first and the user doesn’t need any further clicks on the page to extract this information. Below is a sample illustration on this:
These no-click search results are mainly due to SERP features.
With the above discoveries in mind, it is hence vital to have your website properly optimized beyond the blue links displayed upon a search query. This is where the SERP features come in.
In addition, SERP features will also tend to grab the users attention more than the standard organic listings.