SERP (search engine results page)
Short definition
A SERP is the full page of results a search engine displays after someone types in a search term.
A SERP is no longer just ten blue links. Adverts, map results, image blocks, a question-and-answer box and, more recently, an AI-generated summary can all sit on the same page, meaning an organic result can rank first and still land far down the visible screen.
What a SERP looks like changes with the term searched. A local service search tends to surface map results first, while an informational question might trigger a summary box before anything else. The real goal on a page is no longer just 'rank first', it is knowing which blocks that page actually appears in.
A featured snippet is often mistaken for the top organic ranking, but the two differ: the page in the box can sit third or fourth organically, since Google selects it separately for whichever passage answers the question most clearly. A SERP's look shifts with the term searched, so the practical way to see where a page appears is searching it in a private tab, since personalisation can change what shows.
Why it matters
An SEO strategy built without knowing what the SERP genuinely looks like aims at the wrong target. If map results dominate a term, ranking first organically may still bring in little traffic.
Illustrative example
An SEO agency noticed that two-thirds of a client's SERP was taken up by map results, and shifted the strategy from organic ranking towards the Google Business Profile instead.
