{"id":346,"date":"2018-04-06T12:42:33","date_gmt":"2018-04-06T12:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/2018\/04\/06\/5-ways-to-make-your-website-stand-out-in-the-serps\/"},"modified":"2020-03-02T17:15:40","modified_gmt":"2020-03-02T17:15:40","slug":"5-ways-to-make-your-website-stand-out-in-the-serps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2018\/04\/06\/5-ways-to-make-your-website-stand-out-in-the-serps\/","title":{"rendered":"5 ways to make your website stand out in the SERPs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google is always evolving.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tweaks to the algorithm and changes to how search results are presented are often lamented by frustrated marketers, but these evolutions can also present valuable new opportunities for making content visible to searchers.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s SERPs<\/a> are a far cry from the humble list of ten results and handful of sponsored links<\/a> that Google started out with.<\/p>\n

In an effort to help searchers find their information faster \u2013 and with less clicking and scrolling \u2013 Google is incorporating a wider range of rich features<\/a> into its results pages.<\/p>\n

I want to use this post to take a look at some of these features.<\/p>\n

How can we ensure our content is best suited to Google\u2019s ever-more intuitive results pages? And how can we make it stand out there?<\/p>\n

1. Google\u2019s Answer Features<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Answer boxes<\/a> are increasingly being used by Google in an effort to provide searchers with answers to their questions, even without the need for clicking through to a site.<\/p>\n

This can be annoying for marketers who have traditionally been working to optimize their content to garner clicks from Google. The more the SERPs<\/a> provide answers to an increasing number of questions, the harder it will become to persuade searchers to click through.<\/p>\n

This is all the more reason to start understanding how Google seeks to answer.<\/p>\n

Searching around the term \u2018doulas\u2019 highlights how intuitive Google is at knowing what questions to answer (even if just a single word is searched for). Also, we can quickly see the diversity of answer boxes displayed from very subtle differences between search phrases.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Looking at the phrase \u2018doulas,\u2019 even though we haven\u2019t asked Google a question, much of the above-the-fold SERPs<\/a> are dedicated to an answer box. In this case, giving us related questions.<\/p>\n

With the search phrase \u2018whats a doula\u2019 Google is even more confident, expecting us to most likely be satisfied with the dictionary definition of \u2018doula\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And with the question \u2018what do doulas do\u2019 Google gives us two answer boxes above the fold \u2013 the first is an info box, and the second is another related questions box.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

These are just a few examples<\/a>. Info boxes can vary in format from ranking lists, to numbered steps, and tables. Searches that relate to events are more frequently resulting in answer boxes that show the dates of the event.<\/p>\n

Additionally, subjects such as weather and stock provide their own nicely displayed answer boxes too.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s good to think about this when it comes to creating content for your own site.<\/p>\n

\u2018Doulas\u2019 may be a relatively competitive search on its own, but it\u2019s easy to see how a piece of content that answers a wider question about the niche (e.g. \u2018how much does it cost to have a doula?\u2019 or \u2018why a doula is important?\u2019) can be presented high in the SERPs<\/a> even if the domain is not ranking in the top organic spots for the original search.<\/p>\n

As Google declares<\/a>, it is making the decision on what to show here programmatically. That is to say, unlike other rich features within contemporary SERPs<\/a>, webmasters can not simply use mark-up to signal to Google that a certain piece of content contains an answer.<\/p>\n

This means marketers and writers need to prioritise ensuring that the content answers their (well-researched) keyphrase promptly, naturally and succinctly on the page.<\/p>\n

2. Videos<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Video content \u2013 particularly from YouTube<\/a> \u2013 remains a good way to stand out in Google\u2019s increasingly content rich SERPs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This search for \u2018homemade baby carrier\u2019 (you can see a theme developing here) ranks How To Make Your Own Baby Carrier\u2026 well but also quickly alerts the searcher to a number of important attributes about the content:<\/p>\n