Business | Web | Monday, July 26th, 2010

Power Search – Know your results

Understanding search engine results pages

By David Prince

Search engines are indispensable for finding information quickly.  Most of the time you’ll find the answer you need immediately, but sometimes you have to delve a little deeper.

Learn the techniques you need to become a power search ninja in this occasional series.

Search engines are looking to match their users with relevant results.  It’s only by returning relevant results that they themselves will stay relevant.

How the search engines work has evolved over time (and will continue to do so), and results pages have an increasing amount of information.  Understanding these pages is the first important step to becoming a power searcher – read on to find out more about the features on a typical search engine results page.

Know your search results page

Long gone are the days when search engines just displayed a list of links.  We’re now bombarded with links, adverts, news, maps, photographs, videos and more.

So the first step in becoming a power searcher is understanding a typical search engine results page (SERP, from now on in).  Let’s take a look at the top of a typical SERP (for “Manchester”).

You’ll notice three types of search results, plus links to common refined searches.

1. Sponsored links.  These results are always related to your search, but their placement is paid for by the advertisers, primarily on a bidding basis – the higher the bid, the higher the advert.  Do not discount these – they are usually relevant.
2. Map results.  Adding a place name to a search will usually bring up a map flagged with companies related to the search.  Google will often display a map even if you do not enter a place name – it can detect your approximate location from your unique IP address
3. Related Links.  Occasionally, Google will let you refine your search with commonly-searched related phrases.  Simply clicking these links will help you filter search results.
4. Natural search results.  Further down the page, you’ll see the natural or organic search results.  These are links to pages with no intervention or specific highlighting; they are not paid for.  There are often additional search results blended in, as we’ll explore further.

Scrolling further down, you’ll see some more features of a typical SERP:

As you start to look at SERPs with a more critical/analytical eye, you’ll start to notice a few trends, typified by the screenshot above.

1. Official sources are trusted by Google, Bing et al, which will rank them highly.  You’re more likely to see both central & local government Web pages and academic establishments higher in the search results.
2. New content (especially from news outlets) are also given more weight.  The “news results” are in real time, so Google is increasingly used for real time updates.
3. Wikipedia is also seen as an authoritative source.  It’s unusual for a SERP not to include a page from the user-generated encyclopaedia.
4. Brands are also seen as a strong signal of quality and relevance – indeed, Google head-honcho Eric Schmidt has been quoted as saying that “brands are how you sort out the cesspool [of the Internet]“.  So it’s quite right that the mighty Manchester Utd is returned above the mediocrity of its City rivals!

Finally, at the end of the SERP, there are a few more note-worthy features to look out for.

1. Academia is considered important, as outlined above.  The inclusion of the MMU is one more example of this.
2. Images and other media, such as videos, are often returned for searches.  Google’s aim is to “organise the world’s information”, which includes information contained within images.  The inclusion of the Manchester United badge shows the importance of the club
3. Related search links let you refine your search.  These are based on what other users search for, so there’s a reasonable chance that these related searches will be relevant to your search.

Learning more

As you use search engines, take a critical look at the results returned.  They have been very deliberately manipulated over time to be relevant and authoritative, and understanding  how the results come about can help you judge the usefulness of each source.

In many ways it’s like reading a newspaper – it doesn’t matter if you read the Telegraph or Guardian, as long as you’re aware of the editorial slants they take on issues.  Whilst search results are generally politically neutral, the algorithms used mean certain types of pages will be returned more highly.

Over the coming series of articles, we’ll be taking a look at some of the more advanced features available to power searchers – in the meantime, happy searching!

Tags: google, online research, power search, search