Understanding Google's Results Page Template

Understanding Google's Results Page Template - Whether you're searching the web for business or pleasure, understanding the results of your search engine query will help you find what you're looking for quicker. There are clues in the results that can help you identify which links are most likely to include the information you are seeking. Knowing where to look, what to look for and why the information is presented the way it is can make your searches less frustrating and more productive.

Most Google searches are formatted the same way. The search query box is at the top. Directly below is the statistics bar. Below that, in a pink box and also in a narrow column running down the right side, are paid searches. Below the ads are the organic results.

Above this article you see that I have identified six different elements of a typical Google Results Page. Below you will find details about each in alphabetical order.

Advanced Search

A typical Google search involves typing keywords in the Search Query Box. However, perhaps you have tried a Google search but didn't find what you were looking for. Google Advance Search lets you tailor your search by using a variety of criteria, such as keywords and location, to narrow down the results.

Natural/Organic Results

Just as a newspaper contains both news copy and advertising, so does Google. And just like in a newspaper, Google attempts to identify which parts are paid advertising and which are to be considered "news". Google organic results is "the news" and appears based on content, keyword relevancy, and popularity.

Paid Search

Using the newspaper analogy again, Google AdWords is the retail advertising department at Google. While newspapers charge a flat rate based on ad size, Google AdWords fees are calculated based on how many times your ad is clicked. The price of each click is determined through an auction based on the keywords you choose and the popularity of those words.

There are two places on a results page that ads can appear. The most common location is down the right hand column. You will often see ads highlighted in pink, as shown in the illustration above, directly above the organic results. These ads have some combination of high quality score, click-through rate, and price that have qualified them to appear there.

Search Button

Click and go, or just press enter or return on your keyboard.

Search Query Box

The words you type in this box determine what results you get.  For best results, keep your search as simple as possible. Case doesn't matter and punctuation is usually ignored.

Statistics Bar

The statistics bar is easy to overlook, but if you're looking to improve the ranking of your site, it is an important number to watch. It is good to know the overall competition for a keyword as it will determine the difficulty of being found using that word. If you are looking to improve the ranking of your website, ideally you would target relevant terms that have as little competition as possible.

Google Map Optimization

 

 

Google Map Optimization - Google began to change the way it displays search results In 2010 to its users. It began to provide localized search results based on the location of the user based on the users IP address. In depth studies show that large numbers of users refer to this ‘Google Map” when searching for businesses online.

Having said this, one of the first things you will want to do to promote your online business is to develop your listing in Google Plus Local, also knows as Google Places.

Results Page Google

Results Page Google - The results page is filled with information and links, most of which relate to your query.

• Google Logo: Click on the Google logo to go to Google’s home page.
• Statistics Bar: Describes your search, includes the number of results on the current results page and an estimate of the total number of results, as well as the time your search took. For the sake of efficiency, Google estimates the number of results; it would take considerably longer to compute the exact number. This estimate is unreliable.
  Every underlined term in the statistics bar is linked to its dictionary definition. Queries that are linked to just one definition are followed by a definition link.
  
• Tips: Sometimes Google displays a tip in a box just below the statistics bar.
  
  
  
• Search Results: Ordered by relevance to your query, with the result that Google considers the most relevant listed first. Consequently you are likely to find what you’re seeking quickly by looking at the results in the order in which they appear. Google assesses relevance by considering over a hundred factors, including how many other pages link to the page, the positions of the search terms within the page, and the proximity of the search terms to one another.
  Below are descriptions of some search-result components. These components appear in fonts of different colors on the result page to make it easier to distinguish them from one another.
  
  • Page Title: (blue) The web page’s title, if the page has one, or its URL if the page has no title or if Google has not indexed all of the page’s content. Click on the page title (e.g., The History of the Brassiere - Mary Phelps Jacob) to display the corresponding page.
  • Snippets: (black) Each search result usually includes one or more short excerpts of the text that matches your query with your search terms in boldface type. Each distinct excerpt or snippet is separated by an ellipsis (…). These snippets, which appear in a black font, may provide you with
    
    • The information you are seeking
    • What you might find on the linked page
    • Ideas of terms to use in your subsequent searches
    When Google hasn’t crawled a page, it doesn’t include a snippet. A page might not be crawled because its publisher requested no crawling, or because the page was written in such a way that it was too difficult to crawl.
    
  • URL of Result: (green) Web address of the search result. In the screen shot, the URL of the first result is inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa042597.htm.
  • Size: (green) The size of the text portion of the web page. It is omitted for sites not yet indexed. In the screen shot, “5k” means that the text portion of the web page is 5 kilobytes. One kilobyte is 1,024 (2¹⁰) bytes. One byte typically holds one character. In general, the average size of a word is six characters. So each 1k of text is about 170 words. A page containing 5K characters thus is about 850 words long.
    Large web pages are far less likely to be relevant to your query than smaller pages. For the sake of efficiency, Google searches only the first 101 kilobytes (approximately 17,000 words) of a web page and the first 120 kilobytes of a pdf file. Assuming 15 words per line and 50 lines per page, Google searches the first 22 pages of a web page and the first 26 pages of a pdf file. If a page is larger, Google will list the page as being 101 kilobytes or 120 kilobytes for a pdf file. This means that Google’s results won’t reference any part of a web page beyond its first 101 kilobytes or any part of a pdf file beyond the first 120 kilobytes.
    
  • Date: (green) Sometimes the date Google crawled a page appears just after the size of the page. The date tells you the freshness of Google’s copy of the page. Dates are included for pages that have recently had a fresh crawl.
  • Indented Result: When Google finds multiple results from the same website, it lists the most relevant result first with the second most relevant page from that same site indented below it. In the screen shot, the indented result and the one above it are both from the site inventors.about.com.
    Limiting the number of results from a given site to two ensures that pages from one site will not dominate your search results and that Google provides pages from a variety of sites.
    
  • More Results: When there are more than two results from the same site, access the remaining results from the “More results from…” link.
    When Google returns more than one page of results, you can view subsequent pages by clicking either a page number or one of the “o”s in the whimsical “Gooooogle” that appears below the last search result on the page.
    
    If you find yourself scrolling through pages of results, consider increasing the number of results Google displays on each results page by changing your global preferences.
    In practice, however, if pages of interest to you aren’t within the first 10 results, consider refining your query instead of sifting through pages of irrelevant results. To simplify such refinements, Google includes a search box at the bottom of the page you can use to enter your refined query.
    

Understanding Results Google

Understanding Results Google - Google strives to make it easy to find whatever you’re seeking, whether it’s a web page, a news article, a definition, or something to buy. After you enter a query, Google returns a results list ordered by what it considers the items’ relevance to your query, listing the best match first. (Sponsored links may appear above and to the right of the search results.) This part of Google Guide describes what appears on a results page and how to evaluate what you find so you’ll be better able to determine if a page includes the information you’re seeking or links to it.