Tuesday, April 21, 2015

A Breakdown of Different Types of Search Results on Major Search Engines and the Reasons they Rank

Types of Search Results
“Universal Search” is when search engines make use of many sources of info in addition to web pages to generate search results.


In order to under why some pages rank higher than others, we must first understand what is being show and where the results are coming from.  There are multiple ways to the top of the SERP.  


Personalized Results
Search results vary based on:

  • Reported location
  • IP location
  • GPS location (mobile)
  • Search history (signed in/cookies)
  • Social networks (likes/friends/circles)
  • Device (mobile, tv, desktop)
  • Language
  • Previous searches


I’m in Chicago, and my friend is in L.A. If we search for the same thing, we will probably get different results due to these factors.  


Universal Search Results
This means that any given queries, can pull results from many different sources. Depending on the search engine, it may provide videos, news, twitter, facebook, google+, and images as results. Where the search engine chooses to generate these pages from varies because of the many factors that contribute.  When Google answers queries itself, this is called an Instant Answers Result.  When the Blackhawks are playing and I’m not able to watch, I either type “blackhawks score” or speak it into my Google search app and am usually provided with the most up-to-the-minute score.  However, when google provides an Instant Answer it does not provide any links to the source.  Which means the site that Google found this information from did not receive any traffic (I don’t like the sound of this.)  Although it’s convenient for me, that site owner is missing out.  





Pure Organic Results
When a search is more detailed, the results are usually organic.  This means that they are non-paid and most likely personalized.  


Local Results
The local results will list Local and Google Place Page results.  Google Place Pages are managed by the organization.  They are able to input a description, images, hours of operation, and contact information.  
Partial Local Results
The results page will display both Organic and Google Places into the results.  


Full Local Results
When Google is certain the query is local, it will show results that include Place Pages listings from Google Maps near the top or at the top of the results. If the query is more specific they will provide an area pin map from Google Maps.  For example, when I search for “Chipotle” Google will show me a map of the closest Chipotle Restaurants to my location. The search engine results page layout will vary depending on the searchers location.





News and Real Time Results
If the search query is considered news related, it will provide a different set of results at the top.  For example, today Sabra Hummus is being recalled and I searched “Listeria” this morning to learn about the type of bacteria that contaminated the batch and here were my results:

Shopping Results
When searching for commercial products, Google triggers an AdWords product results. This means the companies have paid to rank. The product names have been given to Google Shopping by advertisers via Google Merchant.

Instant Answers/Knowledge Box
Some searches will generate instant answers. Similarly to when we searched "blackhawks score" earlier, we were given feedback immediately. Google pulled information from a website and pasted it onto the search results page. A knowledge box is similar. This particular knowledge box includes photos and a map. A knowledge box is an extension of an instant answer, it elaborates a bit more. Google usually uses Wikipedia because they cover a lot of information and they're well used. Depending on what you search, you may be given either one, or both.

Here I searched "What is the hottest pepper in the world" and Google returned with this instant answer/knowledge box (notice the organic results listed beneath the knowledge box):


Social Results
All major search engines are using Social data to give enhanced results. For example, I'm currently logged into my Google account and when I search my brother's name, all his contact information shows up in my results. The same goes for other search engines, such as Bing.

Knowledge Graph
I mentioned previously the knowledge box. The knowledge graph is where the search engine summarizes data from multiple sources to provide an answer. Google's goal is to never have you leave Google.
Pay Per Click Results
PPC ads are how search engines make money. This is the easier way to rank, but also the most expensive.



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