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The Art of SEO
book

The Art of SEO

by Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin, Jessie Stricchiola
October 2009
Beginner content levelBeginner
602 pages
19h 50m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from The Art of SEO

Understanding Search Engine Results

In the search marketing field, the pages the engines return to fulfill a query are referred to as search engine results pages (SERPs). Each engine returns results in a slightly different format and will include vertical results (specific content targeted to a query based on certain triggers in the query, which we’ll illustrate shortly).

Understanding the Layout of Search Results Pages

Figure 2-1 shows the SERPs in Google for the query stuffed animals.

Layout of Google search results

Figure 2-1. Layout of Google search results

Figure 2-2 shows Yahoo!’s results for the same query.

Layout of Yahoo! search results

Figure 2-2. Layout of Yahoo! search results

Figure 2-3 shows the layout of the results from Microsoft’s Bing.

Layout of Bing search results

Figure 2-3. Layout of Bing search results

Each unique section represents a snippet of information provided by the engines. Here are the definitions of what each piece is meant to provide:

Vertical navigation

Each engine offers the option to search different verticals, such as images, news, video, or maps. Following these links will result in a query with a more limited index. In Figure 2-3, for example, you might be able to see news items about stuffed animals or videos featuring stuffed animals.

Search query ...
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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780596809133Errata Page